On the beautiful albeit somewhat barren Bahia San Julian some 360 km north of Rio Gallegos is the small historic town of Puerto San Julian, formerly known as Port St Julian. When the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan dropped anchor here in 1520 he came across the indigenous people who donned footwear made from guanaco hides, which made them look like they had very large feet, the Spanish word for which is Patagon (big foot), hence the name Patagonia.

Less than 60 years later the English circumnavigator Francis Drake spent the winter here before heading toward the Strait of Magellan. Captain Robert Fitzroy also anchored the HMS Beagle here on its famous voyage with the young naturalist Charles Darwin. The port of San Julian was in fact founded at the beginning of the 20th century to serve the vast sheep-farming estancias in this part of Santa Cruz province. The Reserva Natural San Julian nearby has one of the largest Magellanic penguin colonies as well as lots more bird and marine life.

In the centre of town is the small Museo Regional Rosa Novak where there’s a fossilized sauropod footprint that was found in the main plaza. The museum also contains various artefacts retrieved from the long-abandoned settlement of Floridablanca, the remains of which now form part of an estancia owned by the Benetton family. On the shore, surrounded by large boulders, is the Museo Tematico Nao Victoria, a replica of Ferdinand Magellan’s ship Victoria, which gives an insight into the lifestyle of 16th-century navigators and explorers.

Some 50 km south of Puerto San Julian is the lowest point in South America, the Gran Bajo de San Julian. Here the Laguna del Carbon is 105 metres below sea level. Farther south is the quiet town of Comandante Luis Piedra Buena, famous for steelhead trout fishing. Beyond that is Argentina’s first coastal national park, Parque Nacional Monte Leon, plentiful in bird and marine life.