In a far corner of the Earth
is a South American wilderness.
These extreme landscapes
are home to strange and wonderful animals.
From the rugged peaks of the Andes
across the scorched desert steppe
to coasts battered by some of the roughest seas on the planet.
Living here takes guts and determination.
There are incredible opportunities for some.
For others, it's a battle to survive.
The pioneering spirit unites them all
under the spell of Patagonia.
This is the story of a coastline over 4,000 miles long.
From the bitter Cold of the far south,
forging northwards to the parched desert.
For those that dare, these shores offer unmatched bounty.
And the driving force behind these riches
is the turbulent ocean.
At Patagonia's southern extreme lies a rocky outcrop
steeped in nautical legend.
Cape Horn.
There have been 800 shipwrecks off the Horn,
with a loss of more than 10,000 souls.
This is where the AtlantiC and the Pacific collide
with the great Southern Ocean.
This far south, there's no other land all the way round the planet.
Nothing to stop the winds gaining speed
or the waves gathering height.
In this vast world of water,
the island of Los Estados is a vital refuge,
home to one of the Southern Ocean's most heroic birds.
DIY@HOSkY
A male rOCkhOpper
penguin stands gUard OVer hiS ChiCk, jUSt One Week Old.
The youngster has a huge appetite, but there's no food here.
They're both waiting for mum to return.
She's fishing far out at sea.
For the first three weeks of his chick's life, he must stay put
whatever the weather.
The frequent storms are a reminder
of just how close this island is to the Antarctic.
Dad might look fed up, but he's got the easy job.
His mate is returning from a day's foraging
at feeding grounds 15 miles out to sea.
There's a big challenge ahead
On this jagged coastline, there's no easy way out.
In suCh immense waves, crash landings are inevitable.
With a belly full of food,
like every mother here,
this female is driven by a need to feed her Chick.
But eaCh step is hard-won.
Thousands of rockhoppers make this journey each day
and the headland has attracted an unwelcome visitor.
A huge male sea lion, 100 times their size.
Tossed around, the tiny birds do their best to avoid him.
EaCh attack is a loss that will affect a whole family.
She's conquered huge waves and faced down a monster.
But before being reunited with her family
she still has a mountain to climb.
It's a big ask for a bird that Can't fly,
standing less than two feet tall.
But it's now that rockhoppers live up to their name.
Incredibly strong toenails grip the roCk.
The beak makes a good climbing tool.
The more experienced penguins make it look easy,
but it's a steep learning curve.
It takes youngsters a while to get the hang of it.
Misjudge it and it's back to square one.
At the top of the cliff, the going gets a little easier.
She's following the footsteps of generations,
forging deep tunnels through the tussock grass.
These pathways Connect around
20 different Colonies spreading up the hillside.
She's got to find her way through nearly half a million roCkhoppers,
but she knows where she's going,
returning to the same Colony each year.
Unfortunately, that happens to be at the very top of the island.
Finally, after a climb of over a mile,
she's made it.
And at last, it's time for dinner.
It's a messy business, but the chick's not complaining.
For the next two months, the devoted parents will share these duties
until their chick is big enough to take to the ocean.
Then they'll spend nearly half their lives at sea,
further south than most humans ever dare to venture.
Sailors of old who braved these southern latitudes had a saying -
below 40 degrees south, there is no law.
Below 50, there is no God.
But there are those who Choose to sail these seas
at the end of the world.
Puerto Toro.
55 degrees south, the most southeriy permanent settlement on Earth.
Home to just one family.
But at the port are migrant fishermen
who've travelied hundreds of miies to seek the riches of the far south.
It's impossible to get out
The sea is too rough
We've just worked for 15 days straight
So we can'tcomplain having a day off
Between them, Heriberto and his crew
have aimost a Century of experience fishing the waters around Cape Horn.
They are forever at the mercy of the weather.
You have to respect the sea
Anything could. it won't warn you
You just have to commend yourself to God
Whiie conditions are good, they must make the most of it.
The crew will work, sleep and live together
on this small seven-metre boat for the whole season.
Fishing for crabs.
But there's an ultimate catCh that reaily makes it worth the sacrifice.
The centolla, or king crab.
Almost a metre across.
A highiy prized deiiCaCy sold to restaurants round the world.
A single crab can fetCh over € 100.
It's the turbulence of these seas that delivers suCh riches.
Coid water fiowing from the Antarctic is packed with nutrients,
whipped to the surface by the wind and waves.
And there's another huge reason these waters are super-fertile.
North of Cape Horn there are mountains covered in glaciers.
Each is a titanic force,
scouring deep trenches in the rock on its drive towards the sea.
This reieases miilions of tonnes of sediment into the water,
staining it with minerals.
Beneath the surface - a vast forest of giant kelp.
Fed by nutrients from the glaciers,
the kelp can reach heights of over 30 metres tall
and offers shelter from the strong ocean currents.
This underwater world holds enough different species to rival a forest on land.
An adult king crab is built big enough
to deal with the strong currents out at sea.
But it takes baby king crabs five years before they're fully grown.
For this youngster, the kelp is a precious nursery
full of strange neighbours.
Life here is not without its dangers.
But there are plenty of places to hide.
And in water fed by the glaciers
there's an endless supply of food.
From these giant kelp forests,
the mineral-rich waters flow out into the open ocean.
Here they meet a mass of coid water that sweeps up from the Antarctic.
This creates a super-fertile mix that surges northwards
as the great Malvinas Current.
Flowing over 1 ,000 miles
from Cape Horn up the east coast of Patagonia,
this is the driving force of life along these shores.
The days are long here,
creating the perfect conditions for one
of the planet's most important life forms
phytoplankton.
Individually, the algae are microscopic,
but together they form blooms so big
they can be seen from space.
This is the starting point for one of the most extraordinary food chains on Earth.
anchovies. A huge shoal.
A potential feast for sea lions.
But with thousands of fish moving as one,
the size of the shoal is bewildering.
The arrival of a pod of dusky dolphins Changes the odds.
They work as a team, breaking up the fish into smaller groups.
And all the hunters benefit.
Fully fed, it's time for the sea lions to head for shore.
It's the same story for hundreds of miles up the coast.
Waiting for this female,
her pup Just two months old
She's been at sea for three days.
And her pup's ravenous for her milk.
For the next few days she'll remain onshore,
joining almost 20,000 others
in one of the largest gatherings of sea lions in the southern hemisphere.
With plenty of food offshore
and miles of isolated beaohes,
this seems the perfect nursery.
At low tide, a large reef protects the beaCh from the open ocean.
This Creates natural swimming pools,
calm, safe waters for the pups to learn to swim.
With most mums out fishing,
it's up to those here to keep an eye on the pups.
But the rising tide means their world is about to change
bringing the open ocean uncomfortably close.
A killer whale.
The pups have never seen anything like it.
At first, they're curious and head straight back into the shallows
not recognising the danger until it's too late.
This mother understands the threat.
She Constantly checks above and below the surface
but there's too many pups to get them all to safety.
She can only use herself as a shield.
This time, her bravery pays off.
The orca is not a lone killer.
She's a mum, too,
teaching her own family how to hunt.
This is a highly specialised technique
that has taken her years to master.
By swimming sideways,
the orcas can keep their dorsal fins hidden.
The family falls silent as they approaoh the shore.
They must maintain an element of surprise.
An incoming wave propels her forward for the final strike.
But only around one in ten attempts ends in success.
With every strike, she puts her own life at risk.
Get it wrong
and she'll be stranded on the beach.
Only a handful of orCas in the world have perfected this way of hunting,
and it's something uniquely Patagonian.
For the orca family,
it's a short window of opportunity.
The pups soon wise up to the danger
and the orcas will head back out to the open sea.
All along the Patagonian coast,
those that succeed are those prepared to do things differently.
Almost 1 ,000 miles north of Cape Horn,
the Malvinas Current is still
the driving force of life along these shores.
Sheltered from the open oCean by the huge Peninsula Valdes
is the vast bay of San Jose.
Very few people live here.
Those that do turn to the sea for their livelihood.
Lukas del Rio has a job that brings him faCe-to-face
with the wealth of the oCean.
And every day I find something new
Unlike most divers,
Lukas and his Crew don't use oxygen tanks.
Instead, the air they need to breathe is pumped from a Compressor
through fragile tubes.
They have to make sure the tubes don't snag or tear,
diving down 20 metres for a hidden bounty.
Mussels, or cholga, as they're known round here.
Harvesting like this means that Lukas and his Crew
can work side-by-side with nature,
since there are others fishing in the bay.
A pod of dusky dolphins come to investigate.
Banging on the hull of the boat
lets the divers know the dolphins are here.
They're not unwelcome,
but the divers must make sure the dolphins
keep away from their breathing tubes.
And there's another inquisitive visitor.
Over 600 southern right whales return to the bay each year,
following the Malvinas Current north
from their feeding grounds in the south.
Lukas and his crew are Careful not to dive in places
where the whales are present,
but the whales sometimes approach out of curiosity.
The divers are lucky enough to share the bay
with one of the biggest nurseries of southern right whales in the world.
Over 100 new calves are born here each year.
These Calm and warm waters are perfect for the baby whales.
But for other visitors to these shores,
the growing heat of Patagonia's northern reaches
puts them way out of their comfort zone.
Eiephant seals spend most of the year in the Cold waters of the southern seas.
It's the rich feeding grounds offshore
that brings these elephant seals so far north.
Over 15,000 females come here to give birth,
enduring temperatures as high as 30 degrees Celsius.
Presiding over them - a huge, solitary male.
The beachmaster.
This is his harem
and he has mating rights over all these females.
A position he must fight to keep.
Soon after giving birth,
the females are ready to mate again
and this hasn't gone unnoticed.
A rival male.
Chancing his luCk.
He's almost ten times bigger than the female.
And she has little say in the matter.
But he's taking a huge risk.
Despite weighing almost four tonnes,
the beachmaster is surprisingly nimble.
A single brutal bite sends the intruder packing.
The beaChmaster needs to Choose his battles wisely.
For the next two months, he cannot leave the beach to feed
or he'll loose his harem.
He must survive on his fat reserves.
But the six inches of blubber
he carries are stifling in this heat.
So he has to see off the Competition using as little effort as possible.
Most rivals try to keep a low profile.
But this Can be tricky when you're the size of a large car.
For most, a nod or
a roar from the beachmaster is enough.
But he's not getting a second to relax
and it's starting to take its toll.
Dawn brings a real contender.
Fresh from the water, he's not here to sneak around.
He's here for the beachmaster's throne.
Has the beachmaster met his matCh?
At full height, they stand almost ten feet tall.
Neither is prepared to back down.
Every single blow saps energy.
Their thick biubber does not protect against canines three inches long.
The beachmaster starts to gain the upper hand.
Despite weeks without food or rest,
this time, his experience wins out.
Every single fight leaves its mark
and the season isn't over yet.
But for now, a moment to enjoy his victory.
Under his care - a harem
that's part of one of the biggest elephant seal Colonies on Earth.
Surging north from here,
the infiuence of the Maivinas Current finally begins to fade.
But the power of the sea
draws one last visitor to Patagonia's northern shores.
These soft sandstone cliffs
are buffeted by the winds and the waves
Creating the ideal Conditions for burrowing parrots.
The parrots have flown over 1 ,000 miles south from Uruguay,
swapping their tropicai home for this exposed stretch of Coast.
Over I0,000 birds return here every year,
making this the biggest gathering of parrots anywhere on the planet.
Safety tucked away inside burrows extending three metres into the cliff face,
the parrots have Chicks to raise.
And it's up to the males to keep them fed.
The sea here still offers plenty of food.
But that's no use to a parrot.
So the males head inland.
There's very Iittie rain this far north and it's too dry for trees.
Sometimes the parrots have to travel nearly 50 miles
to find shrubs and grasses to feed on.
There are few natural sources of water.
Luckily, up here, wilderness gives way to farmland
and the parrots take advantage.
This slow trickle isn't going to sustain a flock of thousands,
all with chicks to feed.
On this unusually still day,
the water pump needs a little encouragement.
Now they can drink their fill.
It's thirsty work having to travel so far for food and water.
And it's a journey the parrots make four times a day.
But it's worth the effort.
These Cliffs make suCh a good nesting spot,
aimost ali the world's population of burrowing parrots come here
to raise their young.
And being part of such a huge flock helps keep them safe.
Even from aerial attacks.
A peregrine falcon.
The fastest predator on Earth.
But they've got a way of dealing with her.
As more and more parrots pile in,
they face their challenger head on.
Having lost the element of surprise,
she's missed her moment.
There are benefits to being part of a crowd.
And crowds don't get bigger than this.
All the way along the coast,
from Cape Horn to the northern reaches of Patagonia,
life is defined by the power of the sea.
North of here, the infiuence of the great Malvinas Current fades
and so, too, does the spirit of Patagonia.
Patagonia may be too harsh and unforgiving for most,
but there are opportunities for those brave enough to take on the challenges
and do things a little differently.
The survivors,
the pioneers
and the mavericks that
call Patagonia home.