Aysén in depth · Part 13 · 29 September 2026

Darwin in the Chonos Archipelago:
what he wrote in his diary

Jaroslav Sokol · Aysén region, Chile · 9 min read

For most people Darwin means the Galápagos and giant tortoises. But before the Beagle reached the Galápagos, Darwin spent more than a year on the Chilean coast. The wildest part of it was here in Aysén, across the Moraleda Channel from the fjord where I own land.

I read his diary for December 1834 and January 1835. These are the best passages, quoted from the original.

Where the Chonos Archipelago is

The Chonos Archipelago is a chain of low, mountainous islands around the 45th parallel south, between Chiloé to the north and the Taitao peninsula to the south. Geologically it is a drowned part of Chile's Coast Range: mountains of which only the ridges are left above water. The Moraleda Channel separates it from the mainland, and the Aysén Fjord opens into that channel.

The largest islands are Melchor, Benjamín, Traiguén, Riveros, Cuptana, James, Victoria and Level. Most are still forested and uninhabited. Remote Guamblin Island is a national park of 106 km², visited by blue whales.

The area was charted mainly by three men: the Spanish navigator José de Moraleda in 1793, Robert FitzRoy of the Beagle in 1834, and the Chilean Enrique Simpson in 1870–71. Moraleda and Simpson left their names on a channel and an island. FitzRoy brought Darwin.

The Beagle in the Chonos, day by day

The Beagle was not a pleasure boat. Her job was to chart the coast for the British Admiralty, and Darwin sailed as Captain FitzRoy's guest. While the ship surveyed the bays, he walked the shore, collected rocks, plants and animals, and wrote in the evening.

• 13 December 1834: enters the southern part of the Chonos Archipelago
• 14 December: the storm Darwin describes in his diary
• 20–22 December: the coast of the Tres Montes peninsula, a climb to a summit of 1,600 feet
• 28 December: five American deserters found on the shore
• 30–31 December: hunting wild goats, the granite mountains of Tres Montes
• 1–6 January 1835: gales and seals off Tres Montes, then north along the western edge of the archipelago, where Isla Kent lies
• 7 January: Port Low in the north of the archipelago, wild potatoes
• 17 January: anchored at San Carlos on Chiloé; on 19 January Darwin watches the Osorno volcano erupt

From Darwin's diary

Darwin kept a personal diary on the Beagle. It later became the book The Voyage of the Beagle. The passages below come from both.

That day Darwin saw an almost complete circle of rainbow over the water, not an arch. It was made by the spray the wind was lifting off the surface.

On 22 December Darwin climbed a summit of 1,600 feet, about 490 metres, using the trees as a ladder. On the way he found this:

Wild potatoes, castaways and a dog that is not a dog

Potatoes. Wild potatoes grew in abundance on the sandy, shelly soil near the beaches. Darwin, naturally, tasted them:

In metric: a plant of 1.2 m, the largest tuber 5 cm. According to Mr Low, the potatoes grew as far south as the 50th parallel, and the local people there called them aquinas.

Castaways. On 28 December someone waved to them from the shore. They were American sailors:

For fifteen months they wandered the coast, living on seal meat and shellfish. One fell from a cliff and died, so five were waiting on the shore. Darwin wrote that he had never seen such anxiety in men's faces as they tried to get into the boat. The Beagle took them on board.

Animals. Darwin mentions the coypu, known for its fur, and a small sea otter that was very common in the channels. But what he enjoyed most were the birds, which in the dense forest you hear rather than see. Of one he wrote:

The Chonos: people who left only a name

By the time Darwin arrived, the Chono people had all but disappeared. They were nomadic marine hunter-gatherers, the first known inhabitants of the Chiloé, Guaitecas and Chonos archipelagos. They travelled in plank boats sewn together, called dalca. The men hunted sea lions, the women gathered shellfish and seaweed.

First contact with the Spanish came in 1553. From 1608 the Spanish raided them for slaves, although the Chonos had never rebelled. In 1710 a large group settled voluntarily in Spanish Calbuco. After the 18th century they vanish from the records. More on the region's history in The Aysén region: a province younger than Czechoslovakia.

So the grass bed and the fire with axe marks Darwin found on 22 December need not have belonged to the Chonos. Darwin also met five fishermen from Caylen, "el fin del Cristiandad", who had crossed the open sea between Chiloé and the Chonos in a miserable canoe.

The Chonos today, and Isla Kent

192 years after Darwin, little has changed on most of the islands. There is no road, the islands are covered in forest and nobody lives on them. The weather is still the way Darwin described it on 14 December: white clouds, a dark blue sky, and rain an hour later.

Our expedition heads for Isla Kent and on among the islands. In January 1835 the Beagle sailed past it with Darwin on board; in January 2027 Patagonia I will be there. Kent lies at 45° 06′ S, in the western part of the archipelago, inside Las Guaitecas National Reserve. It is covered in evergreen rainforest, and penguins, cormorants and dolphins live around it. There is no road and no permanent settlement.

The Aysén Fjord, where I go every year, opens into the Moraleda Channel, which separates the Chonos from the mainland. Anyone who stands in the Aysén forest today and hears a dog barking in the undergrowth has one advantage over Darwin. They know it is a bird.

Frequently asked questions

When was Charles Darwin in the Chonos Archipelago?

From 13 December 1834 to mid-January 1835. The Beagle surveyed the southern part of the archipelago and the Tres Montes peninsula, was at Port Low in the north of the archipelago on 7 January and anchored at San Carlos on Chiloé on 17 January.

What did Darwin find in the Chonos Archipelago?

Wild potatoes, five American deserters who had survived for fifteen months on seal meat and shellfish, the granite mountains of Tres Montes, and a forest he described as all but impassable.

Where is Isla Kent?

At 45° 06′ S in the western part of the Chonos Archipelago, inside Las Guaitecas National Reserve in the Aysén region. There is no road; you can only get there by boat.

Can you visit the Chonos Archipelago today?

Only by boat. Most islands are uninhabited. There are two settlements, Melinka in the Guaitecas islands and Puerto Aguirre on Las Huichas island.