Cabo de Hornos (Cape Horn)

The wind hits before the island appears. Cabo de Hornos materialises through spray and grey-green swells at the bottom of the Americas, a dark hump of rock where two oceans smash together in a violence that never pauses. The albatross monument stands on the cliff edge, its silhouette carved to show both a bird in flight and a drowned sailor — depending on how the light falls.

Cape Horn is not a cape but Hornos Island, the southernmost point of the South American continent and the last land before the Drake Passage opens toward Antarctica. Average wind speeds reach 60 km/h year-round, with gusts above 100 km/h recorded multiple times per month regardless of season. A Chilean naval officer and their family live here permanently as the island's only inhabitants, maintaining the lighthouse and meteorological station. The monument dedicated to mariners lost rounding the Horn was erected in 1992 to mark the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America. Landing is weather-dependent — seas permit it on roughly half of all summer attempts, making every successful visit a negotiation with the elements.