Remote comfort on the Onashaga
The refuge
Eleven rooms on the Onashaga, built in lenga wood from the island. The lodge runs on solar energy and the kitchen changes with whatever arrives each day. Everything is designed for coming back, when you come down from the mountain or return from the channel and all you want is to sit still for a while.
Rooms
None faces inland. In all eleven the Beagle Channel begins on the other side of the glass, and the only thing that changes from one to the next is how many people fit.
2people
A large bed facing the picture window. The channel begins on the other side of the glass and the door opens onto the grass and the wind-bent trees. It is the most requested room, and the one that works best for a couple or a solo traveller.
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3people
Same wood and same view, with room for one more bed. Trekking groups who arrive together and don't want to split up usually take it, as do families of three.
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5people
The largest room in the lodge, designed for a family or a group travelling together. It is booked per room, not per person, so it works out much better than taking two rooms separately.
See availabilityFood
In Puerto Williams no fixed menu lasts long. The menu is decided by what is caught and what the season brings, with the same logic used to plan the expeditions.
Fish and seafood from the Beagle, Magellanic lamb and whatever the local gardens produce in the southern summer. When the weather closes the port, the kitchen reorganises around what there is, which is how people have always cooked here.
The dining room has a full-length window onto the Onashaga. In season the light lasts until very late and dinner is served with the channel still bright on the other side of the glass.
That is where the day ends when people come down from the mountain or back from sailing. It is also where the next day's plan comes together, looking at the weather forecast.
Outings start early, so breakfast is served in good time and with the day ahead in mind.
Facilities
The lodge is small on purpose. Everything that isn't a room is shared, and everything looks out on the water.
To recover
Outdoor hot tubs looking out over the Beagle, and a sauna to warm up. Just what the body asks for after a day of trekking; the hot tubs are lit at sunset.
Meeting point
Where everyone gathers at the end of the day. Armchairs, the bar and conversation between people coming back from different routes.
Shared table
A full-length window onto the Onashaga. Breakfast is early before heading out, and dinner is served with the long light of the southern summer still over the channel.
Outside
The shore begins a few metres from the door, among wind-bent lenga trees. Short walks start from there, as does the trail up Cerro La Bandera.
Sustainability
A place like this demands care. The lodge generates its energy from the sun, treats the water it uses and the water it returns, and recycles what it leaves behind.
15,000 watts of solar panels installed on the lodge roof.
They store what the panels produce during the day for use at night and on cloudy days.
A treatment plant with the Tohá system, a worm biofilter that treats the lodge’s wastewater.
In 2015, researchers from the University of Magallanes and the University of North Texas described the fresh water of Puerto Williams as the purest in the world. At the lodge, it also goes through a treatment plant before reaching the tap.
The lodge’s waste is sorted and recycled.
