Aysén River

Rio Aysen in Puerto Aisen

Location of Rio Aysen

1775: The Rio Aysen in the South America map of Juan de la Cruz Cano y Olmedilla called Río Sinfondo (, Deep River ')

The Rio Aysen, Rio Aysen also, is a river in western Patagonia in the south of Chile.

It is formed by the confluence of the Río Mañihuales and the Río Simpson. At its overall length of only 26 km, it flows in a westerly direction crossing the small town of Puerto Aysen, to its mouth in the Aysen Fjord. Its catchment area covers about 11,400 km ² between the Chilean coast in the west and the border with Argentina to the east. It is formed by the confluence of its two source rivers Río Mañihuales with 62 km length and Río Simpson with 88 km length. The main tributaries are the Rio Blanco area with 36 km length and the Río Los Palos 8 km in length.

Discovery

In the 17th century, the existence of a great river was known, which has its mouth near the 45th degree of latitude on the coast Westpatagoniens. 1646 was his first literary mention of this by the Jesuit Alonso de Ovalle under the name Río de los Rabudos (, flow of long-tailed ' ), named after the name that gave the Spaniards the natives in the region. With this name, or a modification with Río de los Barbudos (, river of bearded ' ), the flow in many maps from the 17th and 18th centuries is located.

1763 came the Jesuit Vicuña on a mission trip to the Aysen Fjord, where it was four days also via the Río Aisen, as far as he was passable with his small boat. His observations were included in the map for the trip report of another missionary journey of the Jesuit José García Alsué in the austral summer 1766/67 carried out. In this map, the Aysen Fjord is called Estero Aysen, in a river called Rio de Forsaken ( River of the Forsaken ' ) opens. At that time it was assumed that he would have its source at the foot of San Clemente volcano. The inhabitants of this region were the Chonos, who lived in many small groups, mostly on the islands. The Chonos described the region around the river as Aysen.