Patagonia

Bariloche is a gateway to Patagonia- thousands of kilometers of grass, rock and ice, and water, lots of water, in all forms and colours… wilderness at its best. Farm and wild animals walk side by side, undisturbed by nothing but few passing cars. The creeks and rivers are clear and you can drink straight from them. And glacier lakes have that milky blue colour and bright blue icebergs floating around; and some are huge, like Lago Buenos Aires near El Calafate or Lago Grey in Torres del Paine National Park. There are hanging glaciers in the mountains and amazing looking pinnacles like, Cerro Tore and Mt Fitz Roy near El Chalten in Los Glaciares National Park; or Cuernos (Horns) and Torres del Paine in the national park with the same name. Bluest lakes, amazing rock formations and the ubiquitous, untamed wildlife all add up to a hiking experience that you will never forget.
Imagine walking a trail through the grassy hills. There are guanacos everywhere; chasing each other and making funny noises because it is the beginning of their mating season. They are jumping the fences a lot as all the properties in Chile and Argentina are properly fenced because of the cattle. There are guanaco bones lying around in the grass; collection of many years. There are also half-eaten bodies hanging of the fences. Some got stuck when jumping across and puma found them. Nature plays hard, but nothing gets wasted- whatever’s left, the condors and foxes will take care of it. As you keep walking, you see yet another guanaco hanging off the fence, caught by a leg. But this one seems intact. When you get closer, it moves. At first, you are sort of scared because you don’t know if you can help it and it is damn hard to turn your back to suffering when it is thrown in your face like that. But this time you can. The wire is cutting through the leg, little above the hoof; it has a double twist and it’s pretty tight, but two people can just stretch it enough for the slender leg to slip out. The guanaco is on the verge of panic, but too exhausted to struggle or run. So you leave it alone and let it just lay there and rest. It seems relieved. And after half and hour or so, you see it get up and make a few steps. It’s limping but it can walk. You are watching it and something inside you is screaming with joy. Life in every breath.
The same day we see a flock of condors feeding on dead guanaco, Mick finds a condor feather (longer then my forearm and hand together) and we come across petroglyphs in some funky looking sediment rock full of river pebbles. It is a good day; one of many.
Patagonia is a great place, full of wonders with an indefinite potential for adventure. If you make it down there, you won’t be disappointed.
To touch base on our itinerary, Mick and I traveled down the west coast and back up the east coast. From Bariloche through El Bolson and Esquel to Perito Moreno at the Lago Argentino which I liked a lot- reminded me of an inland sea. We visited Cueva de las Manos (curious petroglyphs and hand imprints left by prehistoric men) in the Canadon de las Pinturas (great climbing potential but it’s on the UNESCO world heritage list so they let you only look and dream). Then it was hiking around El Calafate (Cerro de los Crystales) and El Chalten (trails around Cerro Torre and Mt Fitz-Roy). From there we crossed over to Chile to hike in Torres del Paine NP, then visited Puerto Natales and Punta Arenas and drove as far south on the American mainland as we could. 4km from the end of the road a creek crossed the road and we stopped there for the nite. We picked mussels at low tide and fried them in fire on the beach at the Magellan Strait- one of my best memories. Then we caught a ferry to Tierra del Fuego, visited Rio Grande and Ushuaia which was celebrating its 126 birthday and hang out a bit at Lago Fagnano. Then back to mainland, Rio Gallegos, Comodor Rivadavia, and a couple of days on the coast around Punto Dos Bahias where Magellan Penguins were waiting for their first eggs to hatch, and a colony of sea lions was basking in the spring sun on a nearby island. Then we went to Puerto Madryn and we just couldn’t leave- camping on the beach with whales passing only 15 meters away from the shore, playing with their babies, jumping and flopping their tales and flippers, puffing and singing... we didn’t have enough. There was also that albino whale. Seeing a white whale jumping gives you a bit of a kick. And there was this other beach, with elephant seals. We walked among them and watched… females feeding their babies, single males trying to score a female while the alpha male was chasing them away, harem of females basking in the sun. Watching a 300kg elephant seal mating with a 100kg female, I couldn’t help thinking, how easy we, people, have it. Never underestimate the power of simplicity.
Now we left Patagonia and pretty soon we gonna leave South America altogether. We are cruising along the Atlantic coast, ever closer to Buenos Aires. We are shipping our car to Veracruz in Mexico on 23 of November. Our plain is leaving on 29 November. We are heading to Cuba for 3 weeks before we can pick up our car again. Days are passing fast on getting everything ready. No grand finale, just another transition. Something ends and another thing starts.