In Patagonia Day 13
In Patagonia Day 13 Puerto Natales—El Calafate Today was uneventful except for a border crossing—actually two as leaving Chile required an exit queuing in a dusty gravel wide spot in a narrow dusty gravel road. Then a couple clicks further, entrance queue to Argentina. Such processes remind me of many border crossings, always with a […]
In Patagonia Day 12
In Patagonia Day 12 Puerto Natales—Mylodon Cave—Puerto Natales In a glass case at the Salesian Museum in Punta Arenas are two pieces of mylodon hide. Although extinct for at least 10,000 years, the fur looks fresh as if the animal were killed this year. Bruce Chatwin begins his book In Patagonia describing a piece of […]
In Patagonia Day 11
In Patagonia Day 11 Grande Paine—Puerto Natales This morning the sun came up over the ridge as brutally strong winds whipped up Lago Grey, dragging aloft a fine mist which made rainbows. One of the most common words in The Voyage of the Beagle is “wind,” but of course that’s to be expected in a […]
In Patagonian Day 10
In Patagonia Day 10 Lago Grey—Grande Paine Slept in a bunk room at the Lago Grey Refugio and in the morning snagged coffee from the dining hall while the sound system played Bob Marley—odd breakfast music, but all part of the experience. The park is truly magnificent, but the tourist experience is overwhelming. Last evening, […]
In Patagonia Day 9
In Patagonia Day 9 Puerto Natales—Lago Grey, Torres del Paine One of those days that makes me wonder about transportation infrastructure for scenic hiking. Torres del Paine is probably the largest tourist draw in southern Chile. A park with mountains, lakes, glaciers, and well-designed paths, it serves to draw huge numbers of walkers, each with […]
In Patagonia Day 8
In Patagonia Day 8 Puerto Natales Time is heaped up helter-skelter in Patagonia. As the Beagle circled the land and Darwin took numerous excursions into the interior, the great naturalist puzzled over the geology he encountered. I always associated his thought with biology—mammals, birds, earthworms—but most of the Voyage is about rocks, specifically speculation about […]
In Patagonia Day 7
In Patagonia Day 7 Puerto Natales For the category of odd but helpful coincidences: in part to help wrap my head around the vastness of Patagonia and to further an understanding of solitude (which I seem to write about incessantly), I was reading Gretel Ehrlich’s The Solace of Open Spaces, which describes her time on […]
In Patagonia Day 6
In Patagonia Day 6 Punta Arenas — Puerto Natales I was thinking today about the couple of pages Hemingway wrote on the craft of writing that were to be part of “Big Two-Hearted River.” As I recall, he wants to write the way Cezanne painted—daubs of paint invoking the scene (apples I think) rather than […]
In Patagonia Day 5
In Patagonia Day 5 Punta Arenas —Isla Magdalena—Punta Arenas Traveled to Tres Puentes and from there boarded the Melinka, an old car ferry, heading east from Punta Arenas to Isla Magdalena in the middle of the Magellan Strait. The voyage up the coast was sunny and smooth, passing fishing communities crowding the coast. The shore […]
In Patagonia Day 4
In Patagonia Day 4 Punta Arenas My hotel is a creaking structure that defines the term “ramshackle.” The upper story is clad with flaking exterior chipboard and my room is a lean-to off the lobby, so the slightest step or voice sounds as if it is directly beside me. The breakfast (included) included the worst […]