Day 1 – Introducing Patagonia

‘You gave me solidarity

with my unknown brothers.

You have strengthened me with the power

of all who live.

You gave me an eye for unity

and variety of men

how the world is;

that joy is  possible’

This is what traveling is all about. Beautifully expressed by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, my favorite poet. In his city of Santiago, capital of Chile, I will finish my next trip. A trip covering both Chilean and Argentine Patagonia.

Chile and Argentina share not only Patagonia, they also have a common past.

In a not too distant past, they were both burdened with a brutal dictatorship. Think of the Videla regime in Argentina when thousands of people vanished,  or the military junta led by General Augusto Pinochet of Chile. Both countries have meanwhile shaken off their dictatorial past and both have embraced democracy.

Where their past is the ugly side of the country, nature is the beautiful side. The incredibly beautiful side even.

Located in the south of the South American continent is the area where the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was stranded in the winter of 1520 on a deserted shore, and which he named Patagonia. It measures 1,043,076 km2 in area.

Patagonia is one of the most inspiring destinations in the world: just think of spotting whales, staying on a remote estancia, boat rides on the deep green lakes and the sound of creaking glaciers ...

Magellan, Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, Francis Drake and Thomas Cavendish, are just some of the many explorers who put foot in Patagonia.

Nobody has  described the feelings that  remote Patagonia evokes with visitors more accurately than the British physicist Charles Darwin. After his return to England after his five-year voyage aboard the Beagle, Darwin wrote: "When recalling memories of the past, repeatedly the  Patagonian plains come to mind: these flats are according to everyone miserable and useless ... Then why is this barren wasteland so firmly put in my memory? ‘.

Since Darwin's time, Patagonia has attracted a steady stream of foreign writers. In 1893, the in Argentina born William Henry Hudson wrote 'Idle Days in Patagonia’, a poetic narrative about the history and nature of this mysterious country.

The best-known contemporary description of the area and its population is ‘In Patagonia' by Bruce Chatwin, in which the author captures the essence of Patagonia through meetings with local residents during his travels.

Today I start my own 'In Patagonia', but under the title ‘The end of the world at the dawn of times’. ..