In Tierra del Fuego, Darwin still rocks by Pepe Escobar

[Jefferson23]

Aug 21, 2010

Page 1 of 2
ON THE ROAD IN PATAGONIA, Part 1

In Tierra del Fuego, Darwin still rocks
By Pepe Escobar

IN THE BEAGLE CHANNEL - This is a place where men come to be shocked and awed. The discovery of Patagonia is still a work in progress. Patagonia may be an enigma wrapped in a riddle of glaciers, mountain lakes, forests and wind-beaten steppes - and as such is impervious to fiction; reality is infinitely more powerful.

Forget Kashmir, the Himalayas, the Silk Road; this is reality secreting magic, legend and fantasy. Had he ever been to Patagonia straight out of Ireland, Irish poet W B Yeats would have marveled at its "violent", not "terrible", beauty.

The end of the world is immense, but inevitably some boundaries apply; the Colorado River to the north; the Atlantic Ocean to the east; Tierra del Fuego to the south; and the Pacific Ocean to the west.

From the Atlantic across the central steppes/altiplano and up to the Cordillera (the Andes) along the Argentina-Chile border in the west, most is still virgin, pristine land - and water. Silence is vast and liquid. Invisible to man, anchimallen (demons) patrol the central meseta (plains). Lagoons play host to flamingos and black-necked swans. Glaciers swell up to the point of forming dams between lakes - and then start breaking up with a bang, like they have done for millennia.


remainder in full: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/LH21Aa01.html

[bemildred]

1. Damn!

That lucky son-of-a-bitch gets PAID to go visit Patagonia and write about it?

Incidentally: "In Patagonia" by Bruce Chatwin is a good read.

"I haven't got any special religion this morning. My God is the God of Walkers. If you walk hard enough, you probably don't need any other God."
– Bruce Chatwin "In Patagonia"

[Jefferson23]

4. He is extremely fortunate isn't he? At least we get to read his experiences,

I love the way he writes...the guy's amazing.

[Lucky Luciano]

2. I trekked around Patagonia including Tierra Del Fuego

For a few weeks in Dec 2008. I absolutely loved it...and of course I brought Chatwin's book with me!

[Jefferson23]

3. Wow, you are lucky, Lucky Luciano! That would be the trip of a life time

imo.

[Lucky Luciano]

5. If only pictures did it justice...I could spend a year there easily.

I criss-crossed from Argentina into Chile 8 times (pain in the ass bringing cars over with all the papers being checked!) Started in Bariloche...crossed to Chile (Pucon)...tried to take a ferry from Puerto Montt to the Carreterra Austral, but got turned back due to volcanic activity...so had to drive back to Argentina by way of Lago Tigua Tigua...got blocked again..bad map info since the road was only passable by foot...no problem..I love to explore (good thing the girlfriend was not with me as she would have gone crazy on me for not planning!)...so went back to Argentina by way of Volcan Osorno and to where I started at Bariloche...then made it to the northern part of the Carreterra Austral and had to turn back around the time I got to the mirror lake pictures below since I had a flight to catch the next day...back to Bariloche again for my flight to El Calafate in the deep south to play with glaciers and jagged mountains like Cerro Torre...then drove on to southern Chile to Torres Del Paine National Park...and drove on to Tierra Del Fuego - took a ferry with the car from Puntas Arenas to Porvenir and crossed a dirt road to get to the Argentinian side of Tierra Del Fuego - this is not the usual way people get to Ushuaia - very very remote and windswept road...then on to Ushuaia and Tierra Del Fuego National Park..sadly no time for Cape Horn or Antarctica...I will be back...

[Jefferson23]

6. No kidding Lucky, being there must have taken your breath away at times...incredible beauty and the

scale of it all!


Thanks for posting those pictures...just fantastic.

[Karenina]

7. FABULOUS!!! Thanks for the tour!

:hi:

[pscot]

8. +1

Wonderful pictures :hi: