Patagonia stripped me of any sense of accomplishment I may have had as a human being.
Calling Patagonia beautiful would be frivolous. Patagonia is elemental, almost surreal, a somewhat alternate universe of volcanos, mountains, and glaciers. A little terrifying in its overwhelming majesty, untamed and soaring, theatrical in contrasts, depth and colors. Patagonia made me feel like a pilgrim to a hitherto unknown temple.
It’s a world of exile and endurance, trials and ruin, findings and loss. Some of Patagonia made me want to cry, some compelled me to silence, some made me feel this was the end of the universe.
Standing next to the Petrohue waterfall in Chile’s lake district, I saw water of impossible colors- turquoise, jade and milk-blue. The water of Todos Los Santos Lake rose and fell through gnarled and deep charcoal tunnels of volcanic rock. Right above stood the shadowy Osorno volcano wearing a conical crown of white restless clouds.
In the small town of Puerto Varas, Chile, a rainbow rose over a vast glacial lake of slate color. In the town of Fruitillar, on the edge of the endless Llanquihue Lake, I walked through a garden where bloomed enormous hydrangeas of magical hue.
Our traveling group crossed the Andes through waterways from Chile to Argentina. The catamaran slid through the narrow fjords as I stood on the open deck, inhaled the primal smells, and tried in vain to capture photos of snow capped peaks, lush rainforests, unruly waterfalls, and lakes with musical names like Todos los Santos and Nahuel Huapi. Sunlight gleamed over towering mountains. I felt I was granted a passage through a land that would always be a sentient witness and never a participant.
Patagonia possesses a kind of charged stillness. You sense the danger beyond the breathtaking beauty. I’d never felt this remarkably unique awe for any land (well, except maybe the Himalayas).
Bruce Chatwin made Patagonia famous as a literary idea. His 1977 travelogue In Patagonia portrayed it as a land of restlessness and wandering. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Patagonia
People in Patagonia speak lovingly about Douglas Tompkins, founder of The North Face and Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia. These two great outdoor pioneers and conservationists packed climbing gears and surfboards into a van in 1968 and drove all the way from California to Patagonia to climb the daunting Mount Fitzroy. They fell in love with the land and spent a lifetime nurturing their passion for this place and helping protect this extraordinary terrain for the future generations.
Tompkins died in a kayaking accident in Chilean Patagonia in 2015. The Tompkins conservation purchased over 1million acres of wilderness and donated to the Chilean and Argentinian government, creating several massive national parks. What a way to give back!
