What's interesting about Patagonia, it is an entire HUGE region spanning Chile and Argentina, on both sides of the Andes mountain range. Much like how the Canadian Rockies span British Columbia and Alberta. I had no concept of just how huge an area Patagonia actually encompassed. My rock hound buddies will be interested to know that this entire area is Granite in nature, being the Andes Mountains.
So fun to drive to the very end of the world, as far as the road goes, then it turns into a pot-holed parking lot with a smelly green trailer containing biffies...a rather mundane and inglorious ending but interesting none the less!! There is a lovely wooden sign indicating that you are indeed at the end of the world.
Windy, sunny, rainy, cold when the wind is blowing and suddenly and surprisingly very warm as soon as the wind stops or the clouds move away. I think Patagonian's must be masters at layering clothing as it seems the weather changes from extreme cold to too hot to have so many clothes on in a few minutes.
Being Canadian and living in the mountains, I understand the concept of layering and indeed for most Canadians it is a way of life we joke about if you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes well here in Patagonia, this is taken to new heights!! The temperature can change within a minute from Oh, my God I'm freezing to sheesh, who turned up the heat!! Unbelievable until you experience it how fast this happens.
The land here is so remote and sparsely inhabited. Mountains, glaciers and not much else. The land here is so rugged that even the ubiquitous sheep farmers have no chance here. The summers are short and even a hot day would be approx 15 degrees Celsius. The days are long, with about 18 hours of daylight, the sun sets around 11 pm and starts to get light again at 4 a.m.
By sea, aboard a ship as we are, you can see much more and get so close to the Glaciers because the mountains are so steep and drop straight down into the ocean. Right off the coast we are in over 2000 feet of water. We watched glaciers calving from the balcony of our stateroom.
We also took a catamaran excursion to see a glacier in a bay that was too shallow for our ship to get into. If we could park the ship in front of a glacier, I would happily watch the ice for days on end, the brilliant blue of the deeply compressed ice is such a stunning color, the striations of dirty rock that you can follow with your eyes back to see where the glacier traversed, the molding of the elastic ice as it folds around the rocks and you can see the new shape of the ice and then the calving.
What a sight to behold!! At first your eyes are scanning back and forth waiting for the tell-tale sign of ice sprinkling down, and then the big rush as a chunk comes cascading down. To me it is like watching history and earth change happening before your very eyes, endlessly fascinating!! Some say borrriinnggg!! I say who gets to see THAT in their lifetime? I love the nature and seeing the very earth in movement.
Traversing the Beagle Channel, following in the footsteps of the famous explorer Shacklton. watching the Glaciers is a wonderful experience!!
Oh, by the way I actually got to put my hand in the famous Beagle Channel and collect a pebble off the beach.
Linda Barber
Call 1.800.330.8820 or click here to have a Luxury Cruise Specialist contact you about booking a luxurious Patagonia cruise. Ask about our current South America cruise, tour and travel deals, .
0 comments:
Post a Comment