RAMBLINGS OF A TRAVELER IN CHILE, SOUTH AMERICA: PATAGONIA

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The territory of Patagonia is NOT just about jackets and outerwear. There really is a place at the end (farthest south) of the Americas in the countries of Chile and Argentina that is wild and beautiful and preserved. In this rambling I will focus a little bit on two famous National Parks and mostly Patagonia in Chile.

Almost one-fifth of Chile is protected to varying degrees in national parks and reserves. The national forest commission administers 32 national parks, 48 national reserves, and 15 natural monuments. The country of Chile is so varied, wild and rugged, and protected with the driest desert in the world in the north and mammoth glaciers in south, some say it’s a great wonder of the world not to be missed if your thrill is wilderness and nature. In this rambling we are going to visit Patagonia and you won’t be disappointed hopefully.

Patagonia territory is located at the southern part of the long narrow country of Chile and in a big bunch of Argentina.

The Carretera Austral is the name given to Chile‘s Route 7. The highway runs about 1,240 kilometers (770 mi) through rural Patagonia. This was not an easy highway to build even in the 1970’s. It took more than 10,000 soldiers to construct the highway and several lost their lives while building it (Wikipedia). Today the highway is poplar with motorcycles and vans alike. The highway has become one of the most important attractions in Patagonia because it allows you to enter into a territory that still is open to discoveries: Northern Patagonia with its large extensions of cold forests, national parks, glaciers, gigantic ice fields, lagoons, fiords, rivers, and lakes. It is an ideal territory for adventure tourism, fishing, trekking, hiking, kayaking, rafting, and observing flora and fauna in its most natural state (Insight Guides). It’s not that much of a “highway” by L.A. standards.

Torres del Paine National Park is one of the many protected National Parks in the Patagonia region and one of the most visited and most spectacular. With its imposing peaks, called “horns” that reach up to the sky you think for sure you have died and gone to heaven. We are talking 450,000 acres of untouched and protected land that receives numerous visitors from the entire world from year to year.

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