Patagonia is clearly one of the highlights of my trip and I’m extremely happy that I managed/had the time to discover it (a bit). To sum it up, I went from one side of the Andes to the other, going down always more to the South heading towards Antarctica (which I didn’t reach, we’ll keep this for another travel!). It was really fun to notice that, indeed, the accent in Spanish really changes depending on which side of the border one stands, as well as habits (people do drink more mate on the Argentinian side). Patagonia is a special, huge territory, covering all of the South of the continent from one river South of Buenos Aires downwards and where the skin is particularly exposed to sunburns due to the hole in the ozone layer that’s located just above the whole region. Formerly, there was a period where all of this territory belonged to Chile, then Argentina seized it and now the Chilean part simply runs along the coast, a Chilean friend told me (but, he added, all most beautiful sights in Patagonia remained in Chilean hands). An Argentinian friend answered to this that not only Patagonia always belonged to Mapuche indigenous people first of all,* but also that there is a saying stating that “there is nothing more dangerous than a Chilean drawing a map” – the traditional neighborhood rivalry that I mentioned previously, and that all are very amused to maintain.

*By the way, the Mapuche are not yet exactly treated as masters of these lands, even though they’ve always lived there, contrary to the “recently arrived” Westerners. At this moment, the fight goes on, against an actor that is  the clothing franchise Benetton, that “possesses” a great part of the Patagonian territory (“largest landowner in Argentina”) in order to grow primary resources that they can then utilise and transform in finished products to sell to their clients. I quote an article: “For the Mapuche, present since centuries, private property doesn’t exist. The man belongs to the earth, and not the opposite. Tough to explain to Benetton.”

My personal observation is mostly that Patagonia is Patagonian. I find that people live in very similar ways be it on the Chilean or Argentinian side, and different from the rest of their respective countries. They all appreciate and seek a certain calmness and a certain connection to nature, and I really enjoyed seeing this. Many people even left their capital to come establish themselves in this more savage area of the continent. It’s a gigantic region, mostly arid and desert, the famous Argentinian pampa (word that means flats/plain), but which is rich in lakes, glaciers, volcanoes and greenery along the Andes, part that I heard nominate “the Green Patagonia”. It’s the region of the continent that most resembles my little Switzerland for its green and mountainous aspect, the sort of vegetation you find there, and the cost of life and the impression that people try and charge me for everything they can!

Except for this last aspect, I obviously loved these wild territories with spectacular or enchanting landscapes, and I will have to go back there. They say about “people from the South” that they are the most friendly and warmest inhabitants in Chile/Argentina, and I indeed met only very nice people, which is commented as buena onda in this part of the continent, one of my absolutely favorite expressions of the travel! It literally means “good vibe”, or “how nice/warm/kind/cool/what a good atmosphere!” and is used a lot there, hence the title of this article.

After crossing the border between Osorno, in Chile, and Argentina, I hitchhiked to reach Bariloche and camp there. A kind family of crazy Chileans, on holiday in Argentina, picked me up in their huge and old blue car, very fun! Music was playing and we were driving along a beautiful lake, and, at the back of this big, wonky but dashing boneshaker, I had one of my revelations of the type “this is a perfect moment”, which I enjoyed for most of that journey. And then something jokey happened: I had only just set foot in town and was waiting for a bus to take me to my far-away camping that I see, just walking around there, Rodrigo, the guy who was working at my hostel in Mendoza! Unlikely encounter, given that we hadn’t even exchanged Facebook contact nor phone number! He suggested that I slept over at his friend’s place, for free, and so began a very Argentinian period for me, full of very authentic and nice meetings and moments. Rodrigo having lived in Bariloche some time ago, he played the role of the guide there and we went from the lake coast to the artisanal chocolate store Rapa Nui (approved by the Swiss I am, best chocolate I ate in South America and one of the only good ones!), from the quite common center with a few buildings made of wood and stone to a pretty beach a little further away.

The weather was warm, so I went for a swim all dressed up, having not taken my swimsuit with me; the water was too blue, I couldn’t resist! And then chance struck: we saw a poster for a free rock festival in the woods on that same night. Awesome night! Music, nature, dancing, finishing in apotheosis with a drums concert uniting more than a dozen musicians and where the conductor was a girl implicating the audience as well, great and unforgettable atmosphere! All good in conclusion, I really enjoyed Bariloche, little town between lake and mountains, that people consider the Switzerland of Patagonia. There, I met friends of Rodrigo with whom a few days later I’ll have shared uncountable mates and discussions by the fire. And I also finally had the opportunity to use my tent, bought in Santiago just for Patagonia! I found again that pleasure of sleeping close to nature, as I got so used to doing with the scouts, and how I so love living my sleep. By the way, it was the beginning of a period of thin mattress on the ground instead of comfy bed, which would come to an end only once arrived in Buenos Aires, two weeks later. Great!

After Bariloche, I went down hitchhiking towards El Bolsón with Rodrigo (and his friends joined soon after). El Bolsón is a charming little hippie village in the middle of the mountains, with a very cute craft market and a very calm and natural atmosphere. There, my days were filled with asado, horse ride and afternoon in the sun until I left. Sweet hours with nice people, before being back on the road on my own, going back to the Chilean side. In total, I’ll have traveled hundreds of kilometers by hitchhiking and thus crossed most of Patagonia. My days were mostly busy with moving around in the wonderful landscapes of what is called the Carretera Austral, the “Southern Road,” which draws its path through the bottom of Chile and is a choice destination for travelers looking for nature.

I started by camping in Futaleufú, a premier location for rafting addicts due to its agitated rivers. A little out of my budget, but instead I really enjoyed the landscape and the charming campsite by the water. It was also a folklor day at the village, so I could witness a few festivities such as a craft market (I love craft markets!) and traditional singing… on a horse! The day after, a mom and her son picked me up and drove me through the wonderful sights of the Carretera Austral. Several hours of very interesting discussion with this trained sociologist  while following turquoise lakes and rivers with intense shades of emerald green and royal blue. I feel that this Patagonian visit has made me very demanding regarding the color of my bodies of water and streams, from now on I’ll be (even more) sensitive to plays of colors and lights.

Magical light, enchanting skies, lagunas acting as mirrors at the foot of mountains, it’d be an absurd shortcut to compare the landscapes of green Patagonia to the setting of a postcard. It’s simply nature’s pure beauty, and I had the privilege to sleep on its ground, heart to heart and in unison with the elements. I didn’t hike there as much as I had wished, because I wanted to go down and down and down, but it doesn’t matter because it was fantastic and I’m content this way. And actually my little finger tells me that I’m not done with Patagonia, that this was only the first round and that I’ll come back…

During these days in the South I could validate the stereotype of kind Patagonians who like hitchhikers. Alright, it’s not only locals who picked me up, about half the journeys were shared with people on holiday generally coming from Santiago. A couple and their daughter, an businessman working halftime in Patagonia, a happy family half composed with artists, a local farmer, a couple living in the next village, and for certains trips people who picked me up at the back of their jeep and with whom I didn’t even have time to chat, which in exchange offered me hours of road in the sun with my hair in the wind, quite perfect I must say. Once, a family who had picked me up as well as two other hitchhikers stopped for an old man walking by the road who hadn’t even asked to be taken!

Several times, I wasn’t alone at the back of the jeep and I thus met a few Argentinian or Chilean travelers (younger than me) on the roads during their Summer holiday with a few juggling balls and hoops, making a bit of money at crossroads and traffic lights. Adventure seems simple, doesn’t it? I thus traveled this Southern road from the North down to General Carrera Lake, which is worth the detour for its marble caves to visit on a boat. A little 2-hour ride, but quite unique! I had never seen anything like that before: marble rocks and cliffs sculpted by the lake’s water and creating sort of caves and soft landforms looking at times like a meringue, at times like the walls of sumptuous castles – some blocks are actually called marble chapel or cathedral, due to their particular shape.

That was my last Chilean stop, and I’d pass to Chile again only to cross it in order to access the island of the Land of Fire, in the South. My first contact with Argentina when I left Chilean Patagonia was the police station of Los Antiguos village, not because they arrested me but simply because I was told that it’s easier to hitchhike from that point out of the village, where they stop cars to count passings – don’t ask me why. What I’ll remember from it is that, without me asking for anything, the police officers filled up my thermos with hot water for the mate and offered me a few kilos of cherries because they had too many. When I say I love Argentina! This meeting was also an opportunity to test my knowledge of accents, because I indeed very proudly could recognise that one of the police officers was from Córdoba, way up North, where the accent is melodious almost as if Spanish was a foreign tongue there. Fun! And proof that my ears have gotten better over time.

I would love to detail each encounter, each hitchhike, each free act of friendliness, but let’s stay at that general image of kindness and shared simplicity that completely seduced me. And in the end I’ll have been so immersed in Spanish and with locals there that I was even happy to meet French people at one campsite, two couples with whom we talked about traveling and adventure, who make me think that there really are tons of different courses of life (I’m thinking of that couple of doctors of about 50 years old, having mostly lived in Guadeloupe and just started their trip round the world with an excursion to Antarctica, going up Patagonia with car and tent). Made me envious, even though I was already traveling myself!

I must also dedicate a special section to that couple from Rio Gallegos that came back 15 minutes after passing me, pitying me for hitchhiking in the desert where no one else was to be seen. And not only they did this, but they also took a 200km detour in order not to leave me at a desert crossroads but making sure I had safely gotten to village El Chalten, dropping me only once we had found me a campsite for the night. So crazy, especially knowing that hours and hours of road were expecting them and that I hadn’t asked for nor insinuated anything! Angels, nothing more to say. So sweet… I hope to be like that myself as well, when life faces me with such situations.

El Chalten is a village close to the famous massif Fitz Roy, along the Andes but on the Argentinian side. As every time we get close to the mountain range, the landscapes get more dramatic and greener, we soon forget the desert flats that lie a few kilometers away only. There, I finally put my hiking shoes back on to go discover the splendid, gorgeous scenario of the Laguna de las Tres. A rather easy hike day with one last kilometer of steep slope whose reward is an unrestricted view over a glacier jumping into one of the most turquoise lakes, itself surrounded by several tower-shaped peaks soaring to the sky. Day blessed by the sun, I ate my picnic in front of what was probably one of the most beautiful landscapes of my life.

By so doing I met Sullilay, from Puerto Montt, wandering around Patagonia as well. We spent 2 hours contemplating this gift of nature, every instant more wonderful. Sullilay then became a great hiking partner for a day, with whom we laughed a lot for managing to lose our way in spite of the very well-indicated paths, thus adding 10km of happy chatting to our walk of the day. So much nature, so much fresh air, just pleasure for the legs! On the spot it did exhaust my feet, but I absolutely loved it!! On that same evening I fell asleep at the sound of happy Argentinian songs along some guitar by the numerous other campers passing by El Chalten. I love, love, love Argentina! So much sharing, moments of friendly exchange, so much mate, and so much music. What a country!

The next step was one of the destinations that had during my trip become a sort of dream, that I didn’t very well know of before coming, but which I had understood I had to see no matter what, after hearing so many stories from others travelers: the Perito Moreno glacier, in Los Glaciares national park, close to El Calafate village. There again, the visit was the chance for a memorable encounter. A father and his son picked me up to go to the park together, and we ended up spending the whole day there, after understanding that we are all three intensely in love with nature. What an unforgettable day! The discovery of that huge ice giant throwing itself into a lake, and being the only glacier in Patagonia and one of the few in the world to keep on growing and moving forward, represents one of the most spectacular moments of my life. You come close to the glacier through different paths, we chose the longest one and to enjoy that enchanting vision, offered by the elements and centuries of geological history, as slowly as possible.

The father is a teacher in natural sciences and passionate with cartography and geography, his son is a doctor and amateur fisher, we thus spent an extremely interesting and revitalising day of discussions, exchange, but also silence and meditation in front of that mass of pure ice. Whereas many tourists stay around for a few hours and leave, we spent seven hours on the site, contemplating raw nature, and waiting for certain blocks of ice to detach from the whole and fall into the water, shattering with a sound of thunder. It’s great how we understood each other, all three of us were in symbiosis, not wanting to leave but to enjoy this massive white beauty to the max, marvellous spectacle of wild nature for ever engraved in our retinas. The Perito Moreno is esthetically impressive, but also geologically: the end part of the ice formation is 5000m long and 60m high on average, in certain places even 80m! The whole glacier has a surface of 250 square km and a length of 30km, and it grows 2m a day, about 700m a year.

What’s fun is that El Calafate happened to be an unexpected place for friendly meetings. I knew that some friends from the Peruvian part of my trip were around in that period, but it turned out that not only Gaëtan, with whom I visited the Amazonia on a boat in December, but also Preston, who experience the Salkantay Trek and Machu Picchu with me, were in El Calafate on the days I was there myself. Isn’t that crazy? Well, actually, given how all travels are replete with such anecdotes, it’s not that crazy after all. Still, it’s quite impressive and I find it simply awesome! I thus seized the opportunity of that crossroads of meetings to prove my integration into Argentinian culture: I initiated an improvised asado at my campsite, to which we invited all of our tent neighbors, thus creating new links since Gaëtan and his friend would then keep on traveling with guys they met on that bbq night.

Good scout, I took care of the fire (I did get comments for being the only girl there and still the one to light the fire…!), and, good French by blood, I made sure we’d have enough wine for all that excellent meat. That night was a succession of laughters, yummy fragrances and cultural encounters (Israeli, Americans, French, Brazilian, Belgian… and Swiss!). The day after, after the visit to the glacier, I met my Breton Gaëtan one last time before next time (somewhere in France or elsewhere in Europe, some time). He joined me at the restaurant where I had had dinner with my two new friends in love with the nature, and together we remade the world a bit, we enlarged my rock culture a bit – among other things they told me about “Sumo”, a huge artist there, so dear to so many Argentinians’ heart fanatics for rock: a son from a noble half-Italian half-Scottish family, who arrived in Argentina and settled there because he loved it, and then started his rock band which was to become an enormous national success. In short, only good moments.

Finally, the last very wild step of my roughly 6-months travel was the Land of Fire, at the end of the world (the locals call it that). If you look at the map, it seems that my entire trip was drawing me there, because I first came into contact with the Andes way up North, in Colombia, and then strictly followed its path, waltzing from East to West of the mountain range that the Fueginos (inhabitants of the Land of Fire) like to call the backbone of the planet – and they add that their island is its tailbone, the center of energy resonating uniquely on the beings that pass or live there.

In Ushuaia, Sofia, commonly called la Chofa, was waiting for me. She’s a friend of Rodrigo’s about whom he had said that she lives in a sort of community in the South and that she was happy to host me for the few days I was planning on spending there before my flight to Buenos Aires. There again, the events smiled to me because, while Ushuaia is honestly not the most attractive town on the continent, Chofa actually lives in the woods, a little higher up the town, in the mountains. It’s a self-managed community whose members build their rudimentary hut-like houses and live in direct contact with nature, forming a socio-cultural cooperative as well. The project is still in its early stages, but they already have a free campsite equipped with power, even if running water and toilets are still under elaboration.

My stay at the end of the world started off with a hilarious karaoke night, wine and chocolate cake. I keep being very touched by how Argentinians welcome me whole-heartedly every time as if they’ve known me for ever; again, I find very Italian traits to this culture I so like. We then climbed up the mountain and I set up my tent for a few nights, first time in a long period that I was really stopping and resting somewhere, and it did me good. I really enjoyed the several persons I met there and with whom I shared these few days between discussions about life, watching shows on the computer, meals on the fire, breakfasts in the sun along a good old mate, or dancing in the woods after a birthday party.

Particular atmosphere on the Land of Fire,* where in the Summer 22.30 seem to be 18.30 (but where it’s night almost all day in the Winter, ugh!), and where the forest is covered in a bright turquoise lichen giving the impression of an enchanted wood whose thin trunks seem to be dancing and intertwining, making the paths unrecognisable at night but the whole place quite magical in general. One day, my friend Preston, who was again passing by where I was, joined us for a hike up one of the local summits, which offered us a view over the sea of the end of the world and over Ushuaia. We sat there, at the highest point of the mountain we had just climbed and we recharged our batteries with Southern wind that was blowing happier than ever and probably rejuvenated each of us by several years.

*Which would actually better be baptised Land of Wind… it’s not particularly volcanic nor sensitive to forest fires, but got that name from the fires that the indigenous people would light when it was discovered

The day after, we opted for a calmer program, consisting of a walk around the national park, along the coast passing, among others, by the most Southern post office in the world. Clear water, purple and blue mussels, round and colorful stones, I couldn’t resist, I had to swim in the most Southern sea of my life! I now know that the water there is less cold than an altitude lake like that at 4500m in Peru. We enjoyed the good weather and did some yoga, shared an unmissable mate and admired the view over the Andes (them again, yes). Relaxing, peaceful, simply beautiful. And then came the time to leave and move on, Buenos Aires and its spells, but especially an almost surprise visit were expecting me!

For pictures of Bariloche, El Bolsón and Carretera Austral, click here

For pictures of the Cuevas de Marmol and Fitz Roy, click here

For pictures of the Perito Moreno and Ushuaia, click here

Land of Fire