Patagonia - A Journey of 60 Years Ago by Horst Cerni

Foreword

 I have recently read and reviewed two books on Patagonia.   They inspired me to recall my own trip to  Patagonia some 60 years ago.  

Patagonia, the far-away and mysterious area of Southern South America, has stimulated the imagination and attracted people from all over the world for centuries - all kinds of people, not just explorers and settlers, but also those with criminal goals and bandits. Although mostly in Argentina, part of the Patagonia is also in Chile. It is a very large region and best explored by car.

Such exciting memories, although some details are now a little foggy.... What I found particularly sad was that I didn't have any color photos anymore. I had lots of slides which started fading and so, several years ago, I threw everything away, including the slide trays, realizing that I would never give a slideshow again. Therefore, the only photos I have are from my little album which are in black and white and not always of good quality. I scanned them hoping they would help illustrate my story. 

***

Butch Cassidy enjoyed the fruit of his robberies in Patagonia, but died in Rico Pico in a shoot-out - according to popular belief

Most of the Patagonia is a steppe, a treeless desert and rocky terrain, with incredible mountains and rock formations, as well as natural wonders.

 

Strong winds blow most of the time, and even during the Summer months of October to April the weather is unpredictable. The population is scattered over long distances. Ever so often one encounters a general store (which includes a bar), and a small village.

General Store and Bar.

Village in Northern Patagonia

There is a lot of fascinating history, going back millions of years when dinosaurs were roaming in tropical forests, and indigenous peoples left rock drawings dating back to 7,000 BC. Many Europeans settled there, having escaped from their war-torn homelands (or from justice), or being contracted to administer the large sheep farms (Estancias), and in recent years to work in oil exploration. Very few Indians are left and most come from Chile.

Sixty years ago, I traveled in Patagonia from January to May 1962. My Argentine student friend, Jorge Preloran, had secured an assignment to film the Gauchos and the fauna and flora of Argentina. We started with Patagonia in the Province of Neuquen, where the scenery is quite varied and where we found unique folk customs.

Village party

Religious procession

An unusual personality we met was Bruno Lopez, a Spanish butcher, who created works of art from the bleached bones in his yard. What better way to pass the lonely times than to paint and let your imagination go wild.

Painted bones by butcher Bruno Lopez (Grl. San Martin y Señora?)

Painted Bones by butcher Bruno Lopez (worshippers)

We camped at the Copahue vulcano, which is still active and occasionally spews volcanic dust and black smoke. There are hot springs, boiling lakes and waterfalls. Very Impressive are the tall Araucaria trees. It appeared to me like a prehistoric landscape. We found a camping spot near a hot spring, which provided hot water for coffee and shaving…

Prehistoric landscape at the Volcano Copahue

Araucarias at Volcano Copahue

Copahue waterfall

oxcart -wood transport at San Martin de los Andes

Less than 200 km further South in Rio Negro, it looks more like Switzerland. Green pastures with chalet type houses on gentle hills and picturesque towns like San Martin de los Andes and the world-famous ski resort of San Carlos de Bariloche on Lake Nahuel Huapi, with the snowcapped Andes to the East.

We visited Dr. Rodolfo Koessler, known as the Medicine Man at the Lanin (vulcano), who served the dispersed population, especially the Indians and poor laborers. His wife, Bertha Koessler-Ilg was his nurse, and by talking to the Indians she learned their language and customs. She became an authority on the Araucarias and published a book. Dr. and Mrs. Koessler had left Germany in 1913 to escape the narrow mindedness and prejudices in their Bavarian hometown, worked for seven years in the German hospital in Buenos Aires, and then moved to San Martin de los Andes in 1920.. He was the first "doctor of the people" and attended to many living very isolated in the mountains. HIs wife helped as nurse and learned the language of the Mapuche Indians, recorded their stories and wrote a book. Their house is now a museum.

Dr.Rodolfo Koessler

Bertha Koessler

After another 1,100 km of rough roads there is Lago Argentino with the spectacular Glacier National Park.

Perito Moreno glacier, photo by Ramesh Shrestha

Our colleague Ramesh Shrestha and his wife traveled there in February 2020 and shared the beautiful photos in xUNICEF weekly Update of August 21, 2020. This is the link (https://xunicefnewsandviews.blogspot.com/2020/08/our-photographer-of-week-ramesh-shrestha.html)

(Ramesh added Iguazu Falls on the Argentine-Brazil boarder to his itinerary).

The glacier Perito Moreno is one of the few sweet water icebergs that keep growing, although regularly big chunks break off.

Traveling further South becomes more and more fascinating. Lago Buenos Aires (or Lago General Carrera on the Chilean side) offers unique landscapes and colossal rock formations and monoliths.

It is Argentina's largest lake. Millions of years ago it was 400 m higher. Volcanic eruptions and earth quakes broke the mountain walls, and the glaciers and rushing water moved massive rocks over the plains and killed the prehistoric animals and vegetation.

There are also many caves where Tehuelche indians told their stories through petroglyphs and paintings, including one cave which features hundreds of hands.

The main “industry” in the Patagonia is sheep breeding and raising and we filmed the work of the Gauchos in several estancias.

We reached the southernmost city in the world, Ushuaia, on Tierra del Fuego. It was cold and snowy. There were no accommodations available but the police chief took pity on us and provided a free cell in the jail.

We then turned North to Rio Grande and Rio Gallegos, which has one of the world’s highest tide differences - about nine meters. Ships arrive at high tide and just wait for the water to go down and that’s when they are being un- and uploaded.

We criss-cross Southern Patagonia and visited seven petrified forests. where 150 million years ago a large forest of araucaria trees existed. Turning West at Comodoro Rivadavia, we found massive tree trunks up to 30 meters long, perfectly preserved in a desert where no trees are growing anymore. We were the only visitors and camped there, even collecting some small souvenirs, including petrified seashells. It’s inspiring to hold something in your hands that is that old.

Petrified forest (& Jorge Preloran)

petrified forest & cerro Madre e Hija

Souvenirs from the petrified forest

Petrified tree

Since 2012, the Petrified Forests are National Parks and have a strict visiting schedules - closing at 7 pm in the Summer months. An extinct vulcano, called Madre e Hija (Mother and Daughter), dominates the area of Jaramillo.

From there we continued up the coast, stopping at Puerto Madryn and the Peninsula Valdes to photograph sea elephants and cormorants.

Patagonian Atlantic Coast

And from there it was only another 1,000 km to Buenos Aires.

Many famous people have been fascinated by the mysteries of Patagonia, and the most famous one was Charles Darwin who did his explorations about 130 years before my trip. He traveled mostly on horseback, but had to do a lot of walking and climbing as well. His findings were the seed for formulating his theory of evolution and survival of the fittest.

Literally following in Darwin’s footsteps were two other Englishmen, whose adventure stories I reviewed: George Meegan walked the entire distance from Ushuaia to Alaska and has several Guinness world records for “The Longest Walk”, and Bruce Chatwin followed the misadventures of several people and also walked “Ïn Patagonia”. The reviews of their books are separate.

Shaving/Patagonia(getting ready for the Capital Federal Buenos Aires)