Patagonia – Land of Giants

By Irene Butler

In 1520 Admiral Ferdinand Megellan landed on the shores of what is now known as Patagonia and immediately encountered the Tehuelche tribe. Ranging between six and six-foot-seven they appeared gigantic to the Admiral and his crew of short-statured Spaniards. Some say naming of Patagonia (an area comprising Southern Argentina and Chile) stemmed from Megellan’s particular fascination with their enormous feet. He dubbed the tribe “Patagons” derived from “pata” - Spanish for “foot”.

As adventurers moved across this land, titans of nature were discovered throughout; with even the vast emptiness was said to be in a league all its own. “Nothingness” or “colossal” with “no in-between” is the curious description given by travellers over the centuries; and all admit succumbing to a mysterious magnetism that draws them back time and time again. Our intrigue had been sparked; my partner, Rick and I were soon on a quest to seek out the giants of Patagonia.

After a few days in Buenos Aires, the energetic capital of Argentina, we headed out by bus to the gateway of Patagonia which begins 950 km to the south.  The rugged coasts are graced in mega proportions with an amazing cast of sea creatures. I was soon to realize a life-long dream - to walk among the penguins. I would wager my fascination with these wondrous characters equalled a young Charles Darwin’s who scoured these same shores, after arriving on the Beagle commanded by Cpt. Robert Fitzroy in 1831. Megellanic penguins arrive after six months at sea in their nesting area at Punta Tombo; the largest of a multitude of colonies. By mid-November the eggs have hatched. Being January the chicks, now teenagers, were moulting and taking their first dip in the ocean under adult supervision. It was a peak experience to slowly manoeuvre among half a million braying, tuxedoed sea birds waddling aristocratically to and fro, some close enough to reach out and touch.

The mammoths of nature in Patagonia go back to Jurassic times. It was a dinosaur paradise, as evidenced by the bone-yard of skeletons and fossils found. The “ultimate” Paleontological Museum at Trelew overflows with re-assembled skeletal remains reaching up to the top of the cavernous ceiling. A glass-walled lab allowed us to watch scientists chipping and dusting the debris from recent discoveries. Further down the road, 250 km from Puerto Deseado, lays the 15,000 hectare Petrified Forest Natural Monument Park. Sections of Proaraucaria trees, some thirty-five meters in length and up to three meters in diameter, are strewn where they once reached heights of 100 meters. It was surreal to rub our hands over the bark of the same mighty conifers the dinosaurs brushed up against a hundred and fifty million years ago.

On long bus hauls, as with previous travellers, we accorded new meaning to barren expanses and windswept terrain. It became an occasion when the boundless stretches of parched grasses and low growing shrubs were broken by Nandu, an ostrich relative, sprinting away on gangly legs or by llama-like Guanacos peering up from their grazing. But even those gripped by the worst cases of ennui were dazzled by the endless streaks of gold, and amber flaunted across the unobstructed sky at sunrise and sunset.