Patagonia
From glaciers to steppes - what a diversity ! Patagonia is at the bottom part of South America, parts in both Chile and Argentina . We started off from Punta Arenas (Chile) and worked our way north noticing our first big surprise - how extensive the sheep industry had been and very much in parallel to our Australian industry. But also like Australia, sheep production is considerably less now than 50 years’ ago. The sheep are predominantly corriedale and merino with about 8 million sheep left in Patagonia. Most of the sheep stations (estacións) have long gone, the grass eaten out but the industry was once as massive as our own.
Lots of wildlife, many guanaco (Lama guanicoe) everywhere, this beast is related to the camel and the major food source for the South American cougar (Puma concolor concolor). Travellers needed also to watch out for the predatory beast with signage warning you not to run if one is sighted, not sure how this would be managed!
Probably the highlight of our Patagonia journey was the Torres del Paine National Park on the Argentinian side of the mountains. The South Patagonia Ice Field takes up most of the western portion of the park at the intersection of the steppes and the Andes. Glaciers and spectacular mountains, amazing scenery, flora and fauna. We used this opportunity to engage in extensive walks to take this all in.
Patagonia is definitely on our list to re-visit and continue our exploration.
