Bienvenidos a Patagonia

''Patagonia (wikipedia): Patagonia is a geographic region containing the southernmost portion of South America. Mostly located in Argentina and partly in Chile, it comprises the Andes mountains to the west and south, and plateaux and low plains to the east. The name Patagonia comes from the word patagon used by Magellan to describe the native people who his expedition thought to be giants.''

The trip to Patagonia is a long one. I got a bus from Osorno (just west of Pucon) to Punta Natales, the southernmost city in Chile. The ride left around noon and didn´t arrive until 6pm the next day. The trip passes from Chile into Argentina, and then crosses back over the border 20 hours later. As you head south, its like driving from Washington north towards Alaska. The trees change, the landscape flattens out, and you cruise for hours through high plains. The windswept high dessert makes you wonder how the flowers and trees cling to the arid ground amidst the torments that hammer all winter.

As you head further south, the days get noticeably shorter, changing from a 12 hour day around Peru to a nearly 20 hour day here in Patagonia. Its easy to loose track of time and dinner usually falls around 10 or 11pm, simply because its sunny until 10pm and light until 11pm. Its a stretch, but is quite enjoyable.

Tomorrow I head 113km north of Puerto Natales to begin the Paine Circuit. The trek is 8 days through the park. I´ll be traveling with 5 Israeli travelers whom I have met along the way: Arik, Danny, Adi, Dikla and Anat.

The interesting cultural experience of this section was this afternoon. There are many Israeli travelers who visit South America after their service, so there are tons of freedom happy, young, fit, extreme Israeli backpackers going around South America. Because most of them speak no spanish and some english, there are special tour agencies that have come up because they can speak hebrew. Since there are so many of these travelers, one agency offers a daily seminar on 'Everything you need to know to not kill yourself in the Torres del Paine Park.' Because I'm with the Israelis, I went to the seminar. Imagine 40 Israelis sitting in a room at the bottom of the world, all decked out in treking gear, ready to go adventure in the park while a Chilean guy rambles on in Hebrew about how the treks work, where the campsites are, what to expect, what to bring, ect... We´re at least 1,000 miles from the nearest real city in the middle of nowhere, desolate, windswept, plains. And there I was.