Patagonia! Wait, Patagonia? What is Patagonia? Where is Patagonia?
It’s already been over a month since we began our lifetime adventure together by exchange vows in Arches National Park. Things have settled back into the usual routines and schedules of workplace life. Though we consider ourselves to be cubical escape artists we still must always succumb to our adult world responsibilities during the work week.
Finally having recovered from the wedding and the accompanying travel of Yellowstone National Park for our honeymoon we have now turned our thoughts to our lifetime dream…PATAGONIA!
Patagonia! Wait, Patagonia? What is Patagonia? Where is Patagonia? The clothing brand Patagonia? These are the responses accompanied by excited and confused facial expressions that we have been getting from everyone we have told about our dream.
So in case you didn't know what Patagonia is or where it is let Wikipedia and I fill you in real quick. Patagonia is a sparsely populated region that covers 402,700 sq miles (1.043 million km²) at the southern end of South America that is jointly shared by Argentina and Chile. This massive region comprises of deserts, steppes, grasslands and the southern section of the Andes Mountains. You’re probably thinking “This place must be huge!” Well it is! It’s so big that it has two coast lines. The western coast is lined by the Pacific Ocean the eastern coast is accompanied by the Atlantic Ocean.
Now knowing that Patagonia is in both Argentina and Chile you probably are curious of where Patagonia begins and where it ends. Well that is up for debate, especially when you are asking about the region in each country of Chile and Argentina. The Colorado River (That’s right, the COLORADO River. High five for my home state!) and the Barrancas River run from the Andes to the Atlantic and are commonly considered the most northern limit of Argentine Patagonia. While Tierra del Fuego and sometimes the Falkland Islands located down south are considered as part of the southern boundary of the Patagonia region. If you were to ask most geographers they would define the region as the northern limit of Chilean Patagonia starting at Reloncavi Estary and then extending down to the Straits of Magellan or the prolonged Cape Horn.
If you step back and actually look at a map it’s really an incredible piece of land when you stop to think about its magnitude and diverse landscape. Sigh, it really is just incredible. Sorry I was daydreaming again.
The next question I've been asked about is “So if Patagonia is in two different countries how did it get its name? Well Patagonia comes from the word patagon that was used by Magellan on 1520 to describe the native people that his expedition thought to be giants. It is now believed that the people he called the Patagons were Tehuelches, who tended to be taller than Europeans of the time. If you ask Argentine researcher Miguel Doura, he observed that the name Patagonia possibly derives from the ancient Greek region of modern Turkey called Paflagonia, possible home of the patagon personage in the chivalric romances Primaleon printed in 1512, ten years before Magellan arrived in these southern lands.
Pretty neat stuff isn't it?!?! Want to learn more? Follow my blog as we discover Patagonia together! When I say we discover I really mean WE DISCOVER! As I learn about this incredible region of the world over the next year I am going to share every tidbit with you. Get ready! WE are going on an ADVENTURE!
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