We have spent about five months of the past two years in Patagonia.  I don't know why.  We have always preferred warmer places like Africa and South-East Asia and Patagonia doesn't do warm that often.  But it is here that we learnt that  traveling in a cooler environment doesn't have to be a trial.

What do they really mean when people talk about Patagonia ?  It is a massive area spanning two countries (or more if you include its islands) who seem to have been squabbling over it continuously.  There is the enormous block in the southern ice-field marked on maps as the "Disputed Zone".  There is even a pretender to the throne of the non-existent Kingdom of Patagonia, currently Frédéric Luz, a French author of heraldry.

And it is physically so varying.  From the green, wet and, sometimes, icy zone to the west of the Andes to the plains of endless skies on the pampas to the east.

But somehow the people seem to be the same, and I suspect both Chileanos and Argentinos of the area might consider themselves different, if not separate, from their other country men and women and closer to other Patagonians. 

When people ask us why we have returned we usually attribute it to the regions beauty and here we think of the stunning mountains, fjords and glaciers that lie on the western side.  Yet much of Patagonia is unattractive to some people.  Journals I have read allude to the pampas and Tierra del Fuego as being dull, ugly and boring.  They are simply different and their beauty is less obvious and I really liked our time through these areas from Puerto Natales to Ushuaia.

But I think it has been our interactions with people, from all parts of the world as well as locals, that have provided as much of our pleasure here as anything else.  On both trips we met so many amazing people from all walks of life and in so many different situations.  And it is the people who I remember most when I think of Patagonia.

I would be dishonest not to admit that one of the reasons we came back was to make it all the way to Ushuaia.  I am, I think, past the age of bucket lists but it felt good to ride through the gates into the city after turning back at Puerto Natales last time.

There is still much more that we can see in Patagonia, although, if there is a next time, I might want to do it in a vehicle just so that we can cover greater distances.  At the very least there is much more wildlife I would like to experience.  It would be great to visit the remnants of the Afrikaner communities at Sarmiento and Comodoro Rivadavia and interact with the younger generations who are re-learning the language of their great-grandparents.  And of course, there is the Calafate Berry ;-).

Perhaps we might ship our Landy over here one day.