I woke up about an hour and fifteen minutes into my flight with the sneaking suspicion that outside my drawn shade lay a feast for my eyes.  And there they were, the incredibly imposing Andes washed in morning light, long shadows cast westward toward the Pacific.  Breathtaking.  In less than a day I will be  dancing at their base. 

My travels over the next ten days will take me south to Tierra del Fuego, near waters where Magellan once sailed, up through the windswept plains and craggy granite peaks of Patagonia, and on to the volcanic rock shores of the Lakes District.  I am set to partake in a host of activities including hiking, mountain biking, sea kayaking, whitewater rafting and alpine napping.  To say I am excited would be a gross understatement.

In preparation I picked up a book called "Patagonia: History, Myths and Legends."  I’m only through the first chapter but contained in those pages Charles Darwin refers to this part of the world as as "a cursed land" and seaman Antonio de Cordoba calls it "the most wretched part of the earth."  This information would have been useful about a month ago!

As I read on I was a bit more comforted by the words of explorer Ramon Lista who said "everything here stirs our deepest emotions: sometimes it is the sad barrenness of the plains; or the magnificent chaos of it’s mountains."  So at least I got that going for me, which is nice.