Patagonia Diaries
Reflections from a long roadtrip
Patagonia Diaries is a series of posts based on the trip that I describe in this post. The following posts are (updating as they come):
When I was one, my parents put me in the back of their Nissan Frontier and drove from Belo Horizonte, our hometown, all the way to Ushuaia, the world’s Southernmost city, and back.
It took a bit over a month and they drove for over sixteen thousand kilometers all in all.
I don’t remember a single thing from the trip, but somehow I feel it left a profound impact on me.
I love driving and I love mountains, and I wonder if being exposed so intensely to all of that as a kid was what makes these things feel appealing and comfortable.
It’s an extension somehow of my point about the importance of seeing things, which I wrote about on Eiger Dreams.
An extension because I feel like even without having any recollection of it, seeing all those impressive mountains as a kid made me want to climb them as an adult.
Either way, the trip took a bit of a mystic aspect in our home growing up. Despite my parents having gone through many adventures and traveled a fair bit, the Patagonia trip was brought up regularly and served as an inspiration for me growing up.
To many, my parents were crazy for bringing me along. I’m glad they did.
Now, as I sit here writing this, I’ve just come back from a repeat of the trip.
For the longest time we’ve all wanted to do the trip again (all being my parents, me, and also my younger brother, who was not part of the original trip). It was hard to figure out schedules with mine and my parents’ work and my brother’s studies, but this year, two-and-a-half decades later, we set off to follow mostly the same path as back then.
The trip was intense, but also a lot of fun. It taught me a lot too.
I set off with a few questions, like “what the fuck is going on in Argentina” — and came back with some answers and also a lot of other questions.
And this is what I’ll be writing about in this Patagonia Diaries series.
It was hard to find time to write given we were either on the road for 12h a day or doing 9h hikes on the non-driving days, but my phone’s notes are filled with bits and pieces that range from the economy of our Southern neighbor to thoughts on how I want to be doing travel from now on.
Hopefully these reflections make for an interesting read, but if not, I’m sure they’ll at least inspire you to visit some of the places we went to.
Be right back, Carnaval has started.
would love to read more