This is where I write “The End” on the story. Where trash turns to treasure, research to resolution, and vacation to fictional vision. Day 6, the final chapter of our Patagonian Journey. “The danger is greatest when the finish line is in sight… Be wary at the end.” –Steven Pressfield, The War of Art You…
Day 5, take 3. Today’s story highlights the climax of our Patagonian Journey in search of Swan Island Secrets. And though I’m the author, the plot twist is: Even I’m not sure how it’s all going to turn out. “The best stories are the ones with the unexpected plot twists that no one would have…
From here on, I’m completely in search of a story. As we drive over a daunting mountain pass from Queulat National Park to the seaside village of Puerto Cisnes, I lay aside my role as a tourist in the magnificent Chilean Patagonia…and become the writer bent on research. I drag my notebook out of my…
We’re winding down to the final frontier of our trip to northern Patagonia, where we’ve encountered more obstacles—rocky roads, falls, and delays—than opportunities to skip over steppingstones. On this last full day, we “sleep in” til 7:30! Perhaps it’s the lullaby of the rain pattering on the tin cabin roof. Even so, we take our…
Moving toward the climax of our whirlwind tour of Chile’s Region of Aysén, we continue to follow in the steps of the Patagones, South America’s “Bigfoot” people. With rain threatening for today, I’m pretty sure we’ll be leaving muddy footprints everywhere we go. But we awake to an almost-perfect, almost-summer morning at Mallín Colorado Lodge…
Are they really made of marble? That question comes up as our tour group makes its way to the renowned Marble Caverns. Yes and no, the guide explains. It depends whether or not the process is complete. Sometimes it’s an incomplete metamorphosis. After our long Day 3 drive, it’s past mid-afternoon when we finally reach…
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” So Charles Dickens began his novel of the French Revolution, and at this moment, I honestly can’t decide either… whether this trip to northern Patagonia will turn out the best or worst time of my life. So maybe it’s not the best time…
Will I be able to fulfill this ambitious agenda? I ask myself when the 6 a.m. alarm whines. After a fall a couple of evenings ago, I feel more like a decrepit gringa with delusions of grandeur than one of the intrepid women of the wilderness. I ache from head to toe before today’s leg…
This better be worth it, I think as I snap on a neon-orange life vest, complete with light and whistle. After all the time and trouble we took to get here, I’m expecting a bucket of benefits from this trip. Maybe too much. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who…
Today, we return to Patagonia. We’re still on the road from the Balmaceda airport to Puerto Chacabuco, the main port for Chile’s Region of Aysén. Day 1, continued. We’ve just crossed a river named for Frigate Captain Enrique Simpson Baeza, a British-Chilean naval officer and explorer who mapped the archipelagoes and fiords of Aysén aboard…
The Republic of Chile’s national anthem trumpets a hymn of praise to the country’s stunning pastoral beauty—boasting blue skies, pure breezes, and fields bordered with flowers. This “happy copy of Eden” lies cradled between its God-given bulwark of majestic white mountains and the tranquil sea that bathes its coasts and promises future splendor. Dulce patria……
