You could be alone here. Beautifully alone.
Patagonia is the continental Atlantis that humanity forgot to populate, where jagged mountain peaks shoot into the sky unbowed by millions of years of gale-force winds, and glaciers get bigger with time. This southernmost stretch of South America is one of few places left on earth that offers a genuine expedition experience. Despite being more popular now than ever, few have seen it. Far fewer have seen it the way I will.
I need no steed. Just a brand-new Subaru and the bare essentials: heated seats, navigation, and a simple support team consisting of two diesel Toyota Hilux pickup trucks, an SUV, a ferry captain and his small crew, three guides, a facilitator, a bodyguard, a man with an expense account, restaurant and resort reservations, unlimited tires, and a truck full of gas and sandwiches. Okay, so I?m no conquistador, but hear me out: If you?re able rent a car in Argentina, you won?t even get it over the border to Chile, and vice versa. Even if you had local citizenship and a local license?and somehow owned a car registered locally?you?d still need tires and crucially, gas. Regardless of how you make your way through Patagonia, you?ll probably start by flying into El Calafate, Argentina. Magellan described the native ?Patagon? as giants that towered twice as tall as humans. Upon arriving and being greeted by vistas of glowing turquoise lakes and an accompanying vastness of space, it?s easy to understand why he may have ass...