the beauty at the end of the world
Patagonia is not a land for wimps. I had been drawn to visit by a travel article that made the trip to Cape Horn sound like an adventure. The Australis team is very 
professional and you feel that you are in safe hands. It will be an adventure but draped in first world safety standards. Quite different to being trapped on a runaway elephant sans driver in the Thai jungle…
It was my first time on a zodiac though and I had seen enough of the Strait of Magellan by then to know I did NOT want to be in that water! First you are suited up in lifejackets. You then go through detailed instructions, which are repeated every time. It isn’t particularly difficult but you do need to follow the procedures to avoid tipping the raft. It’s an adventure for small-a adventure people. People who likely don’t swim with sharks, climb Mt Everest or paraglide over the Grand Canyon.
We all got on the zodiac without incident but everyone was pretty quiet and there wasn’t even a lot of photos being taken. No one wanted to tilt us into the Pacific Ocean. The zodiac driver employed only modest speed and tried not to scare us. I am always fascinated watching pampered first world travellers morph into greater adventurers. Even by the return trip to the ship, you could see people were relaxing on the zodiac and the driver gunned it once he knew we could handle it.
That was probably because the harder hike was indeed harder. By Navy Seal standards, a walk in a particularly pleasant park but we had been expecting something more 60+ friendly. Everyone made it but our tour leader just quickly led the way without paying too much attention if everyone was right behind her. There was enough elevation for heavy breathing and. in some places, you had to pull yourself up by grabbing a rope and making your way along its length, frequently through enough mud to destroy your footwear for any other future purpose.
It was all quite exhilarating and the view from the top made it totally worthwhile. And this is a luxury cruise, so all physical efforts are rewarded with hot chocolate, whiskey or both.
There is a lot of time on the ship to chill out – or be brave and take photos in the frosty air. I did a lot of the latter. Luckily, I grew up in one of the coldest places on the planet so freezing my fingers off for a photo seems a fair trade-off.
In the afternoon, we got to put our zodiac skills to use a second time. This time we just cruised around a couple of islands admiring cormorants and penguins. It’s always amazing to see wildlife in abundance IN THE WILD in our over processed modern world. Patagonia has done a good job of maintaining its natural splendor.
cormorants posing for tourists 😉
Part of the credit goes to Doug Tompkins, one of those rare local hero types who can actually turn money made from being a good businessman to money spent actually doing something good for the entire world. He was the guy who created, along with his first wife, The North Face and Esprit. He first travelled to Patagonia in the 1960s and in 1968 did a famous trip with Yvon Chouinard (founder of Patagonia Inc.) where they put up a new route on Mount Fitzroy. Growing disillusioned of the environmental impact of the fashion industry, he channelled his Esprit profits into conservation.
yes I know I’m cute 😉
He moved to Chilean Patagonia. At first, he explored the wilderness of the region, eventually setting up the Foundation for Deep Ecology, The Conservation Land Trust and Conservacion Patagonia. He also married Kristine McDivitt Wear who had been the CEO of Patagonia Inc. North Face meets Patagonia… quite the love story.
Not surprisingly, they both shared the same retirement goals – land conservation, environmental activism and biodiversity. Tompkins used his retail riches to buy up land in Patagonia to save it from mercantile uses. This land grab by a foreigner was regarded with suspicion by locals. He was at various points accused of being a spy, of buying up land to create a Zionist enclave, and of planning to ship Chile’s fresh water to parched lands overseas.
Instead, his goal was to turn the land into national parks working with the national governments of Chile and Argentina. It appears he has made great progress in convincing everyone that there is benefit for everyone in creating national parks in Patagonia along with wildlife protection, biodiversity and sustainable organic farming practices. It all sounds a little too good to be true but go to Patagonia and see for yourself. The end of the world is a stunningly beautiful place full of fresh air and star-studded skies.
Sadly Doug Tompkins died in 2015 while on what he thought was an easy kayaking trip with a bunch of old friends. No doubt it was probably a manner of death he would have chosen for himself. Kristine continues on their legacy and the future looks promising. According to The Guardian, the Chilean government announced the day after Tompkin’s death that Pumalín Park, one of Tompkins’ earliest acquisitions, would become a national park in March 2017 but the website suggests that it is already open.
Writing about Doug and Kristine is a great antidote to thinking about the US election and how most of the rich people spend their money. I am incredibly hard to impress but Doug Tompkins goes on the hero board. What a wonderful world it would be if this is what all billionaires did with their riches…
life on planetm 
calling all hipsters, wannabes and fans…
Or just people looking to check out new neighborhoods in London 😉 I grew up fairly poor by western standards in the 1980s. That decade became associated with Donald Trump, jerks on Wall Street and conspicuous consumption – and there was some of that. In many places, though, it was a decade of recession, runaway interest rates and social strife. That was the decade I lived in. It was a time when there were thrift stores instead of vintage boutiques and if your jeans had holes, it was because they were old and you couldn’t afford a new pair…
It was an interesting time and possibly one of the best decades in history in which to be young. I was fortunate to meet and date a lot of people who had a phenomenal impact on my life (many still part of it) and, without them, I would likely not even be IN London, let alone so much like a local that I was searching for new neighborhoods to keep the experience fresh.
I began the decade about as far from cool as one could be but, by happy accident and forcing myself to acquire better social skills, I inched a little further in that direction during a summer spent in Calgary. Calgary is hardly a major international center of chic but it was the biggest city I had ever lived in at the time and it was exciting. Toronto was even more exciting. My father was very well read so I knew about Bay Street but the idea that I was now WORKING on Bay Street. OMG! It was a childhood dream come true.
What was even better was that I had an amazing boyfriend who had grown up in the city and was a fan of indie rock back in the day when you whispered the names of bands like insider secrets. I still remember the party where someone said, “you need to listen to The Smiths. They are amazing”…
There was a lot of music to love in the 1980s but the most radical part that changed my life is that indie rock bands were poor so they played in scruffy venues rather than glossy stadiums. Long before the word gentrification was even coined, I was hanging out in the neighborhoods that would fall prey to it.
It’s made the new century very interesting for me. I will never be any part of the hipster universe but I hang out with them a lot because I love exploring cities and know that the east side (almost always…) is the more interesting place to be. I like character and action, living in the real future rather than the fake past.
If you are coming to London for the first time, the best place to hang out is the West End if you can afford the tariff. If you are looking for something cheaper but super comfortable, Earl’s Court is a popular option. If you are OK with a little edge – or have a tiny budget – head east to the London of Jack the Ripper and the working class.
beautiful graffiti
At minimum, stop by for dinner. That was my initial foray into Shoreditch. London is very old place. Shoreditch has been through several centuries of history and its star has risen and fallen. These days it is definitely on the rise. London is one of the great cities of the world. I have lost count of the number of times I have visited but it is so vast in both geographic size and scope of things to see and do that there are still plenty of things I have not yet done.
The first time I set foot in the city of London was 28 years ago. I got my first passport to visit my boyfriend who was travelling through Europe on an extended trip I couldn’t afford but I discovered the airfare to London wasn’t too bad so I could buy a backpack and make a short visit since we could sleep on the sofa at his Australian friends’ flat in Earl’s Court. Back then, it was best to just stick to an English cooked breakfast and fish and chips. Pretty much everything else was cooked to death and tasted a little like cardboard.
Luckily, I have found lots of reasons to continue to return to England’s capital so saw the rise of British cuisine first hand. For a long time now, I have been fortunate to have at least one friend living in London and it makes me an especially privileged tourist. We’ve been going to Shoreditch for dinner for a few years now so I decided it was time to see if I could STAY in Shoreditch and expand my knowledge of the city.
There are a few options. I decided to stay at the Hoxton. I would highly recommend it if you are comfortable with hipsters 😉 It’s very lively. They have done a
hangin at the hoxton
good job of being part of the neighborhood while catering to tourists and it’s packed on the weekend. I spent some time with my friends but was also at the hotel alone at points so could go into observation mode.
exploring the ‘hood
It was quite hilarious. In my normal life, I don’t spend a lot of time with hipsters so had not appreciated how little individuality there was. Practically everyone looked the same, especially the men. For sure, curated facial hair, often a man-bun. Expensive sneakers with little personality. Untucked shirt, invariably white but possibly black. Skinny jeans. It was a little creepy, like looking at a version of youth programmed as Stepford Wives.
While the concept of individuality may have gotten a little lost, there was a lot to like once you indulged in conversation. It’s a great bolthole from which to experience Shoreditch and environs.
We’ll continue the Shoreditch adventures… and eventually I will write more about London… but to get you started I am going to defer to TimeOut. I can vouch for Lyle’s and Andina. I have been using TimeOut guides for most of my adult life. I can’t remember if I discovered it in London or in New York City. Like so many things, it has gone from cool entrepreneurial quirk to ubiquitous corporate presence but it’s still one of the best resources for travellers who like the path less travelled…
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life philosophy, social commentary, travel stories
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