Patagonia is an actual place?...

jamieheuler
Mar 23, 2018
2 min read

I'm sure the majority of you have heard of Patagonia... the brand. But as I was preparing for a week away from my Remote Year itinerary and was telling friends and family that I was headed to Patagonia, I was frequently confronted with the question - 'Patagonia is an actual place?' Well, a region to be exact.

The region of Patagonia includes the southernmost tip of South America - this means, it spans across both Argentina AND Chile. The Andes mountains divide the two countries and present some of the most incredible hiking along country borders. In fact, this hiking landscape is what inspired the founders of Patagonia (the brand) to name the company after the region and design the logo based on the Fitz Roy peak. If you're a Patagonia-loving groupie like me (thanks dad), I would highly recommend listening to the How I Build This podcast interviewing the founder of Patagonia - Yvon Chouinard.

So when my Remote Year itinerary took us to South America for six months, it was a no-brainer that I would be dipping out for a week to visit Patagonia. It took a few weeks of research to decide on which area of this region I would visit, but finally landed on the Argentinian-side towns of El Calafate and El Chalten.

I set off on this week-long hiking adventure with three friends from my program - Daire, Ryan and Stanley. I won't even begin to attempt to describe this trip for fear of overusing adjectives such as stunning, incredible, beautiful, breathtaking, etc... I'll let the photos talk this time.

Day 1 - Hike to Fitz Roy Peak