"A row which is the curve!”, I shouted to my comrades and eagerly returned to take the boat to the middle of the river. "How much we?"I asked one of them. I surprised GPS, separated us only ten minutes by boat from the enigmatic Basalt Glen Fitz Roy.
For some reason a few years ago I had been attracted to the story of Darwin and Captain Fitzroy of exploring the Santa Cruz River, in Patagonia on. The milky blue river betrayed that the origin of the water ice age. It crossed the arid Patagonian steppe without their waters generate a green corridor. The River, or the glacier that originated, excavated a valley about five miles wide on the plateau. There were no roads, or bridges or any town in the valley. Result, it stayed like when those early explorers visited.
And 1834 the Beagle should be repaired, captain, Robert Fitz Roy, found that the Santa Cruz River estuary was the place to do it. Its nine meter tides leave you stranded allowed to dry on the pebble beach. While the ship was repaired, Captain and a score of men that included the naturalist Charles Darwin, left in three boats to explore the river's. They suspected they would find a large lake at the foot of the Andes to blue glaciers which descended. Departed Thither, but he soon current and wind prevented them from sailing west. They had to tow the boats from the winding coast. As they moved carefully wrote down everything that looked, Indian camps, hills, animals, crossing points, etc..
The days passed and the river was becoming more sinuous. I could see the Andes on the horizon but the portions were calculated for twenty days. Fitz Roy feared that such a step in llegarían al lake I wanted to find out.
As the group moved the artist drew everything he saw. One of his images was an engraving called Basalt Glen. The days passed and the river was becoming more sinuous. I could see the Andes on the horizon but the portions were calculated for twenty days. Fitz Roy feared that such a step in llegarían al lake I wanted to find out.
My intention was to reproduce exactly the journey of the English but the logistics manager showed me that it was very difficult to raise the river upstream. I suggested doing the opposite, downloading at Engine, driven only by water and our oars. It would be much more enjoyable because we would quietly, without disturbing the environment and with many more opportunities to see wildlife.
Since they ran more than a day before having to take back. Fitz Roy took the side of the valley and saw that the river was meandering. He decided to leave the boats custody and go straight westward double time in a last attempt to discover the lake somewhere nearby sensed. They could only move to noon because then they would have to stop to calculate the latitude with the maximum height of the sun. They left at dawn. They walked at speed but the lake ... nothing. At noon they stopped near a lift. The went to see if from the top you could see the lake, but ... nothing. Fitz Roy named the plain in front of them as "Plain disappointment". They took the coordinates and scored with the name "Western Station" for being the most westerly point of the scan. They returned to the boat and within two days were back on the Beagle.
I could verify that after almost three weeks of ascending the river, Darwin and Fitz Roy were just two hours walk from the lake who wanted to discover.
On the first day of our trip we put the boat in the water almost on Lake Argentino and let go for a while until the GPS told me we were very close to Western Station. We went to the coast and three of us walked to where we indicated the satellites. In the exact place we put a plaque commemorating the passage of those notable explorers. I could verify that after almost three weeks of ascending the river, Darwin and Fitz Roy were just two hours walk from the lake who wanted to discover. But the place was not exactly as I had described the Captain. We were on top of the mentioned ripple. I figured calculated with sextant coordinates should not be exact. A sudsudoeste a mile from where we had a mound but did not have time to explore the dark. We returned to the boat and continue our journey.
For six days camped in several places where they had done more than 170 years before and found that the area was just as they had described. As we identified locations and comparing the coordinates persistently noticed that there was a difference of 1500 meters between the calculations of Fitz Roy and my GPS. Also find the Glen Basalt they had drawn and took a picture identical to the old engraving. They were unforgettable days we go through a wonderful area without finding a single person.
More than forty years after the British expedition, Francisco Moreno Argentine naturalist redid their journey through the Santa Cruz. Alerted by the experience of previous explorers led a herd of horses that could tow their boats.
We returned the following year determined to remake the way Moreno, this time with an SUV. The trip started where they left Darwin and Fitz Roy, Western Station, where we had left the plate. From there I made the correction I had found in the old coordinates and this led me to the promontory. The climb. Incredibly, even though the lake is only six kilometers, field ripple hides it. They matched each other all the story of Darwin. The mountains on the horizon looked exactly the same as in the image of Beagle cartoonist. We were exactly in the place where the expedition had turned ingleso.
Brown, not only llegó the lake, but felt very close to the source of the Santa Cruz river also drains very mighty, La Leona called. He noted that the Santa Cruz and La Leona are aligned, almost as if it were the same river drowned only by the edge of the lake. Moreno remontó The Lion,we also.
In the five years of the voyage of the Beagle, Fitz Roy baptized over a hundred rivers, mountains and lakes, many with the names of the crew, but not one of these places took its name
In the five years of the voyage of the Beagle, Fitz Roy baptized over a hundred rivers, mountains and lakes, many with the names of the crew, but not one of these places took its name as this was frowned upon in the British Admiralty. That was one of the greatest explorers of the southern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego was the most forgotten place names.
Moreno up the river La Leona and found that this was born in another lake called Viedma. Two things he was called from the shores of Viedma. One was a huge glacier that reached the water and lots of icebergs discharged, and the other was a huge mountain, shaped lighthouse. Its almost vertical slopes were massive stone. Moreno had just discovered a very special hill should be baptized.
We camped near the base. By then I was writing my book "The betrayal of Darwin", had an idea for the cover. I woke up very early to take a picture of this wonderful hill with the first ray of sunshine. The nearby stream it took a stone brought from the hill. I decided to take her to one day leave on Fitz Roy's grave. At the end of the day he never learned that Moreno called one of the most famous mountains in Patagonia with the name of Fitz Roy.
PD: Regrettably progress once again play tricks on us and which project two dams that will flood the beautiful Santa Cruz River valley. With the levees not only stop flowing this river flood but also the habitat of many species of flora and fauna and also countless archaeological sites will be lost without even being studied.
Contacto@GerardoBartolome.com
Gerardo Bartolomé traveler and writer is. To learn more about him and his work go to www.GerardoBartolome.com
