Gerardo Bartolomé has narrated in VAP the "soul" and history of Patagonia for years. Clearly, The Argentine is one of the researchers who knows that land and who has written more books about it. We intend to organize a route guided by him at the end of 2026 or beginnings of 2027 For Patagonia. Our small artisanal agency offers only routes through places that we know very well and where we can capture our traveling philosophy. But plans are just that, planes, Until they materialize, And while we work on them, we leave them some of the best stories we have posted from Bartolomé on that land. Thus they can calibrate the level of the person who composes and guide the route.
Over 150 years, Argentina and Chile fought the Andes of Patagonia. Complaints, charges, traps and even threats were used on dozens of issues in dispute. Along with my wife went to visit one of the most controversial points of this frontier. This is a very special lake, because it sits on a huge steppe forming a lengthy hiatus in the mountains. The two countries had agreed that the border but would Andes, and there ... Where are the mountains? Only it is an undulating plain sterile.
The Agreement 1881 proposed the criterion to determine the border by the high peaks or watershed. In the absence of peaks that should define where the water drained at Pacific territory belonged to Chile, where he drained at Atlantic corresponded to Argentina. To the despair of the early explorers Argentine, that lake and the entire surrounding area emptied into the Pacific, so that would correspond to Chile. That was the thing 1896.
We lined up our van to stay on the side now belongs to Argentina, looking to meet where occurred one of the most amazing tricks in the history of Patagonia: Phoenix River theft.
We rode near the shore, guided by a gaucho knows the area, a local guide, We sought chenques, Indian graves. Over the afternoon the horizon, on the west it was a violet staining. "It's the wind that lifts the ashes of the volcano." Said the gaucho. What volcano?
"It was terrible." Said the owner of the field. And 1991 a distant Chilean volcano, el Hudson, erupted. The west wind perpetual, no mountains that curb, brought rain of ash that covered the Patagonia to the Atlantic Ocean, nearly four miles away. Surrounding the lake is a blanket of ash deposited three feet thick. Killed all the sheep. In the nearby village of Old succumbed to the weight of the ceilings and most of the people had to be evacuated. On the Chilean side and steered embalsaron ashes rivers, isolated buried houses and left many settlers. Many years it took to recover from the terrible zone eruption.
We continue our journey along the lake, its shore lined with small stones floating. Floating Stones?? Yes sir. Pumice
And 1896 Francisco Moreno, known as the Perito Moreno, explored the area. He worried that this steppe could be left to Chile by a small factor: the only thread of water in the area, River Phoenix, zigzagged but instead of being carried away by the general slope of the ground and head into the Atlantic, inexplicably bent towards the west into the huge lake. Moreno had been admitted to the Chilean land to make sure a thing, that lake emptied into the Pacific. And this steppe reads correspond to Chile? "By no means!"Must have thought the Perito, and devised a bold and patriotic action but unscrupulous.
We continue our journey along the lake, its shore lined with small stones floating. Floating Stones?? Yes sir. Pumice. It was once incandescent stone thrown by the volcano, cooled rapidly to, internally generated so many pores that air contains more stone. Fleet because it is lighter than water. In its last eruption Hudson had not thrown stones, only ashes. It was clear that there had been many eruptions in the geological history of the area.
Shortly after passage of the Perito a group of Welsh settlers, specialize in the construction of canals, went to work in the very place that Moreno had indicated. Shoveled for a few days to finish the job. Now the Phoenix river flowed eastward to the Atlantic ....
The gray floor clearly told us that the ashes were to blame and trees on the old channel allowed us to calculate that this was due to a rash
On the Chilean side still looking for evidence of ancient eruptions of Hudson and its effect on the area. A dead forest, drowned by another river which nature had changed course. The gray floor clearly told us that the ashes were to blame and trees on the old channel allowed us to calculate that this was due to an eruption ago, at least, eighty years.
But if River Phoenix was different, had not been diverted by the volcano ... There was a diplomatic scandal when a Chilean expedition discovered the ruse Argentinean and it ended in an arbitration against the British crown. The English king sent a man experienced imperial army that crossed the area with a representative from each country. Colonel Robert Holdich confirmed that the river had been diverted artificially. The Perito Moreno did not deny, was impossible to do, but he defended himself saying that having diverted the river with as little work showed that ash from an eruption could easily change the course of the river. Perhaps, ventured, in its history the river had run to the Atlantic and to the Pacific alternately. Holdich the miró serious; there was evidence of large amount of eruptions. Moreno further risked: The lake is in an unstable equilibrium; the ashes of a major eruption could close the drain and do drain west into the Atlantic. According to the Perito, there, due to the instability of the area, had to discard the watershed approach and apply a more Solomonic. Without giving your opinion Holdich returned to England to write his report.
Finally, our journey around the lake took us to a place with large blocks of semi submerged caverns showing Gothic forms. We were in Marble Chapel. A boat approached us rocks. Up close you could see that the water had eroded the stones. How? The eruptions throw huge amounts of sulfur in the lake water and eat it chemically generating marble cathedrals such strange ways. It was clear that the Hudson threw ashes for thousands of years.
And 1904 Sir Robert Holdich read British award that defined most of the Argentine-Chilean border lengthy. At this point of contention was the decision to split the lake in the middle. The English had accepted the thesis Argentina. To avoid further discussions at the same lake were given different names on either side. For Argentine waters were called Lake Buenos Aires while Chilean waters were called Lago General Carrera.
Back in Buenos Aires consulted with geologists. They assured me that modern observations showed that the River Phoenix had never flowed into the Atlantic. The Perito Moreno hypothesis was not true ... but it served to convince Holdich.
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Gerardo Bartolomé traveler and writer is. To learn more about him and his work go to www.GerardoBartolome.com
