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Category Archives: Patagonia
Will we miss it? BAD2009
It begins with a crack in the formidable Patagonian glacier. A fissure appears as the ice shifts, slides, moves onward. Exposed beneath the white surface is the cool blue of ice, compressed over the years. Newly exposed, beaten by the sun, it begins to melt, the fissure widens, deepens. It happens quickly, without warning, no map, no way to know where to see such beauty. We walk the ice, trek the seracs looking for the birth of blue.
But, will we miss it?
The blue fades, retreats, pulls back from humanity. Its beauty lost to the generations that come. Photographs remind us, but we can not touch the ice, feel the cool blueness, run out hands over the rough, wind pocketed outer-surface or slide between the icy peaks. The intricate beauty of abstract forms, of cracks in the ice, of water so cool, so clear, so pure, gone. Restricted to two-dimensional paper, bits and bytes of the computer. A grandness reduced to numbers, reduced to being filed away and a faded memory.
but, will we miss it?
Water escapes us, we thirst. The glaciers that supplied our water and our lives are gone. Melted. Less snow, more heat, no accumulation, no rebirth. The fissure widens, deepens. But it is not the birth of blue that arrives. It is the death of the glacier. One crack at a time. It is the death of us. One drop of water at a time. Melting.
Yes. We will miss it.
______
The point and purpose of Blog Action Day 2009 is to bring awareness to climate change. With over 7,000 bloggers registered, the electric ether seeks to correct our ignorance and obstinacy. To keep us from ignoring the signs, from losing such integral parts of our planet as a glacier.
We will miss it.
When the glaciers are gone, we will miss them. For their beauty, for their water, for their climate control.
So what can we do before we miss it, before we miss our opportunity? December 7th, 2009 in Copenhagen many in the world, including some of our leaders will gather for the United Nations Climate Change Conference where they will be negotiating to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is our opportunity.
Tell them we will miss it. The glacier. The water. The beauty.
I have no head for numbers. I see blue fields of ice, not the rate of retraction. I see awesome peaks of accumulated snow, not the decrease in precipitation. But after touching it and trekking it, I know I’ll miss it. But if you want the maps and percentages and the stuff that should give us all nightmares, download the Greenpeace Argentina report, Futuro Negro para los Glaciares (obviously written in Spanish).
And don’t miss it.
Below are a small selection of images I’ve taken throughout Patagonia. If just to remind you of the beauty we’d all miss.
IPA Awards
This is one in the series of five images I entered. My favorite by far.
Two posts in one day makes for an active Friday.
This email from the International Photography Awards arrived just under two weeks ago.
Congratulations. Your entry ‘The Birth of Blue ‘ has advanced through the second round and is now in the third and final round of the jurying process. Your entry is now an official Honorable Mention of the 2009 International Photography Awards.
I did not make it any further, but I’m very glad to have made it this far. You can check out the final winners here.
The Birth of Blue
Recently I partnered with Wallblank to sell one of my images. Actually I had contacted them about a month or so ago with some samples and then received an email Sunday evening asking me if I could have an image ready to go by Monday morning. Not a problem, but that also means titling it and writing a description. Many years in newspapers and countless editors ‘politely’ reminding me of deadlines serves a purpose still. I love being creative on deadline (and no, I’m not being sarcastic).
From that was born The Birth of Blue. One image available for sale which lead to a series of images all taken while trekking several glaciers in Patagonia this past March 2009.
The surreal dreamy quality most appeals to me in this series and my focus was to be more abstract.
The Birth of Blue is the hint of blue in some images, the overwhelming blue of others. It is the color of the sky, the color of compressed ice, the color of hidden lagunas, the color of dreams…
Patagonia 2
I have more images from my recent trip south. Some are not the Patagonia you would like to see.
Roaming through El Calafate, TJ and I came upon the city dump. The winds in Patagonia are well known for their ferocity and frequency. Trash does not stay put, but instead has collected for as far as I could see in fences and bushes.
On the plus side when we went to the local supermarket they no longer give you plastic bags for your goceries. You bring your own or grab a box. In the stores we were also given paper bags, not plastic.
I guess you have to start somewhere.
Patagonia
I love this area of the world. I don’t know what it is about Patagonia exactly, but it has a part of my soul. It might be the allure of such a wild place located somewhere at the bottom of the earth, or memories from childhood stories of adventurers trekking the mountains and ice. The weather is unstable, beautiful sun one moment followed by clouds driven in by the whipping winds bringing a storm of sideways rain. The earth smells of cool dampness and the trees, stunted, broken and growing at angles speak to the ferocity of the weather.
I spent hours at the Laguna de los Tres watching Fitz Roy wrap and unwrap a cloak of clouds from its peak. They would move in, swirl about, touch the top of the mountain before moving on into the valley. I saw the sun rise over Cerro Torre, the beautiful cool blue color of the earth just before dawn. I walked across ancient glaciers, moving ice hiding crystal blue lagunas among the jagged seracs.
Patagonia might even incite me to write bad poetry. I’ll spare you however.
El Calafate and El Chalten are tourist destinations, definitely. El Chalten was more trekking oriented, with a harder core group of hikers and climbers. With Fitz Roy and the amazing network of trails almost everyone there is out to be physical, to hike hard and probably spend a day getting truly soaked Patagonian style. The town itself, a one road sort of place doesn’t have much but a few decent restaurants, a pub and and assorted cafes. The town seems to be under constant construction with multiple buildings in different stages. Many look half finished and abandoned. On others, workers would brave the Patagonian winds while traversing rooftops. The cost of food is high, the wine not cheap and vegetables in short supply. I was told by one shop keeper veggies are delivered on Wednesdays and you can’t find a tomato anywhere in town by Sunday.
El Calafate is all about souvenirs and excursions. The main street goes something like this: t-shirt shop, tour group, chocolate shop, tour group, leather shop, tour group, souvenir shop selling t-shirts, chocolate and leather goods, tour group. Don’t eat on the main drag unless you’re willing to pay 85 pesos for a bottle of wine you can buy in Buenos Aires for 20 and it is near impossible to get out of town unless you’re on a tour or renting your own car. Granted the Big Ice tour is worth the 520 pesos. All of it. But the next option on the list is either pay to go to an estancia for the day or pay to spend a day on the boat tour, described by one of the Big Ice guides as full of viejos. But then again, that is the only way to see the Upsala glacier and icebergs. The idea of not being able to do much in El Calafate without paying was either marketing genius or a grave over-site in urban planning. So many beautiful places nearby, but none I could do without a tour group.
Lest I completely negate the usefulness of either place I will say the cordero (lamb), especially at Mi Viejos in El Chalten was the perfect protein to follow a 28km trek. Perhaps I was still delirious from the pain after traversing miles of moraine to get to the Cerro Torre glacier, but I have never had cordero from the asado so satisfying. It was coupled with one of the best salads, full of beet root, lettuce, corn, carrots, tomatoes… even more of an accomplishment knowing the veggie shortage that exists in El Chalten. And in El Calafate the bar Borges along the main drag was a favorite watering hole. The people watching is priceless and we were treated to young women in full leg braces, older men and women in winter clothing that have never seen winter, teenagers in metal t-shirts and rugged men, disheveled around the edges. And if you’re a single woman (or not, who am I to say), you go to lust over the guides and generally gawk at the mountain men. My traveling companion, TJ (you can see her blog here), and I were giddy schoolgirls at some points and probably enigmas for many of the guides. We rarely encountered Argentine women while trekking unless they were with their boyfriends or husbands and none seemed to be having a good time. In contrast, and probably due to the oxygen being diverted from our brain to our muscles on the long treks, we were high, mostly energetic and taking in all the sights nature saw fit to offer.
Working out in the desert near Ridgecrest, California for an assignment one of the long-time desert dwellers told me that if you burn-up a pair of shoes in the desert you’ll be back. I never understood this sentiment for the desert. I still don’t, but that is because the desert touched him and not me. Patagonia has however and I plan to burn-up plenty of shoes.
Some photos from the trek:
Premiere of "Couch to Couch"
WHO: Caitlin Margaret Kelly, photographer, anthropologist,
global traveler
WHAT: Premiere of “Couch to Couch”
WHEN: Saturday, 21 June, 8 p.m. – 11:30 p.m
WHERE: Locally in Buenos Aires, email me for directions
OR online here on June 21st.
WHY: Caitlin explains,
“What do nearly all of the 6.7 billion people on
Earth have in their homes? If not an actual piece of
furniture, most of us have a space in our home and
lives that is our couch.”
“If the human race is going to survive all of the
political blunders, ignorance and obstinacy of this
world it will be through networks like the Couch
Surfing Project, which make it possible for people to
connect on an individual level. Suddenly, the
foreigner overseas is a friend, the other is the same
and by sleeping in someone else’s home a fundamental
change occurs in the collected atoms that make up
ourselves.”
“It’s where family, friends and strangers gather.
It is an exchange of sleeping space and ideas.
Travelers need only bring an open mind, a willingness
to share a meal and perhaps offer to clean the dishes.
It is through these experiences a foreigner becomes
less so.”
PROJECT SUPPORT: Proceeds from photo sales will be
used to publish mobile content related to couch
surfing as cultural exchange. In turn, proceeds from
the sale of the mobile content will help support
not-for-profit cultural and educational exchange
programs.
RSVP PREFERRED: Reply to this email and forward as you
wish.
(This show is unaffiliated with the CS Project or any
other couch-surfing group.)
* * *
“I believe that my couch is here to be offered
and shared with all those people who posses free
spirit and are open to know other cultures.”
– Yanina Barreto, couch-surfer and host in
Ushuaia.
Back in Buenos Aires!!!
I told you I would not be a prolific blog writer and I am doing my best to keep my word. I’ve been on the road through Patagonia for the past 6 weeks. Oof. How incredible! Go… really, take the time. Find it. Make it. I don’t know how bloggers who write daily ever get to actually experience anything if they’re constantly writing. I’d rather be out in the world. I’m selfish that way. But that also means you don’t have to put up with daily dribble as to what I had to eat, where I slept, etc…
So, over the next week or so I’ll be recounting some of the trip and posting some photos. I bagged the digital gear because it is heavy and I was lugging this crap on my back. I brought my point and shoot digital and my Mamiya 645 with the only lens I have, an 80mm. I thought it was time I tried thinking like an artist and not always as a journalist. We’ll see after the film is developed if that worked at all.
I thought I’d start by sharing my most recent thoughts, since the torture is so fresh in my mind. (None of these accounts will be in any sort-of chronological order I suspect.)
A BRIEF LIST OF WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU’RE STUCK ON A BUS FOR 24 HOURS (or modern day torture/transportation)
10. Contemplate all the horrible ways of repaying the person who created the music video compilations shown to the passengers: think videos of Fame, Flashdance, Grease and Top Gun… over and over and over again.
9. Sleep in 5min intervals. The trick is to string 12 or more together at one time.
8. Use the mystery meat dinner you were given to practice the forensic skills you’ve learned from CSI.
7. See how long you can ‘hold it’ before you break down and use the onboard facilities. Then time yourself to see how fast you can pee so you don’t find it necessary to breathe while you’re in there.
6. Practice bus seat yoga. (while putting #9 to use)
5. Stare at the Styrofoam cup your coffee came in to see if you can figure out how it is constructed… which according to Wikipedia, Styrofoam, trademark by Down Chemical Company, was originally invented by the Swede C.G. Munters and is extruded polystyrene, or a closed cell foam that resists moisture, thus it can be used for building materials, pipe insulation and craft products among other notable uses. In addition, the general public misuses the word Styrofoam (shame on you! capitalized because it is a trademark) thus next time you ask for your coffee to go, ask for the polystyrene thermal insulation cup instead.
4. Continuously hum the theme to the Twilight Zone as you stare out the window at darkness while traveling through the boonies of Argentina at 3am.
3. Draft a letter to Steve Jobs informing him of the pressing and immediate need for an everlasting iPod battery.
2. Strike up a conversation with the Argentine beside you. Recognize quickly that your inability to understand his accent will make him repeat every sentence a minimum of three times until you are both too exhausted to talk about anything but the weather.
and once you’ve mentioned it is soooo dark out for the nth time…
1. Snore loudly. This is always fun because that means you’ve mastered #9 and #6 to get some sleep and as an added bonus you’re entertaining your seat mates as well.
cheers.
Wow, I suck at this blogging thing
Has it been a month since I penned any witty phrases? I guess so, witty or not. This post won’t change much of the status quo however. I just wanted to let people know I’m heading south for 4 to 6 weeks. I plan on roaming the Argentine and Chile countryside through the southern Andes and into Patagonia. I kept asking myself why would I stay cooped up in a city and miss exploring South America? So I’m off for a little bit of camping, a little bit of couchsurfing, hosteling when I have to pay for it and a whole lot of hiking. My initial bus ride will be about 20 hours. I’m not looking forward to that. I’ll be camping in Parque Lanin – a volcano – and I am most certainly looking forward to that. Ofcourse I’m brining cameras. I just wish they were lighter. Packing less clothes for the sake of a camera or two and maybe that extra lens. I’m okay with being a bit smelly for awhile. I also hear there are great rivers in the lakes region. I think the highlights of the trip will be the time in El Bolson, the hippy capital of Argentina and El Chalten the glacier. I’ll let you know if I’m right.
Cheers,
C
Argentina, Buenos Aires, Patagonia, South America
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