Native People

On this post we will relate the second part of our last Route 40 tour from San Martín de los Andes to El Calafate with Ana, Pedro and Gaetano. South of Esquel Route 40 turns slightly to the east, moving away from the Andes mountain range and entering the immense and mostly flat Patagonian steppe. Even for the Argentinians this is a very unknown and almost uninhabited territory; there are no major towns and the only little ones are very distant one from the other. Most part of this apparently void land is privately owned, divided in huge estancias or ranches, separated by wire fences. When...

PAMPAS Generally speaking, Pampas are the native ethnic groups that lived on the big grasslands of the South American south cone. Over time several groups overlapped on this territory, so the term pampas is not very accurate and leads to frequent misunderstandings. The word “pampa” comes from the Quechua language, meaning plain; the Spanish who were coming from the Andean region after conquering Peru, called “Pampas” to the people living on those plains. These were the so-called “old Pampas” of “Het”, nomads who lived from haunting deer, rheas and guanacos. During the XVII...

Before the Spanish conquerors arrived to America and later, during the second half of the XIX century, the armies of the new estates of Argentina and Chile launched their military campaigns, Patagonia and the Pampas where populated by different indigenous Peoples. Those Peoples have historically being called under the generic term of “Mapuche”, or “Araucanians”, as the Spanish used to call them. Nevertheless, originally those Peoples we not a homogeneous group, but diverse Peoples that were slowly absorbed both culturally and militarily but the Araucanians, in a long process of more than...

Geography Lanín volcano, with a height of 3,776 m, is one of the highest peaks in Patagonia and an icon both for the Mapuche culture and the Neuquén province. It is located near the town on Junín de los Andes, on the border between Argentina and Chile. Three quarters of the volcano are on Argentinian territory, where it gives its name to the surrounding National Park, the Lanín National Park. The other quarter belongs to Chile, where is part of the Villarrica National Park.   Being in a relatively plain area, and surrounded by much lower mountains, Lanín is visible from very far away,...

A few days ago, together with our mates on Marta Caorsi´s Photography Workshop we went to explore the Malleo River banks and take some nice pictures. The Malleo River has its source on the Tromen Lake, at the foot of Lanín Volcano, and runs for more than 35 miles direction southeast to reach one of the most important rivers of the area, the Aluminé River. We had covered before the first part of the Malleo River, the one nearer its source, which is inside the Lanín National Park. The main attraction of this part of the river its being surrounded by Araucaria (Monkey Puzzle Tree) forests, some...

The Pehuén Region or Pehuén Route is a touristic route that covers the mountain area in the center-west of the Neuquén province, north of the Argentine Patagonia. The central theme of the route is the presence in this region of the only Araucaria (or Pehuén for the native Mapuches) forests in Argentina. The route links the three main touristic centers of the region: Aluminé, Villa Pehuenia and Caviahue-Copahue. Other towns like Zapala, Las Lajas and Loncopué are the points of access or stopover along the route.   The Monkey Puzzle Tree The Pehuén or Araucaria Araucana (Monkey...

A lot has been said and written about the origin of the word "Patagonia", so I will try here to walk through the different theories and legends on the matter. The word "Patagonia" comes from "Patagones", which was the name given by the Portuguese mariner Fernando de Magallanes to the native people found on that part of the world during his 1520 expedition. The goal of the Magallanes expedition was to reach the Indies opening a new route to the West, and the voyage concluded with the first circumnavigation of the Earth which was completed by his subordinate Juan Sebastián Elcano. The expedition...