Sheep, llamas and wool in Patagonia

I’m posting after the event, which is probably a sin when it comes to blogging etiquette, but we (the one in the woolly hat) and myself travelled around South America without any electronic devices and with the bare essentials, meaning one medium sized backpack each. We had to rely on slow Internet connections so I became very happy being away from computers, hence why I’m doing this now.

We travelled in Patagonia from the end of January to the first two weeks of February. The place blew my mind. It was a hikers dream. But before getting swept away (almost quite literally) by it all we had to stock up on provisions and make sure that we were going to be warm enough. The wind even in the summer months is extreme. It would cut through you or almost knock you over, and the sound... Luckily there was wool everywhere to insulate against the cold air. 


There is long history of sheep trade dating from the late 1800’s in Punta Arenas. It’s not as prosperous as it used to be thanks to the Panama Canal. But we still passed rolling fields full of sheep, and catching a glimpse of the gauchos herd up hundreds of the beasts made it all the more real.

The hardest part about travelling light was not being able to buy small things like Patagonia wool, and to knit and crochet along the way, because I didn’t have anywhere to put it! So the closest I could get was seeing the ladies in the town square market making hats, scarves and all other woolly things. One of their hats coming in very handy over the next few months…