Patagonia, Including The Falkland Islands (Moon), by Wayne Bernhardson

One the one hand, it is impossible not to celebrate the sheer ambition of a book that seeks to encourage travel to a sprawling and sparsely inhabited region of South America that includes the southern part of Chile and Argentina along with the Falkland Islands and provide worthwhile and useful travel recommendations to a great many of the cities, towns, and villages to be found throughout this massive and often remote region. It is impossible not to appreciate the obvious time and effort that went into the advice that this book gives travel routes, such as the immense distances of driving between cities and towns, the limited availability of housing in certain areas, the shoddy condition of roads in certain areas and the dangers that are faced by drivers, the unavailability of reliable buses and other forms of public transportation throughout the region, and the way that one could easily spend months trying to see the sites included in this book, especially if one was interested in hiking, trekking, and climbing. It is hard for the reviewer to do justice to the sheer bulk of material that is included in this book, and if one is planning a trip in this region, having this book may very well be a lifesaver in certain circumstances.

That said, on the other hand, sometimes the sprawl of this book sometimes gets away from the authors a bit and they do not always convey as much information about the logistics of how one can best navigate the masses of Patagonia that one might wish. What combination of hiring personal cars, traveling on ferries, flying, and traveling on other boats, works the best when it comes to seeing as much of the whole of Patagonia as possible? It is by no means easy or straightforward to answer such a question. At least from what can be read, some of the roads are of dreadful quality, poorly maintained and not even paved in large stretches. Some of the ferries can be delayed for days as a result of poor weather, and there is only one flight a week into and out of the Falkland Islands, it appears, on Saturdays. These and other factors hinder the ability to make sound travel plans in such a region and make scheduling of travel to be an immensely challenging undertaking. The book claims, reasonably, that a trip to Patagonia is a trip of a lifetime, and it is easy to agree with such a sentiment, but it is by no means a straightforward undertaking. The fact that this book portrays that accurately is commendable but by no means comforting. The one substantial recommendation I would make for the book is that the material at the end of the book is quite essential to understanding the context of travel in Chile and Argentina and should probably be placed towards the beginning of the book, rather than relegated to what is likely to be a seldom-read appendix.

In terms of its contents, this book is a sizable one at more than 600 pages. The book begins with some very basic suggestions for organizing a trip to the area with various possible schedules and itineraries, none of which really seemed to hit the spot for me personally. After that the book contains two chapters that discuss the sights, entertainment, shopping, food, accommodations, information and services, and transportation for either of the obvious places for one’s trip to the region to begin in either Buenos Aires or Santiago de Chile. This is followed by chapters that divide the area of Patagonia into regions. These regions include Northern Argentine Patagonia (including the coastal Rio Negro province, the Argentine lakes district, and the interior of Chubut province), the Chilean Lakes district (including Temuco, the upper Cautin and Biobio, Villarica, Pucon, Osorno, Puerto Octay, Puerto Varas, Puerto Montt, and the Chiloe archipelago), Aisen and Continental Chiloe (including Coyhaique and the northern and southern Carretera Austral), Southern Argentine Patagonia (including Coastal Chubut and Santa Cruze provinces, and northwestern Santa Cruze province), Magallanes (including Punta Arenas, Puerto Natales, and Chilean Tierra del Fuego), the Argentine Tierra del Fuego (including Ushuaia and the area of Rio Grande), as well as the Falkland Islands (including the area of Stanley, and the rest of East and West Falkland, respectively). After this the book contains a background to the area of Patagonia, including landscape, flora and fauna, culture, environmental issues, and the like, various essentials about getting there, getting around, and crossing borders and dealing with visas and travel tips, resources, including a short glossary and phrasebook, an index, and a list of maps.