Patagonia 2006

There is no more enjoyable way to extend your vacation than by spending several months reading about the history, culture, and literature of your destination. Here is a partial list of the books I have read in preparation for my upcoming vacation to Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego:

1. Charles Darwin: Voyage of the HMS Beagle. You can see he was thinking about evolution at this point, but he wasn’t there yet. A superb natural writer.
2. W.H. Hudson: Idle Days in Patagonia and Far Away and Long Ago. This Argentinean-born English naturalist is another discovery.
3. Richard Lee Marks: Three Men of the Beagle. Captain FitzRoy, Darwin, and Yahgan Indian Jemmy Button.
4. Antonio Pigafetta: Magellan’s Voyage. The journal kept by an Italian adventurer on Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe.
5. Jorge Luis Borges: The Aleph and Other Stories and Labyrinths, two masterpieces by Argentina’s greatest writer.
6. Félix Luna: A Short History of the Argentineans. A short survey.
7. Gerald Durrell: The Whispering Land. About collecting wild animals in Argentina for the author’s zoo in the Channel Islands. Very entertaining.
8. Eric Shipton: Land of Tempest and Tierra del Fuego: The Fatal Lodestone. Two exciting books by a world-famed mountain climber.
9. E. Lucas Bridges: The Uttermost Part of the Earth. About growing up with the Yahgan and Ona Indians in Tierra del Fuego. A masterpiece.
10. Julius Beerbohm: Wanderings in Patagonia. By the father of British author Max Beerbohm
11. Jasmine Rossi: The Wild Shores of Patagonia. Beautiful photos and well-written text.
12. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: Night Flight. Set in Patagonia, about a mail flight between Punta Arenas and Buenos Aires.
13. Luis Chiappe and Lowell Dingus: Walking on Eggs. About searching for dinosaur bones in Argentina.
14. Bruce Chatwin: In Patagonia. A highly recommended introduction.
15. George C. Musters: At Home with the Patagonians. A retired British army officer travels with the Tehuelche Indians of Patagonia. A compassionate and well-written book.
16. Jason Wilson: Jorge Luis Borges. A good short bio of the author.
17. George Gaylord Simpson: Penguins: Here and There, Then and Now. A fun read by the great paleontologist.
18. A. R. Tschiffely: This Way Southward. A long out-of-print narrative by an expert raconteur of a trip of car and horseback all around Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.