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Patagonia Venture A gap year at the end of the worldMark Jarvis writes... "I was once asked in a pub quiz, 'what is the southernmost point of land on earth?' and like most people, I said it was the South Pole. Which is the wrong answer!  Last week I returned from Patagonia Venture, and I can now tell you that I’ve been there, the southernmost point of mainland Planet Earth, which is the tip of South America, the end of Patagonia, the start of Cape Horn.Sixteen of us met up in Lima and spent three weeks at a Spanish language school in the Andean town of Cusco. At over 3,000 metres it’s an experience just being there! A couple of beers in the Cross Keys, which is a great little bar on the central square, seem to work really well at that altitude! The language school I attended was established to teach local kids English, so that their employment opportunities were improved (the biggest employers in the Andes are the trekking companies, whose clients are westerners, hence the need for potential guides/porters to speak English). The fees we paid subsidised the local kids’ English lessons. In the afternoons they showed us around their home town and we picked up Spanish from them, while they picked up English from us. A fair exchange! After three weeks I certainly wasn’t fluent, but I had picked up enough Spanish to launch myself onto the locals and have a go! After four months in South America, I now have a confident working knowledge of Spanish, and that’s a real bonus to come home with.  Phase two was the project: we headed for the hills! The brief was to build a village meeting room and join a Polylepis reforestation programme. I now know that the Polylepis is a tough little mountain tree that only grows above 4,000m and is crucial to conserving high altitude Andean habitats. The trees have been wiped out over the past 70 years not just by demand for building materials but also as firewood. The important thing is that the local people have a major stake in replenishing this tree. So the deal was that they would gather seed and propagate the seedling trees, and we would come along and join the community to replant a mountainside. But in order to get the village community together to discuss the idea, we had first to build a room big enough to accommodate 90 people! The way to conserve the trees started with community and ended up on a bare mountainside! A fantastic four weeks and a unique opportunity to work so closely with a community that doesn’t use the wheel (the only wheel within hundreds of square miles was the one on the wheelbarrow we brought in!), has no electricity and no running water. Our final two months consisted of an expedition that started with the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu and led all the way along the spine of the Andes to... you guessed it, the southernmost point of the planet, Tierra del Fuego. Variety, that’s the word! This was the most varied nine weeks of my life; not just in the habitats and environments that we encountered, but in the towns and villages we explored, the means of transport that we used and above all, the bewildering tapestry of humankind that we met. The best thing about adventurous travel is the staggering variety of people you meet. What does 'everyday' mean to you? And compare that to 'everyday' for an Andean peaon, a bus driver in Patagonia, a fisherman on the Pacific coast or a market trader in Lima.I have had the opportunity to look beyond the horizon and have touched, albeit superficially, other people’s worlds. It’s a humbling experience; eye-opening; revealing on a number of different levels and quite simply, the best thing I’ve ever done. I like being a traveller." Mike Jarvis travelled with VentureCo on Patagonia Venture  Click here >> to find out more about this venture Click here >> for other ventures with VentureCo Click here >> to email VentureCo |
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