Patagonia

Patagonia stretches across the southern end of South America, from the Andean icefields to the dry plateaus and Atlantic coast. The eastern steppe is a land of strong winds and guanacos, while the mountains capture moisture arriving from the Pacific. Indigenous peoples, including the Aonikenk, lived and travelled across these contrasting landscapes long before Europeans reached the southern coast.

In 1520 Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition wintered at San Julián and met local inhabitants whom its chronicler called Patagones. The name subsequently came to be applied to the wider region. European ships continued to visit the coast and the strait that Magellan crossed later that year, but the interior remained the home of Indigenous communities whose territories and routes extended across the plateau.