WHO: ASSOCIATE EDITOR AISLYN GREENE

DURATION: 10 DAYS

SOUVENIR: A BONE-WHITE ALPACA THROW

“Mendoza, Santiago, Patagonia—going in, I knew my trip down the spine of South America would be a wild, compressed ride. Less than three hours after landing in Mendoza, Argentina, I was standing in the vineyard behind the Entre Cielos hotel, harvesting (but really just eating) the malbec grapes they turn into wine. Four days later, I was feasting on foie gras crème brûlée at Ambrosía, one of the best restaurants in Santiago, Chile. By day eight, I was in Chilean Patagonia, 1,786 miles from my starting point. I huddled on the docks of the Singular Patagonia, a magnificent hotel that overlooks the Fjord of Last Hope, awaiting my turn to climb into a tour boat. We were glacier-hunting that day, cruising through channels carved by ice, hiking to prehistoric sheets of ice, drinking whiskey chilled with chunks of glacial ice. That afternoon, on the way back to the Singular, we stopped for lunch at La Peninsula Estancia. Everyone calls Patagonia the end of the earth, but as we touched just-shorn wool and watched eagles hunt, it felt more like we had returned to the beginning.” 112

AFAR

JULY/AUGUST 2016

AISLYN GREENE; LETTERING BY A. SALAMANDRA

JUST BACK FROM