Patagonia: At the Bottom of the World

Rating:
Summary: Especially good for info on Charles Darwin's Journey
Review: Fabulous non-fiction Adventure. Lutz combines historical and geographic reference with his own personal tales of trekking to Tierra del Fuego. Especially good information on Charles Darwin's voyage of the Beagle, the animal life and fauna, and the native cultures.

Particularly interesting is the information on the now extinct native Fuegian tribes that once roamed the area who some believed to be a near sub-species of Homo Sapiens, perhaps Late Cro-Magnom or even Neandertal. Actually, I would have liked to see even more in-depth info on this badly neglected topic.

Also, good info on the Argentinian and Chilean villages that dot the region which could prove very helpful to travelers. Great photos. Fantastic cover art. Though, there are a few typographical errors here and there. Could be cleaned up a bit for a second edition.

Eric Dondero, Author, Worldwide Multilingual Phrase Book

Rating:
Summary: Cut and Paste
Review: I bought this book hoping it would help me in planning my upcoming trip to Patagonia - no such luck. Basically, Chapter One contains the author's dryly written noodlings from his trip diary - which, by the way, follows the typical tourist trail itinerary that your local travel agent could beat after putting in 45 minutes of research. The rest of the book has the quality of downloads from the web and excerpts from pamphlets left over from museum visits. Maybe the book was just the author's half-hearted attempt to recoup some of the cost of his trip (good for him, bad for me). Wow! What a waste of time.

Rating:
Summary: Patagonia: At the Bottom of the World
Review: I thought this book was very poorly written and leaves much to be desired. There are few details that I found enlightening and enjoyable. I would not recommend this book to anyone seeking a true glimpse of this region. For the true adventurers, do not buy this book, save your money. For those wanting to learn more about the region, I am sure there are better books out there that will better prepare you for a visit.

Rating:
Summary: Patagonia: At the Bottom of the World
Review: I thought this book was very poorly written and leaves much to be desired. There are few details that I found enlightening and enjoyable. I would not recommend this book to anyone seeking a true glimpse of this region. For the true adventurers, do not buy this book, save your money. For those wanting to learn more about the region, I am sure there are better books out there that will better prepare you for a visit.

Rating:
Summary: Slip This One Into Your Carryon
Review: In "Patagonia: At the Bottom of the World" Dick Lutz reminds us that to the European navigators who first discovered it, Patagonia was a strange region inhabited by giants, cannibals, and mysterious beasts. Occupying the tail of South America that stretches southward toward Antarctica, it remains even to the modern world a, little-known, off-the-beaten-path, sparsely inhabited region. Although politically divided between Chile and Argentina, Patagonia has a special climate, unique wildlife, and strange, and sometimes violent, history all its own. In this highly portable 206-page guidebook Lutz covers just about every aspect of this peculiar region including its history from the days of explorers and adventurers like Ferdinand Magellan and Sir Francis Drake to the Patagonia of today. An appendix includes Charles Darwin's account of his 1834 trip to the region later published in The Voyage of the Beagle.
The book opens with Lutz's own account of his experiences as part of a tour to the region. You might want to read this chapter last, since the body of the text is broken up by notes that refer you to later sections of the book, and they can be intrusive. They occur only in the first chapter, so if you read this chapter last, you won't have to spend your time flipping back and forth. Still, leading the book off with this chapter is an excellent idea since most visitors to Patagonia will probably travel there as part of a similar tour group, and this lets them know exactly what to expect.
The remaining chapters in the book cover the region's environment, history, people, wildlife, and just about everything a traveler might want to know. One other bit of information is not confined to a single chapter but permeates the whole of the book and that is the author's own love of the area. There is no question that Dick Lutz considers Patagonia one of the most beautiful places on Earth. He enthusiastically describes mountains, the towering glaciers that tumble into the Strait of Magellan, and the region's interesting and diverse animal life.
He doesn't, however, gloss over the hardships the region endured throughout its early history: acts of genocide carried out against its native population, the ruthless exploitation of its forests and mineral wealth, its dubious record as a popular spot for penal colonies. As recently as the early 1970s, the political enemies of the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet were confined to a prison in the area.
In short, Patagonia is a place like no other on Earth, and to take you there, you'll find no better guide than this author. Dick Lutz has four previous books to his credit and writes skillfully and well. The book, quite honestly, could have benefited form a better proofreader, but most of the errors are typographical rather than textual. Despite this minor annoyance, Patagonia: At the Bottom of the World contains much solid information, and you would have to search far to find a more compact and useful guidebook. If travel to Patagonia is on your agenda, this is a good one to slip into your carryon.

Rating:
Summary: Patagonia, here I come!
Review: In a remote and nearly desolate area on the tip of the continent of South America lies a region steeped in history and beauty unrivaled by many places in the world. Author Dick Lutz, in his book Patagonia: At the Bottom of the World, takes his readers on a trip through time and space in a journey that leads the reader from the area's earliest age of recorded exploration through the author's recent visit to this spectacularly scenic region.

Readers will come to this work looking for information about the region as they plan a travel adventure or they may choose to read the book to quench a need to understand the history and environs of Patagonia. Whatever the reason, readers who pick up Patagonia, will come away from their experience with a greater sense of understanding of this region and, perhaps as this writer does, a desire to see the land itself.

Throughout his book, Dick Lutz weaves a beautiful narrative of this picturesque area from his own experiences, the prose of some of the world's most famous early explorers and the storied history of this rugged land. For those who don't know, it was Magellan who named the region Patagonia during his epic journey to circumnavigate the globe. Setting sail from Spain on September 20, 1519, Magellan and his men encountered hardship, mutinous crew members and sheer adventure. Of the 200 men who set sail on the journey, only eighteen men and one ship were to return. Perhaps the best-known discovery of the journey was the famous waterway The Straits of Magellan. Interestingly enough, it was not Magellan who gave the strait its current name; he called it the strait the Channel of All Saints. Some of his men had other names for this waterway: Victoria Vessel Strait and Patagones Strait were but two of these. Perhaps history itself was the one to name this waterway after the expedition's leader.

One of the expedition's surviving crewmen was the journey's chronicler. Antonio Pigafetta, wrote of the Strait, "We found by a miracle a strait which we call the Strait of the Eleven Thousand Virgins; this strait is a hundred and ten leagues long which are four hundred and forty miles, and almost as wide as less than half a league and it issues into another sear which is called the Peaceful Sea; it is surrounded by very great and high mountains covered with snow . . . I think there is not in the world a more beautiful country, or a better strait than this one."

This book takes the reader through Dick Lutz's journey to Patagonia starting from his experience stepping off the plane at Punta Arenas to his subsequent excursion through this wind-swept and sparsely populated region encompassing the southern tip of the South America. Throughout the work, the author offers us information on the area's environmental facts including the region's wildlife, terrain and climate. There is a fascinating chapter on the history of Patagonia and the experiences of early explorers like Magellan, Sir Francis Drake, Captain Cook, and Charles Darwin. Lutz then segues to an account of the now extinct Patagonian Indians, their patterns of life, lore and legend.

Wrapping up his story, Dick Lutz provides us with an overview of the situation today in this region that spans Chile and Argentina. I particularly enjoyed the appendix that is an excerpt from Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle. The bibliography will also prove useful to those wishing to learn more about this strikingly beautiful and fascinating region.

As Dr. Richard Ryel, CEO of International Expeditions, Inc. states: "Read it and enjoy!"

--- Reviewed by
Timothy E. McMahon, M.S.

Rating:
Summary: Enchanting, Educational
Review: What's a Patagonia? It's a region of the world, rather than a country. Located at the southern tip of South America, it spans portions of both Chile and Argentina. A many-faceted environment, it is closer to Antarctica . . . complete with penguins, glaciers, and much, much more.

Author Dick Lutz, a veteran of three previous nature/travel books, takes us on a delightful journey of this little-known region. The first chapter is a sort of journal of his experience on a guided tour, reporting one adventure after another. Throughout the chapter are references to later chapters for detail on what Lutz has seen and experienced on the tour.
Just reading the first chapter alone will be a worthwhile education, but there's so much more to this book.

The following four chapters deliver a considerable amount of information to the reader. You could never even ask all the questions that are answered in these pages. Chapters on the environment, history, native groups, and Patagonia today are chock-full of information that makes for fascinating reading. The environment chapter explores a wide range of facts, including the wildlife, terrain, and climate. The now-extinct Patagonian Indians are described in Chapter 4, while Chapter 5 explains the current situation in this sparsely populated region governed by two nations.

A long appendix of Darwin's 1834 treatise of his experience in the area, as written in "Voyage of the Beagle," is simply inserted into the book. There is no explanation or connection with the rest of the book. However, a bibliography, seven color photos, and index add extra value to this intriguing book.

If you're interested in visiting the region (I am now) or just want to learn about it, this book will be an enjoyable eye-opener. Well-researched, well-written.

Rating:
Summary: A travelogue with extensive details
Review: Where is Patagonia? Dick Lutz provides an engaging and informative account of his trip to Patagonia and experiences of wildlife, history, and its present issues. Intended for a popular audience of readers interested in geography and travel, Patagonia will also reach those who appreciate history and scholarship, blending a travelogue with extensive details of the region's background.