Exploring Patagonia and Antarctica

Otto and his wife, Gertrud, had travelled to many places around the world—but by November 2006, they were looking for something different, somewhere out of the ordinary that tourists didn’t think of visiting. They set their course for two weeks cruising the fjords in Patagonia before heading even farther south to Antarctica. Although Otto describes the idyllic beauty of Patagonia and the unique terrain of Antarctica, he learns as well about the mark that humans have left in their wake. In Patagonia, European colonization has torn through its Indigenous peoples; in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, modern whaling practices have left the environment imbalanced, hunting animals to near extinction. The balance of beauty and ruin hangs in humans’ hands, and Otto witnesses the consequences firsthand in these remote areas. In Exploring Patagonia and Antarctica, Otto explores the effects that Homo sapiens has had all the way to the bottom of the world, as well as how important it is to protect the one and only planet we have.