Patagonia

People reached the far south at least 10,000 years ago, and the stencilled hands in the Cueva de las Manos are thousands of years old. At European contact, the Tehuelche (Aónikenk) hunted guanaco and rhea across the steppe, Mapuche communities lived in the north-west around Neuquén, and the Selk'nam and Yaghan inhabited Tierra del Fuego. Magellan wintered on the coast at Puerto San Julián in 1520, and Darwin explored the region aboard the Beagle in the 1830s.

Spain and then Argentina held little more than coastal outposts until the Conquest of the Desert in the late 1870s and 1880s, when the army under Julio Argentino Roca defeated the Mapuche and Tehuelche and opened the land to settlers. Welsh colonists had arrived in 1865 and founded Rawson, Trelew and Gaiman in the Chubut valley, later settling Trevelin in the Andes. Huge sheep estancias spread across the south, and in Tierra del Fuego the Selk'nam were almost wiped out by violence and disease. In 1920–22 a rural workers' strike in Santa Cruz was put down by an army cavalry regiment; an estimated 300 to 1,500 workers were shot and killed, many executed after surrendering, in an episode known as la Patagonia rebelde.

Oil was found at Comodoro Rivadavia in 1907, and Ushuaia grew around a prison that operated until 1947. During the 1982 war over the Falkland Islands (Malvinas), which are administered by the United Kingdom and claimed by Argentina, the air bases at Río Gallegos and Río Grande were used for military operations. Tierra del Fuego was the last national territory to become a province, in 1990, and Néstor Kirchner governed Santa Cruz before becoming president in 2003.

Patagonian society is young and mixed: descendants of Mapuche and Tehuelche, Welsh, Swiss, German, Italian and Spanish settlers, Chilean migrants, and Argentines from the north drawn by oil, tourism and public jobs. Mapuche identity is strong in Neuquén and Río Negro, where communities hold ceremonies such as the Ngillatun and campaign for land rights, sometimes in bitter disputes with landowners and the state.

In Chubut, the Welsh heritage survives in chapels, tea houses and the Eisteddfod, a festival of poetry, music and singing held in Trelew and Gaiman, and some families still speak Welsh. Bariloche has an Alpine air, with chalets, chocolate shops and a stone Civic Centre.

Rural life keeps the customs of sheep country: shearing gangs, lamb roasted on an iron cross, horse-riding festivals and the solitude of estancias far from the nearest town. The wind, the distances and the southern light are constant subjects of local talk and humour. Ushuaia's identity as the "end of the world" — fin del mundo — appears on everything from post offices to trains.

The five provinces hold under three million people across a territory larger than France. Neuquén is the largest city, with its neighbours forming a metropolitan area of several hundred thousand, and Bariloche, Comodoro Rivadavia, Trelew, Puerto Madryn, Río Gallegos, Río Grande and Ushuaia are the other main centres. Settlements on the steppe are small and far apart.

Energy drives the economy. The Vaca Muerta shale formation in Neuquén has made the province the centre of Argentina's oil and gas boom, and Comodoro Rivadavia and Santa Cruz are older oil areas. The Alto Valle of Río Negro and Neuquén grows apples and pears, Puerto Madryn has a large aluminium smelter, Tierra del Fuego assembles electronics under a special tax regime, and sheep, fishing and tourism matter everywhere.

Wages are relatively high, but so are prices, since most goods travel thousands of kilometres. Winters are long and dark in the south, and life turns indoors to mate, asado in the quincho and the local club. Housing shortages and the pressure of oil money on towns such as Añelo are current issues.

Cordero patagónico, Patagonian lamb, is the signature dish, split and roasted slowly on an iron cross beside an open fire, al asador. Ushuaia is known for centolla, southern king crab, and the coast of Chubut for fish and seafood such as mussels and hake. Lake and river trout appear on menus across the Andes. In Patagonia, curanto — meat, shellfish and vegetables cooked in a pit on hot stones — is served for groups.

Bariloche is known for its chocolate, with chocolate shops lining its main street, and El Bolsón and Bariloche are known for craft beer made with hops grown locally. In Welsh Chubut, tea houses in Gaiman and Trelew serve afternoon tea with torta galesa, a dark fruit cake, and other cakes and scones.

Wine is also made in Patagonia, in Neuquén and the Alto Valle of Río Negro, where cooler conditions suit Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The calafate, a purple berry of the steppe, is made into jams, liqueurs and ice cream, and a local saying holds that anyone who eats it will return to Patagonia.

In the north, Bariloche sits on Lake Nahuel Huapi in Nahuel Huapi National Park, Argentina's oldest. The Circuito Chico passes the Llao Llao hotel and peninsula, Cerro Catedral has skiing and summer walks, and boats cross to Isla Victoria. The Seven Lakes Road runs north to Villa La Angostura and San Martín de los Andes, below the cone of Lanín volcano, and El Bolsón and the Los Alerces National Park lie to the south. Neuquén's dinosaur fossils are shown at Villa El Chocón and Plaza Huincul.

On the Atlantic, Península Valdés draws visitors for its whales, elephant seals and sea lions, with orcas at Punta Norte, from Puerto Madryn, and Punta Tombo has a large Magellanic penguin colony. Trelew's paleontology museum and Gaiman's tea houses are nearby.

In Santa Cruz, El Calafate is the base for the Perito Moreno Glacier, seen from walkways, boats or ice treks, and for boat trips to the Upsala and Spegazzini glaciers in Los Glaciares National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. El Chaltén has trails to Laguna de los Tres beneath Fitz Roy and to Laguna Torre. The Cueva de las Manos lies in the Río Pinturas canyon. On Tierra del Fuego, Ushuaia has boat trips on the Beagle Channel to sea-lion islands and the Les Éclaireurs lighthouse, the End of the World Train into Tierra del Fuego National Park, the Martial glacier and historic Estancia Harberton.