Prevented from traveling to La Esperanza due to the fire and blazes, I took a side trip to Punta Tombo Nature Reserve in the province of Chubut. While there, I spoke with nature guides and park rangers in an effort to assess the state of local wildlife. Historically, Punta Tombo […]
La Esperanza wildlife refuge encompasses a coastal strip full of wildlife — 81 species of animals, including marine mammals and birds. In an echo of Darwin, who uncovered ancient fossil beds demonstrating the inexorable passage of geologic time, the area is also an excellent site to hunt for shells in […]
With help from a wildlife guide, I settled into rural life at La Esperanza wildlife refuge. A wildlife lookout station is located a short distance from the cabin
The dangerous blaze which had prevented me from traveling to La Esperanza wildlife refuge finally abated. Oddly, even though the area had been subjected to a dangerous fire days earlier, the road was almost completely washed out in the midst of torrential rain. Ravages of climate change: closer to La […]
From Buenos Aires, I took a short flight south to the coastal town of Puerto Madryn. There, while I waited for the Darwin 200 initiative to arrive, I linked up with local non-governmental organization Fundación Patagonia Natural. Through the foundation, I had arranged to visit La Esperanza, a nature reserve […]
After conducting interviews in Montevideo, I took a short ferry ride to Buenos Aires. Just like Uruguay, Darwin uncovered large megafauna fossils in Argentina. When he wasn’t meeting with caudillo Juan Manuel de Rosas and dealing with chaotic local politics, Darwin fraternized with members of the influential English mercantile class […]
When he was not engaged in fractious local politics, Darwin traveled throughout the countryside where he uncovered large Ice Age fossils — extinct megafauna. I caught up with paleontologists at the National Museum of Natural History, an institution which had recently launched an exhibit dealing with Darwin’s legacy in […]
If anything, Elon Musk’s recent trip to South America demonstrates the futility of attempting to solve the climate crisis by means of technological innovation. Heading to Brazil, the Tesla billionaire and SpaceX chief executive met with President Jair Bolsonaro, as well as prominent business leaders and high-ranking military officers. Reportedly, […]
To be sure, Latin America has plenty of reason to criticize Washington given the region’s long experience with U.S. interventionism. However, the tendency to excuse Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, while blaming the U.S. for all nefarious misdeeds, has led many “south of the border” to commit a serious error in […]
