Sunrise is welcomed with silence as we drive across the scrubby, undulating domes of southern Patagonia’s hinterlands, a ribbon of Atlantic Ocean ahead of us. Too tired to talk in the early morning, my companions from the NGO Fundacion Rewilding Argentina sip mate through a steel bombilla, pouring hot water into the gourd of dried herbs and passing it around as tradition dictates.
It takes minutes to transition from steppe to sea, but in that short time everything changes: the air is briny; the water sparkles; and scenes are intensely blue.
“Look at the colour of this ocean,” muses Maria Mendizabal, Rewilding Argentina’s tourism developer, who is part of the team hosting me at its research station in El Sauce, a 49,000-acre oceanfront protected area, where a new gravel road leads to the water, improving access for boat trips.
Argentine Patagonia is best known for its emerald-green forests and frosted white glaciers and rarely associated with the sea. But a vast stretch of coastline runs along the southern province of Chubut, where two currents collide to create a frenzy of undersea life. In recognition of its importance, in 2015 a marine area the size of Belgium was awarded Unesco status.
Now the Patagonia Azul Biosphere Reserve is the focus of a new project for Rewilding Argentina, which uses eco-tourism as a tool to promote conservation.