This landscape represents the tense identity blanket of Patagonia, the well-known Magellanic pampa, the one we tend to visualize more frequently, especially if we live in the cities of the region or on cattle ranches. However, this does not mean that the steppe is the most extensive within Patagonia, the truth is that a large part of the region is characterized mainly by mountainous and rugged geographies, but it is not what we inhabit the most for obvious reasons.
Even the most irreverent become perplexed by the immensity of this infinite plane. In the middle of this open prison, gale winds pounce the land with entitled authority, with gusts of up to 160 km/hr, mainly from the west, but sometimes erratic and disperse.
This is where the aónikenk, pedestrian natives, travelers from the pampas and inhabitants of the immensity, lived for thousands of years. That they skillfully knew how to subsist on this topographical plane.
This particular and identity regional landscape has now become habitable and productive land, mainly for sheep. On the other hand, it is also a sadly intervened landscape, years ago due to controlled burning to expand the space for cattle and today due to the imminent growth of the population and the consequences that this entails.
Georeading
Low and sparce, the coiron adapted to the climatic hostility of the steppe: aridness, cold temperature, and nearly constant gale winds prevent for less resilient vegetation to flourish. The flat extension of the steppe and its monotonic vegetation merges with the horizon in an endless plain.
This infinite extension was shaped by the glaciers that came from the Andes, dozens of kilometres to the west. The ice sheet hundreds of meters thick slowly travelled across the land towards the sea.
During over six million years the oscillating climatic pulse made glaciers advance and retreat all around the globe, flattening any relief coming on their way like a powerful bulldozer.
When ice advances it crunches, crushes, and drags everything on its way. It later turns into water, a repairing cry extending through the steppe while the rocks that used to be carried on the glaciers back become sand and clay, easily taken by the wind towards rivers and meadows to nourish new life.