Dream Trip 2009

Great Travel Moment

I had decided to go to Patagonia on a last-minute whim just days before I was to return home. I first arrived in the seaport town of Punta Arenas, the capital of the Magallanes and Antarctic Region in Chile, where I only had a few hours to explore before I had to catch a bus to my next destination. I spent the rainy afternoon meandering through the City Cemetery, which felt like a necropolyptic suburb with grandiose mausoleums and tombs connected by a grid of gravel boulevards. I was most taken by the cypress trees that lined the cemetery streets, each one carefully sculpted into a large, surreal gumdrop -- very Alice-In-Wonderland, indeed. I was alone and spooked and sodden with rain when I looked up to see this sweet moment between the trees. Here, I learned to appreciate the glory of remembrance.