Time is 1991. I was going down towards the south along the Andes Mountains in South America. I travelled through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, and I arrived at Chile in July. A year and two months had past since I left Japan. Chile looks like a thin strip of land stretching from north to south. While north Chile is a desolate dry area, south Chile has more green. As moving to the south, it gets colder and colder. July is winter in the southern hemisphere. I was moving towards ﾒﾕthe colder southﾓ, and the coldness finally became very severe when I passed the nationﾕs capital, Santiago and I arrived at Koiyake from Puerto Mon by ferry. But still, I wanted to go further south heading towards the southernmost point of the Continent. I was even thinking that I might be able to get to the Antarctic.
The southernmost part of the South American Continent is called Patagonia, and it is well-known for its unique landscapes created by the great nature. This region, which is also known for The Magellan Straits, is the rear side of the globe, the furthest place from Japan. I decided to go to a small port town in Chile domain, Puerto Natales. This town is a gate to the Paine National park. The Paine National park is one of the tourist attractions in Patagonia for its bizarre landscape created by volcano and harsh climate, glacier and prairie, and wild animals and plants. However, unfortunately, since it was the middle of winter, the road conditions were very bad and there was no transportation to the park. I was feeling at loss, but, timely, I heard about Mr. Edward Scott, who is famous as a tour guide in Paine. I visited Hotel Austral, which is run by him. Luckily, he happened to go on a tour with a group of 11 British people the next day, and he let me join the tour. I spent fun days with Mr. Scott and the Hotel staff.
When Mr. Scott saw me sketching, he asked me to paint the Paine scenery on the wall in the dining room. At first, I did not have enough confidence, and was being indecisive. However, I started thinking that this could be a great opportunity to leave my work on the rear side of the earth, and finally accepted the request. Thus, I ended up staying at the Hotel, and started working on a mural painting of Paine.
In Hotel Austral, Mr. Scott, his wife, their daughter, Brenda who was a high school student, and a hotelﾕs employee, Sandra. Mr. Scottﾕs son lived in a nearby city, Punta Anales for his job. By then, my Spanish, which I started studying in Guatemala, had been improved a lot, and I could have a fun time everyday. Mr. Scottﾕs niece, Brendita came to the hotel everyday with her mother who worked at the hotel doing laundry. Although she just started attending elementary school, she was very smart and mature. We played together often. I was attracted to Sandra, and asked her out a couple times. But she always turned me down because she had a fiance On the other hand, even though my days had passed like this, I could concentrate on the mural production. I could find most of the painting materials in this small town. I painted a large landscape on two sides of the wall, and started painting animals on the other sides.
After 3 weeks, when the work was roughly done, I took a break and went to the south for a trip. I could not find a ship to the Antarctic, but I got on a fish boat from Punta Alenas to Puerto Toro, which is the southernmost village in the world. The village is located right before the Antarctica, and there were only several families living there. I stayed at the military base for a week. There was nothing in the village, and I started realizing my journey is getting close to the end.
When I came back to Puerto Natales, I painted on the rest of the walls. In the meantime, I had my 27th birthday, and everybody celebrated it for me. (It was one of the most memorable birthdays in my life.)
When I painted all the walls in the dining room, it was the day to leave Puerto Natales. It had been one and a half months since I came to Patagonia. I wanted to stay longer, but it had been one year and a half since I left Japan, and I felt it was about time to go home. I said good-bye to everyone, and left them behind. It was very meaningful for me to go far south and to be able to leave my painting there. I could never forget the people who I met in Patagonia.
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