Patagonia is at the southern end of South America. It is land shared by Argentina and Chile. It has some of the most dramatic landscapes on Earth. It has the southern section of the Andes mountains to the southwest towards the Pacific ocean.
The name Patagonia is from the word patagón[2] used by Magellan in 1520. The word was for the native people that his expedition thought to be giants. Now people think the Patagons were actually Tehuelches. They had an average height of 180 cm (~5′11″) compared to the 155 cm (~5′1″) average for Spaniards of the time.[3]
↑Antonio Pigafetta, Relazione del primo viaggio intorno al mondo, 1524: "Il capitano generale nominò questi popoli Patagoni." The original word would probably be in Magellan's native Portuguese (patagão) or the Spanish of his men (patagón). It has been interpreted later as "big foot" but the etymology refers to a literary character in a Spanish novel of the early XVI century (see text).
↑Fondebrider, Jorge (2003). "Chapter 1 – Ámbitos y voces". Versiones de la Patagonia (in Spanish) (1st ed.). Buenos Aires, Argentina: Emecé Editores S.A. p. 29. ISBN950-04-2498-3.