TIERRA DEL FUEGO – CHILE
A REMOTE BORDER CROSSING After saying goodbye to Manuel who had 10 days to ride to Buenos Aires for his flight home to Switzerland, we crossed back into Chile. Rio Bella Vista is a tiny, relaxed border post miles from anywhere. Marked by these neat rusted steel markers I struggled to get a good photo […]
BACK TO EL CHALTEN
28 Jan – 1 Feb. Can’t get enough of this great place. This time we found a slightly better spot at camp, up at the front where the wind carried a little less dust. Camped across from us was a French family from Réunion Island travelling with their four children. Introductions were easy. The kids bonded quickly, and ours were relieved to find others their age. Plans of hiking quickly disappeared. The kids now dictated the day, and it was all about them — hanging out with the other teens and not about schoolwork. So for the next couple of days we lingered — sharing stories, swapping travel tips, and learning about far-off French islands scattered around the world. The kids had fun during an indoor climbing session in town. Nicholas and Sandrine, both doctors, were travelling for seven months before moving to one of those small French islands off the coast of Newfoundland. RETRACING FURTHER NORTH We had actually missed Perito Moreno National Park entirely. We passed through the town of Perito Moreno and visited the Perito Moreno Glacier, but hadn’t realized there was also a Perito Moreno National Park. Confusingly, all three places share the same name yet are spread more than 600 kilometres apart. Huw and Sara were heading there for the hiking, as were Nicholas and Sandrine. The AllTrails app suggested an epic multi-day hike that seemed to have our name on it. The following morning we pointed the truck north to explore what many call one of the most beautiful parts of Argentina. Post Views: 133
EL CALAFATE & GLACIERS NATIONAL PARK
24-27 January 2026. With the wind finally at our back, we pointed the truck south toward El Calafate. Beyond El Chaltén, the mountains fell away, replaced by vast open grasslands stretching in every direction. Patagonia laid bare. Nothing but long wire fences, endless steppe, and roaming guanaco for miles. The road ran straight and exposed, the […]
PATAGOINA NATIONAL PARK, CHILE
TWO HIKES, 50KM, THREE DAYS 10-13 January. The drive into the park meandered gently for nearly 20 kilometres before reaching the visitors’ centre. The road wound through open grasslands, following rivers and backed by serrated mountains still holding pockets of late snow. Guanaco roamed and grazed — some lifting their heads as we passed, most […]
CARRETERA AUSTRAL – MARBLE CAVES AND TURQUOISE LAKES, CHILE
DUST, MARBLE AND THE COLOUR OF WATER 7 – 10th January. Leaving Cerro Castillo behind, the carretera carried us onward toward Puerto Río Tranquilo. The landscape opening out into wide valleys and 100km long, exposed stretches of very dusty gravel roads. Traffic was 80% adventure bikers and cyclists, 10% overland vehicles and 10% locals. Brazilian […]
CARRETERA AUSTRAL – HIKING CERRO CASTILLO, CHILE
Hiking Patagonia 6 January. Long, sweeping curves lead us down into the valley leading to the striking Cerro Castillo. We camped together with Sara & Huw in a windy, dusty carpark, everything slowly coated in fine grit each time a vehicle passed — which was far too often. The next morning we set out early-ish, […]
CARRETERA AUSTRAL – Hornopirén to Chaiten, Chile
By the time we reached the start of the Carretera Austral, the weather had already set the tone — cold, wet, and windy. We camped that night on the roadside in the small town of Hornopirén, queued for the next morning’s ferry alongside others doing the same. Vans and campers with Chilean, Brazilian, and Argentine […]
CHILOÉ ISLAND, CHILE
Ancud 19-21 December. Chiloé lies off Chile’s southern coast, where the mainland begins to unravel into fjords, islands, and open sea. Separated by a narrow channel, it marks a quiet threshold between the more ordered landscapes of the north and the wilder, rain-soaked south. The island sits low and green in the Pacific, shaped by […]
POTOSI, BOLIVIA and Kevin Irvine’s memorial
A MOUNTAIN OF SILVER November 19 & 20. The town of Potosí sits high, around 3,826m. A mining town that’s a jumble of steep streets and weathered colonial buildings sprawled in the shadow of Cerro Rico — the “Rich Mountain” that once funded the Spanish Empire and, at an unimaginable human cost and set the […]