Having reached the end of the Carretera Austral, we decided to next explore the islands of Chiloé and Quinchao before heading east and back into Argentina. The islands were very pleasant (known for their UNESCO listed churches), but the highlight for us was the annual festival in the town of Castro on Chiloé. Lasting five days, the festival is definitely […]
The northern stretch of the Carretera Austral continues to be very scenic with green forests, rivers, lakes and snow-capped mountains. One has to be careful not to become blasé about it all! From where we left you in Part 1 (Queulat National Park) we headed north towards the finish of the Carretera at Puerte Montt. We visited Villa Santa Lucia […]
Have you ever heard of the Carretera Austral? Don’t worry, nor had we. Completed in 1996 after 20 years of construction, at the behest of General Pinochet, it connects the remote Southern Chilean settlements (formally only reachable by plane or boat) to the rest of Chile. Unfortunately, the mountainous terrain beat the engineers and the Carretera Austral ends at Villa […]
From Portal Cañadón Pinturas we visited Perito Moreno. It’s a nice little town with some interesting shops. We bought cherries (it was the season), groceries, and a very nice lemon drizzle cake! Suitably equipped we drove to Portal La Ascensión National Park and camped at their excellent free campsite. The next day we hiked 26km up to a remote lake […]
Cueva De Las Manos is a UNESCO site in Argentina renowned for its cave paintings – over 5000 years old. The caves (more like rock overhangs) are situated in a maze of spectacular canyons. After donning our hard hats, we joined our tour to explore the paintings. These are mostly hands in negative, but with some animals (guanaco) and human […]
From El Chaltén, we headed north on the famous Argentine Ruta 40, leaving the tourists behind us – this is now overlanding territory! Our next stop, after topping up our diesel, water and shopping in Gobernador Gregores, was the Parque Nacional Perito Moreno. We were debating whether to visit this park as it involved a 180km return trip down a […]
Due northwest of El Calafate, El Chaltén is a town with hiking at its core. All of the trails start (and finish) at the town, so we did not have to move Big Bertha. We bumped into the Happy Family, who we last met in Torres del Paine, and weren’t so happy; their truck’s batteries were flat (listening to too […]
We arrived in the tourist town of El Calafate late afternoon on New Year’s Eve – and there was definitely a ‘buzz’ on the high street. We parked in town and wandered off to pick a restaurant to celebrate the occasion. Normally, Argentinian restaurants open around 8pm, far too late for us, but, because it was NYE, the restaurants were […]
Just north of Tierra Del Fuego, the Torres del Paine National Park is at the southern end of the Chilean mainland. It is a magnificent park comprising mountains (the start of the Andes), lakes, of differing colours, and glaciers. We stayed here for seven days over the Christmas period and we were very lucky with the weather: plenty of sunshine […]
There are not enough superlatives to describe our ten day trip to Antarctica. But I will do my best to describe our exploration of the Antarctic peninsula, journeying to a latitude of 65 degrees south on our planet earth. We embarked on our ship, the Ocean Victory, a purpose-built expedition and ice strengthened vessel, on Friday 7th December, and, after […]