Steve and Sarah

The weather in Trelew was lovely. It was a warm and sunny day. We drove out of town a little way to see the old welsh settlement of Gaiman, set in a pretty little fertile green valley along the river and with beautiful brick-built houses. The welsh settled this whole valley, and the sight of green trees and grass, is so refreshing after the dry arid landscape for the last few hundred kilometres. From Trelew we headed 115km back south to visit South America's largest penguin colony, at Punta Tombo. As we left the car, we remembered the binoculars, imagining we would have to view the penguins from a reasonable distance. We paid our entry fee and were told not to get closer to the penguins than 1 metre. Hardly likely, we thought….as we nearly trippped ... read more

We crossed the Magellan Strait from Punta Arenas to the small town of Porvenir, all still in Chile. It was a bright sunny day and the strait was flat calm. Not quite what we’d expected. We hadn’t planned exactly how far we would travel, but having disembarked the ferry and driven through Porvenir, we realised we’d be better crossing Tierra del Fuego into Argentina and finding somewhere to stay there. We drove around the edge of the spectacular Bahia Inutil (Useless Bay - so called by British explorers who couldn’t find anywhere to anchor or build a port). We stopped at the edge of the bay and watched dolphins swimming peacefully by and admired the spectacular snow-capped Darwin range in the far distance. The landscape was greener than we had imagined. Vast and rolling green hills. ... read more

Wrapped up in our warm and cosy hotel in El Chalten, it didn’t matter about the weather so much anymore, but our first day in Parque Nacional Los Glaciares was a bright and breezy one. In the morning, we had the usual admin to catch up on, but we headed out in the afternoon to walk up the valley a little way through the lenga forests, (I think lenga is something like beech, found in temperate rainforests in Patagonian Chile and Argentina) for views of the Fitzroy range and the glaciers. We planned to venture out all day the following day for more exploration, however, a trip to the national park office and a look at the forecast and we weren’t so keen! However, Sarah had asked the park guards which were the best walks to ... read more

The Carretera Austral runs for over 1200 kms from Puerto Montt southwards through Chilean Patagonia along the Pacific edge of the country. In order to see the island of Chiloe as well, we had decided to miss the northern section of the Carretera and cross from Chiloe to Chaiten, further down. We arrived at the ferry port at 10.30pm in plenty of time for sailing at midnight. After a long sit in the car - it was far too cold and windy to get out; we all finally drove onto the ferry, the Don Baldo, with the final unlucky drivers having to reverse their cars up the ramp. The ferry would sail overnight, due in Chaiten back on the mainland at 6am. Having booked only a few days before, there were no cabins available, so we ... read more

After leaving Santiago for the second time, we headed straight for the Colchagua Valley, one of Chile’s big wine growing regions. Being on a tight schedule, we only had enough time to find the most expensive hotel in town (best intentions to check into a hostel, but it was full - shame!), head out for a huge steak and some local wine. We set off again the next morning on our long route south, travelling down Chile’s major central autopista, Ruta 5, paying frequent and expensive tolls on our way. We ended the day in a lovely spot, called Valle de las Trancas, just down the hill from the upmarket winter ski resport of Termas de Chilan. We stayed in a very novel place called Ecobox Andino - shipping containers converted into cabins. They were really ... read more