A family adventure with a twist…

El Chalten was often mentioned in travel books and blogs as one of the recommended places to visit while traveling up the Ruta 40 in western Argentina. Located just north of Lake Viedma (a lake measuring a mere 1.5 times the size of county Dublin), it required a 200km detour to get there. Given our…

Francisco Pascagoula Moreno, or Perito Moreno as he is better known, was an Argentine scientist, naturalist, conservationist, politician, explorer and geographer. Dying in 1919 at the age of 67, he is a bit of a legend in Argentina. Not only are numerous streets and plazas throughout the country named after him, a large town and…

Back on the road, we approached the port at Bahia Azul. At this stage the wind was absolutely howling, and we were suspecting the worst for the ferry. The traffic jam that ground our progress to a halt well before the port confirmed that we would be delayed. What was more concerning however was the…

Tierra del Fuego, translated as “Land of Fire”, is an archipelago located at the very bottom of South America. It covers an area almost 74,000km squared, or slightly bigger than Czech Republic. It is split between Argentina (1/3) and Chile (2/3), based on a 1881 boundary agreement between the two (not-so-friendly) neighbours. 135,000 people call…

Ushuaia in Argentina is officially the southernmost city in the world. At a latitude of 54 degrees south, it lies a mere 1,000km from Antarctica (Buenos Aires is a whopping 3,000km further away). To get there driving, you have to cross the whole of Patagonia followed by the often treacherous Strait of Magellan crossing by…

For the birthday celebrations, Laura snuck off to the camper van, blew up balloons and hung a few of “Happy Birthday’ buntings in the limited space that we had. We also laid out the couple of tiny presents and cake we had been able to source (and hide) along the way since we arrived in…

As we travelled (slowly) down the coast of Chile, a big date loomed large in the distance. We would soon be celebrating our daughters birthday. Like most parents, we usually try to make the most of such occasions and make it a memorable day. This would be the first such family celebration on the road,…

A full day of driving the next day only netted us 100km when we stopped at 4pm. Really tough going and definitely testing driving abilities. Also general moods and tempers were on high alert, as the discomfort of the road surface took it toll. The good news was that we had arrived in Puerto Tranquillo,…

The next couple of days saw more rain and temperatures plummet. Again we were forced to flee the scene of rising waters, this time a rising tide threatened to engulf us and the portside road we were parked on in Puyuhuapi. Passing through the Quelat National Park brought us our first snow of the trip.…

The Carretera Austral, or Route 7 as it is otherwise known in Chile, is a legacy of the General Pinochet era. It runs south for 1,240 km from Puerto Montt to Villa O’Higgins, passing through rural Patagonia. It provides road access to the southern parts of the Los Lagos and Aysen regions. Amazingly, for such…