We have arrived in Pucon in the north of southern Chile close to the border with Argentina (actually all of Chile is close to the border with Argentina but this is but a rocket propelled grenade away). Pucon has arrived on the global map as a Mecca for adventure sports and has been described as […]

We arrive in Puerto Natales a small port in the south where we are to pick up the ferry that threads its way through the Chilean fjordlands up to Puerto Montt, 4 days away. We had been given a free night at a local hotel by the ferry company as part of our package. This […]

We get whisked away at 6.30 in the morning to our next destination, Parque National Torres del Paine. Still in Patagonia but on the Chilean side, it is reputed to be ‘trekker’s heaven’ and South America’s finest national park. Soaring vertically more than 2,000m above the Patagonian steppe, the three granite pillars of Torres del […]

We fly from Ushuaia to El Calafate, returning from the end of the world back to the Patagonian Steppe. We are going to visit the Southern Patagonian Icefield, the third largest body of ice on the planet and totally different from any icefield that we witnessed in the cold Antarctic. The Icefield is 378 km […]

Day 1&2 – Drake Passage: 1000km of ocean between South America and Antarctica and, reputedly, the roughest waters in the world. I was so worried about being sea sick that I started to feel unwell after breakfast, 8 hours before boarding the boat. What a plonker! Our boat, The Antarctic Dream, was built in 1958 […]

We’ve arrived in Ushuaia — officially the most southern city in the world. It is little more than a town but is the primary gateway to Antarctica. The name Ushuaia comes from the indigenous Yamana language meaning ‘bay penetrating westwards’, a name that could be used to describe any one of a number of places […]