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South American Adventure
  • Happy Days Travel
  • Mark Wade
Oct 2024 – May 2025

South American Adventure

This epic eight-month overlanding trip through South America has been a long time in the planning! We will be visiting Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Brazil. Exciting times! 😊 Read more
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  • South American Adventure

    Heading to Puerto Madryn

    January 30 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    We slept pretty well last night and could have slept longer had it not been for the 5.30am alarm! It was the first night in a long time that we didn't have to wear all our clothes and layer up with extra blankets! The bonus of being up at such a ridiculous hour was that we caught it the sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean! We also saw a seal and, at quite a distance, a whale blowing!

    I packed everything away while Mark went to organise breakfast. He did French toast and fresh orange juice, as well as the usual stuff. Several people said it was the best truck breakfast they'd had!

    We were on the road by 7.30am. The aim today was to get to Puerto Madryn, 550 kilometres away! We were heading for an actual campsite where we would be staying for 2 nights, giving us a very welcome free day tomorrow on this epic drive!

    To begin with, we enjoyed lovely ocean views (although I was sitting on the wrong side of the truck to take photos), but we were soon back to the same flat, featureless scenery as yesterday! This country has thousands and thousands of square miles of nothingness!

    We drove for hour after hour as the temperature kept rising. By the time we stopped for a truck lunch at 2pm, it was 38 degrees, 13 degrees above the average for this area at this time of year!! We prepared a bean salad for lunch. Mark and I had our leftover bread and cream cheese, instead.

    Back on the road, many of the people who had been complaining about the cold just a couple of days ago were now moaning that it was too hot! We're never happy, are we?

    Suddenly, it went very dark and we drove through a cloud burst! It lashed it down for all of three or four minutes. Then it stopped, the sun came out again and it was hotter than ever!

    A little later, we skirted the city of Trelew, one of the first Welsh settlements in Patagonia. It would have been nice to stop, but there was no time! We ploughed onwards.

    To add to the weirdness of the weather, we then drove head on into a dust storm. The sky on one side of the truck turned a strange yellowy grey colour, whilst on the other side, it remained clear blue and sunny!

    By the time we approached Puerto Madryn, we were in the middle of a full-on sandstorm with almost zero visibility! Fortunately, it cleared as we reached the coast.

    We arrived at our campsite on the southern side of the town at about 5pm. It was very windy as we put our tents up, but it calmed down by before dinner. There was a small shop on site which sold cold drinks. They had a covered area where a few of us sat while we waited for the cook group to prepare our meal.

    Dinner was chicken and vegetable pasta which was very tasty. There was a good sunset, but it was somewhat masked by clouds of smoke from a fire on the other side of town. This was the reason that none of us could have the shower we'd been looking forward to so much - the municipality had diverted the water to tackle the fire.    Read more

  • South American Adventure

    Chores and admin

    January 31 in Argentina ⋅ 🌬 23 °C

    There was an optional trip to the Valdes Peninsula today. We decided not to go as it was very expensive and we were unlikely to see anything that we haven't seen before. We also wanted to use the time to repack our bags for 10 days without the truck and to get some admin and post-scheduling done. So, we didn't need to be up early but, inevitably, we were woken before 6am by those who were going on the trip!

    We got up, had breakfast, and sat around chatting to other group members who had opted out of the excursion. We then made sure we had showers before they were locked again at 10am! It felt good to be clean after three days on the truck without access to running water!

    We then did our washing. It was blowing a gale, but it was a hot wind, so the washing dried quickly - it was just a struggle to keep it on the line until it did! With our clothes clean and dry, we were able to repack so that we only take one case with us to Buenos Aires and beyond. The weather should be warm from here (it was a very pleasant 26 degrees today), so we packed away all of our winter clothing and the extra blankets and ponchos we have bought along the way. Hopefully, we won't be needing them again.

    I scheduled a few posts for the next week or so. The campsite WiFi was rubbish, but the Solis worked well.

    Later, Mark went to lie down and I went for a walk. I went up to the headland and took a photo of the Tehuelche monument dedicated to the original inhabitants of the area. I was hoping to visit the Eco Centre but it was only 1.45pm and it didn't open until 5. Instead, I explored the Welsh connection with Puerto Madryn. 153 Welsh settlers, fleeing English cultural and economic oppression (so the information board told me), arrived here aboard the Mimosa, a former tea clipper built entirely from wood, in 1865. For the first few weeks, they lived in makeshift wooden huts built into caves in the cliffs. The remains of these dwellings can still be seen. There is a monument that lists the names of everyone who arrived on the Mimosa. I wanted to learn more about the story but, again, the nearby Welsh Museum was closed until 5pm!

    I took some photos of the murals painted on the outside of the museum.

    I set off to walk to the town centre, but the wind was really strong and I was being sandblasted, so I returned to the campsite where it was a bit more sheltered.    Read more

  • South American Adventure

    Visiting the Welsh Museum

    January 31 in Argentina ⋅ 🌬 21 °C

    At 5pm, we both returned to the museum. We had a fascinating visit. The young guy in charge was clearly passionate about his subject. Despite having no Welsh heritage himself, when he was offered the job at the museum, he enrolled on a Welsh language course at Aberystwyth University and then travelled around Wales absorbing the culture and practising his Welsh. He is now fluent in Welsh and is learning English to be better able to communicate with the tourists who visit.

    The arrival of Welsh settlers in Patagonia was beneficial to both the Welsh nationalists who were looking for a 'vacant' territory to develop their culture away from English oppression, and to the Argentine government which was happy to give them land to help assert its sovereignty in the region in the face of threats from Chile via the Straits of Magellan and the UK through the Falklands.

    The Welsh pioneers set sail from Liverpool on May 28th 1865 and arrived in Puerto Madryn two months later. Apart from a terrible storm as they left Eng and another one as they arrived in Argentina, they had a smooth voyage.

    Unlike previous settlement attempts that had failed, this one succeeded because the immigrants came in family groups and they quickly established good relations with the native Tehuelche people.

    It was a fascinating visit. I definitely want to do some further reading.

    Back at the campsite, we stopped to chat to Denise and Susan. Susan was waiting for a taxi to the airport. She was not relishing the prospect of two more long driving days, so she has decided to fly to BA tonight!

    When those who had done the trip to the Valdes Peninsula returned, they had all enjoyed it, but it had been a long day (450-kilometre drive) and they hadn't seen many different animals. I think we made the right decision not to go.

    Later, we had a barbecue for dinner - steak, chicken, sausages, vegetarian alternatives, green salad, potato salad, and roasted pumpkin. It was all delicious. We definitely eat better with fewer people on the truck!    Read more

  • South American Adventure

    Back on the truck

    February 1 in Argentina ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    We were up at 5.30am to get our tents down before a 6am breakfast and a 7am departure. We still had around 1400 kilometres to go to reach Buenos Aires. The aim for today was to cover as much ground as possible and then bush camp before the final push tomorrow.

    I took some photos of the waterfront properties as we were leaving Puerto Madryn. As we left the town behind us, we were back to the relentless monotony of the flat featureless Patagonian landscape!

    We stopped for a truck lunch behind a service station. Nikki had prepared rice noodles, coleslaw, and leftover chicken from last night. It was very good.

    After lunch, we drove on for several hours, trying to get as many miles under our belts as possible. We finally found a bush campsite by a lake at around 7pm. We managed to get our tents up before the heavens opened. We ate our truck dinner of sausage and vegetable pasta on the truck. As it got dark, the storm raged with a spectacular lightning show and deafening claps of thunder.

    Most of us went to bed straight after dinner. The rain was of biblical proportions by this stage and the noise of it beating down on the tent was horrendous. We managed to get to sleep eventually only to wake up a couple of hours later to incredibly strong winds whipping around the tent! Luckily, our tent held up to the onslaughts overnight. We woke up to dry conditions, but a very soggy tent! We had no choice but to put it away wet!    Read more

  • South American Adventure

    The final push to Buenos Aires

    February 2 in Argentina ⋅ 🌙 25 °C

    We had breakfast at 6am and were on the road by 7. Edward had unceremoniously moved into the seat I have occupied for the last few days and was actually sitting on my hat when I got on the truck! He was totally unapologetic and flatly refused to move. He then had the nerve to ask Mark to fill his water bottle! He didn't even say please! I am definitely ready for a break from the truck!!

    So, today, we had 570 kilometres to go to reach Buenos Aires. Ritchie set off at a hell of a pace - we were being thrown around all over the place in the back of the truck!

    The landscape was still flat, but it was now filled with fields of sunflowers - slightly more interesting than what we've been used to!

    We had a lunch stop by some rough ground where we could put our tents up to dry. It took no time at all in the sunshine. Before we set off again, Nikki told us that the truck is no longer going into the garage, so we are back to plan A - a long drive day to Colonia when we leave BA!

    At around 5pm, we reached the outskirts of BA. We had a final toilet stop. The temperature was touching 40 degrees, so most of us bought ice creams!

    Our first impressions of BA were of a clean, modern city with lots of skyscrapers and very little traffic - well, it was Sunday afternoon! There were also a lot of buildings with huge murals of Diego Maradona on them! As we got into the city centre, we saw a lot of colonial buildings, many of them with French architecture.

    We arrived at our hostel at about 5.45pm. Some others from the group who had flown up from Ushuaia were there to meet us. A member of staff from the hostel got us all together to explain everything and then invited us to go to reception to check in. We had upgraded to a private room (which turned out to have two sets of bunk beds in it), so we had to pay our bill. It was an extra US$184! We also had to be tagged for security reasons. This proved to be a futile exercise!

    While we were checking in, we had all left our bags in the bar area. When we went to retrieve ours to go to our room, we found that my day pack was missing! At first, I thought one of our group must have picked it up by mistake, but after asking everyone I saw and putting a message on the group chat, I realised someone had taken it! It's turning into a trip of losses! It's so annoying! It was the new backpack I bought in Cusco and it had our overnight camping stuff in it - a change of clothes, a towel, basic toiletries, sun cream, insect repellent, my waterproof jacket, my fleece, my flip-flops, and our power pack! Of course, the hostel's CCTV didn't cover the place where my bag disappeared from!

    Ritchie couldn't believe it had been stolen from such a safe hostel and thought I must have left it on the truck. I hadn't! As I write this three days later as we are leaving BA, it never did turn up. What's more, two other members of the group had items taken - a pair of shoes and a mobile phone. I suppose it could have been worse - if the thief had picked up Mark's pack instead of mine, he or she would have got the big camera and my laptop!

    Having put our other bags in our room, I went next door to a Carrefour Express to replace our toothbrushes, toothpaste, and deodorant. Later, we went to a restaurant on the corner and shared a small pizza and a portion of fries. With a drink each, the bill was US$50!!    Read more

  • South American Adventure

    Hop-on hop-off bus

    February 3 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    We slept through until 8.45am. The included breakfast was coffee, orange juice, scrambled eggs, and toast. We chatted with some of the others and it turned out that a few of us had booked the tourist bus for today.

    We walked the short distance to the bus stop to catch the 10am departure. We sat upstairs in the sunshine and stayed on, listening to the commentary, the whole way round, a journey of over three hours.

    Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina with a population of 3.1 million. It is known for its preserved eclectic European architecture and rich cultural life. It is a multicultural city that is home to multiple ethnic and religious groups, contributing to its culture as well as to the dialect spoken in the city and in some other parts of the country. This is because since the 19th century, the city, and the country in general, has been a major recipient of millions of immigrants from all over the world, making it a melting pot where several ethnic groups live together. Thus, Buenos Aires is considered one of the most diverse cities of the Americas.

    Buenos Aires is a very attractive city, made up of several distinct districts, each with its own history, culture, and character. There are few 'must-see' sights. The best thing to do here is just to get out and explore. I have to admit that I felt nervous about being in our first big city since Santiago where I was mugged. Having my bag stolen was not a good start, but I really enjoyed today. The city's streets felt safe and the whole atmosphere was good.

    BA is a photogenic city, too! It was difficult to limit the number of photos we both took! A highlight as we travelled on the bus was the airport right in the middle of the city just next to the River Plate. It was fascinating to be waiting in a queue of traffic at a red light and have huge planes take off and land just next to us!    Read more

  • South American Adventure

    Plaza de Mayo, Buenos Aires

    February 3 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    We got off the bus at the last stop on the circuit and walked up to Plaza de Mayo, the city's main square. Like everywhere else in the city, it was surprisingly quiet.

    The Plaza de Mayo is the main foundational site of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was formed in 1884 after the demolition of the Recova building, unifying the city's Plaza Mayor and Plaza de Armas, by that time known as Plaza de la Victoria and Plaza 25 de Mayo respectively.

    We took photos of the Catedral Metropolitana and of the Casa Rosada, the pink palace where Eva Peron famously addressed huge crowds from the balcony.

    After wandering around for a while, we found a restaurant to have a late lunch. They gave us complimentary starters of toast with aioli and potato limone with Serrano ham. For main course, Mark had grilled chicken and I had salmon ravioli with salad. The only disappointment was that the pasta was quite stodgy, but overall it was a decent meal, and not too expensive by Argentine standards!

    We then walked back to the hostel to shower and change ready for our evening out.    Read more

  • South American Adventure

    La Bomba de Tempo

    February 3 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    This evening, most of the group had taken Nikki's recommendation and had booked a trip organised by the hostel to see a performance by the percussion group, La Bomba de Tempo. It cost US$17 each and included the entrance tickets and transport to and from the hostel.

    We left at 7.10pm and walked on mass to Uruguay metro station. It was quite a long walk. We rode four stops and then walked to the venue. Inside, we queued for drinks and then enjoyed a two-hour percussion show. It was good, if a little repetitive! There were so many people smoking pot all around us that I'm sure we all got a bit high!

    After the show, we didn't fancy going back to the hostel the same way we had come, so we shared an Uber with Denise and we were back within 15 minutes!    Read more

  • South American Adventure

    Another day on the tourist bus

    February 4 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    We had booked a 48-hour pass on the hop-on hop-off bus, so after breakfast, we headed off to catch the 9.30am departure.  We sat on the opposite side of the bus to yesterday, so that we could take some different photos.

    I was particularly taken with the street furniture - concrete benches made to look like comfy upholstered seats!    Read more

  • South American Adventure

    Walking tour of La Boca district

    February 4 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    We got off the bus at stop 6 as we had booked an 11am walking tour of La Boca.  We were 30 minutes early, so we had a wander and I bought a throwaway plastic mac for US$6 as it was raining heavily and, of course, I had lost my waterproof jacket!

    At the appointed time, we met our guide, Vito, and started our tour.  He had grown up in La Boca and was passionate about the area.  He was full of interesting stories about the history, the people, and the culture of the district.

    La Boca is a working-class area with a cluster of attractions near the Riachuelo River.  Steakhouses and street artists surround Caminito, a narrow alley flanked by brightly painted zinc shacks that evoke the district’s early immigrant days.  A cauldron of noise on match days, La Bombonera is the home ground of Boca Juniors soccer team.  The modern art museum Fundación Proa has temporary exhibits and views of the old docks.

    La Boca is where the city of Buenos Aires was founded in 1536.  At first, it was an affluent area inhabited by wealthy merchants and titled gentry who settled and built their mansions here.  Later, they moved to the north of the city and La Boca became a poor district of economic migrants arriving mainly from Italy, Eastern Europe, Ireland, and North America to seek their fortunes.    Read more

  • South American Adventure

    The walking tour continues

    February 4 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    Vito showed us a statue of William Brown (also known in Spanish as Guillermo Brown or Almirante Brown) (22 June 1777 – 3 March 1857).  He was an Irish sailor, merchant, and naval commander who served in the Argentine Navy during the wars of the early 19th century.  Brown's successes in the Argentine War of Independence, the Cisplatine War, and the Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata earned the respect and appreciation of the Argentine people, and he is regarded as one of Argentina's national heroes. The creator and first admiral of the country's maritime forces, he is commonly known as the 'father of the Argentine NavyRead more

  • South American Adventure

    Colourful La Boca

    February 4 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    Local artist Benito Quinquela Martin (1890 - 1977) is commemorated with a statue on the waterfront.

    He was a painter who lost confidence in his artistic ability.  One day, he had an epiphany.  It came to him that he should create works of his 'village'.  In other words, he should paint the people and places local to him in La Boca.  He did this and got his mojo back!  He also began to y art to local working people, particularly dock workers who would come to class when their shift finished.

    Many of Benito's students were from Genoa, a colourful town in northern Italy.  He noticed a melancholy about them.  They were homesick, missing the bright colours of Genoa.  Benito sourced hundreds of tins of paint in primary colours and encouraged the Genoese to use them to brighten up their neighborhood.  The tradition of colourful buildings and walkways continues in La Boca to this day.

    Uniquely, the district of La Boca has very high pavements to protect the buildings from flooding.    Read more

  • South American Adventure

    La Boca and football

    February 4 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    In 1905, the historic and world-renowned Club Atlético Boca Juniors was born. Its founders decided that the new club would bear the name of the neighbourhood, accompanied by the term 'Juniors', a common practice to give greater prestige to institutions, although in this case the contrast of the name was notorious, due to the reputation of being a 'difficult' and marginal neighbourhood, which La Boca had gained at that time. Many of Boca's fans were Italians, mostly Genoese, who lived in the area. In 1914 the club was about to leave the neighbourhood when the management obtained some land in the Wilde area. In 1940, La Bombonera stadium was built.

    Everywhere we went in La Boca, there were images, statues, and tacky souvenirs of both Diego Maradona (often shown with the Pope Francis!) and Lionel Messi. All of the buildings in the neighbourhood, as well as the stadium itself, are painted in vivid blue and bright yellow.

    Talking of the club colours, Vito told us the story of how they were chosen. Apparently, the powers that be couldn't decide, so they agreed to adopt the colours of the flag of origin of the next ship that came into the port. That ship happened to be from Sweden - hence, blue and yellow!    Read more

  • South American Adventure

    A Korean lunch

    February 4 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    After the walking tour, we had a drink in a local bar and then caught the tourist bus again.  We had booked a second walking tour today.  It was of the city's cemetery where Eva Peron is buried.  We realised that we didn't have time to get there, so we decided to get off the bus in Chinatown and go for lunch.

    We went to a Korean restaurant.  I had a very tasty pork dish and Mark had beef.  After eating, we caught the last bus of the day to go back to the hostel, stopping for an ice cream on the way.  It was extremely hot!!    Read more

  • South American Adventure

    Tango show

    February 4 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    We couldn't come to Buenos Aires, the birthplace of tango, and not see a tango show!  The hostel is running a triple tomorrow night which includes dinner and is in a huge theatre.  Many of the group are doing that.  We preferred to book a show and drinks package in a smaller, intimate, historic theatre.  It was located just a 15-minute walk from the hostel.

    We were not disappointed!  The show was in the Piazzola Theatre established in 1915 and named after Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla (March 11, 1921 – July 4, 1992).  He was an Argentine tango composer, bandoneon player, and arranger.  His works revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music.  A virtuoso bandoneonist, he regularly performed his own compositions with a variety of ensembles.  In 1992, American music critic Stephen Holden described Piazzolla as 'the world's foremost composer of Tango music'. 

    The show featured a live 6-piece orchestra, two singers, and 10 dancers.  All of the performances were stunning.  Mark said it was the best hour of entertainment he had seen in a very long time!    Read more

  • South American Adventure

    Drive to Uruguay

    February 6 in Uruguay ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

    After two largely glorious days in Buenos Aires, yesterday it hammered it down all day!  We went out in the morning to drop off some laundry and do some food shopping.  I spent the rest of the day working on my laptop and chatting to people while Mark prepared food for last night and for a meal for later today.  I didn't get caught up, but I made some progress!  There was a lot more to see and do in Buenos Aires, but time and the weather were against us and, at this stage of the trip, we are both too tired to be dashing about all the time!

    This morning, we had to be up at 5am for a 6am departure.  Many of the group had opted to take the 90-minute ferry across to Colonia in Uruguay rather than make the all-day truck journey.  It meant that there was only 17 of us on the truck, so we had plenty of room to spread out.  We had a new passenger joining the trip today - a 70-year old American guy - as well as the new driver, Tim, who is taking over from Ritchie in Rio.

    We left BA and headed 270 kilometres north to the border with Uruguay.  We drove across miles and miles of flat countryside, albeit greener and much more lush than the land south of the capital.  Nikki provided a truck breakfast of a croissant and a nectarine each.  We were all craving coffee by the time we stopped at a service station over three hours into the journey!

    We crossed the border close to the town of Fray Bentos of corned beef and tinned pie fame.  We were under the impression that we would stop in the town for our lunch break, but in the event, we bypassed it.

    The border was straightforward although we did have to wait a while to get the truck paperwork processed to enter Uruguay.  Our passports weren't scanned out of Argentina as they have been on every other occasion.  We will have to see what happens when we enter the country for the last time in about a week!  We were stamped into Uruguay, though.  That's country number 68 for me, I think.

    Nine kilometres into Uruguay, we stopped for what turned out to be a lengthy lunch break.  We stopped at a roadside restaurant where the service was very slow and payments were even slower!  We didn't eat as we had picked up some empanadas in BA yesterday.  I did change some money, though.  We're now using Uruguayan pesos!  Uruguay is as expensive as Argentina, unfortunately!  Two ice creams and a bottle of flavoured water cost more than £10!

    Back on the road, we now headed south towards Colonia a further 230 kilometres away.  The countryside we were driving through was undulating and verdant with fields of crops and sheep grazing.  It was very reminiscent of summer in England or France, apart from the odd palm tree, that is!

    The towns we passed through, like Rosario, looked prosperous.  There were plenty of well-maintained houses with beautifully-kept gardens and manicured lawns.  Again, everything was very green.

    We arrived in Colonia at around 6.45pm.  As we drove through the streets to get to our hostel, we could see the place is really pretty.  We look forward to exploring properly tomorrow.

    We had booked the only private room available through Booking.com. Everyone else had to have a dorm room.  Unfortunately, we soon discovered that the kitchen advertised on the website didn't actually exist.  We had already cooked a Bolognese sauce, so we had no choice but to eat it cold without pasta!    Read more

  • South American Adventure

    Exploring Colonia

    February 7 in Uruguay ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    We had breakfast sitting in the sunny garden at our hostel and then went out to explore the town.

    Colonia del Sacramento is a city in southwestern Uruguay, by the Río de la Plata, facing Buenos Aires in Argentina. Founded by the Portuguese in 1680, it is one of the oldest towns in Uruguay and has a population of around 27,000. Its historic quarter is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

    Our first stop was at the Basilica Santisimo Sacramento just next door. This fairly plain church was built in 1808, but much of the original building collapsed in an explosion in 1823. It was rebuilt later in the 19th century.

    Colonia is a very attractive town with cobbled streets, ancient buildings, and colourful shops and cafés. There are photo opportunities everywhere. Tourists can hire electric buggies made to resemble vintage cars. These add to the lovely atmosphere on the streets.    Read more

  • South American Adventure

    Colonia's waterfront

    February 7 in Uruguay ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    From the old town, we walked down to the waterfront for views of the River Plate and the ferries across to Buenos Aires.

    There, we met a guy who was spinning sheep wool into yarn using a manual spinning wheel.  We bumped into Solenne at the same time.  It turned out that the guy had lived in France for a number of years, so we had a good conversation in French.Read more

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