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traveled in 40 countries Read more Hamburg, Germany
  • Backpacking South America
    1
    Day 41–42

    Pt. 4: River Rafting Madness

    February 7 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    The meet-up for the rafting was at 9 am, which meant another early morning rise, as we still had to drive half an hour into Futaleufú. From there, a group bus took us to the starting point - which was exactly in the opposite direction, passing our campsite 😑

    We were split into two boats of six rafters plus one boat captain, who in our case turned out to be quite the entertainer and reminded us of Captain Jack Sparrow - luckily he was quite sober. Overall, there was quite a lot of manpower involved: For each boat, there was an additional catamaran and a kayak to rescue people who went overboard. Very reassuring 😬 The rapids we were to encounter were class 4 and 5 rapids. That was just one class below the highest!

    The first hour was spent with instructions: How to put on our gear (three layers of clothes/wetsuit plus life jacket and helmet), how to sit securely on the boat, commands to shift to the left/right/down and how to pull people back into the boat. We each had to do a trial run of jumping into the ice-cold 🤏 water and getting pulled back on.

    And then we were off towards the rapids! With our boat captain shouting commands, we were giving our best to keep the boat on track, while the waves were crashing against us and water was splashing into our faces. After each rapid mastered, we celebrated our group achievement by raising our paddles and shouting in unison. We also had a quick stop at a big rock where everyone got the chance to jump in full gear from 5m height into the stream below. By now, Tim's new alter-ego had been unlocked: Tim Adrenaline was born!

    Then came the big one: A strong rapid with big boulders 🪨 and a huge standing wave 🌊 Before approaching it, our captain jumped onto land to have a closer look and make a plan to navigate the rough waters. He told us we would have to paddle HARD to make it through, otherwise we would get stuck and flip. We were anxious but ready. Then suddenly, the boat dipped and the big wave was towering in front of us. Our captain shouted "Adelante!" and we paddled as hard as we possibly could. Our boat was thrown left and right, but we managed to hold on and make it through. Cheers all around! The other boat came after us, hit the wave, got stuck and flipped. But not to worry, the rescue boats arrived in a second, picked everyone up and we continued down the stream.

    Initially, we had only booked the bridge-to-bridge tour, but when we reached the exit point, there was no question: We continued to the end! After having mastered the last rapids without problems, we were greeted with a table of drinks and snacks, including some very tasty banana cake that must have been home-made by the organizers mum. What a great adventure!

    It was 1 pm when we were back in town and much of the day was still left, but we already felt ready for our hammocks. We made a quick stop for a "Perro Caliente Completo Italiano" 🌭 (a hot dog with diced tomatoes, avocado and mayonnaise) and took a break in a café in town. We decided we would not continue back onto the Carretera Austral, but instead cross over again to Argentina, which offered some interesting national parks on its own, and allowed us to avoid a 150 EUR ferry on the Chilean side.

    So we hopped back into our camper towards the border crossing at Los Cipreses, after which the landscape changed dramatically once again. We had planned to drive through the Los Alerces national park, until we found out on Google Maps that there were wildfires in the area 🌲🔥 We stopped in the previous Welsh settlement of Trevelin, where the tourist information told us that our route would be no problem. Thus, we headed into the national park and found an overnight spot at a beautiful lake, with views of the surrounding mountains 🏞️ and unfortunately also the wildfire smoke in the distance. We had a well-deserved local beer with our dinner and fell asleep quickly after this eventful day.

    🛶 Boat flips: 0
    🌊 Wetness level: 10/10
    🎢 Adrenaline level: 11/10 for Tim
    🌭 Hot dogs eaten: 2
    🛂 Borders crossed: 1
    🔥 Wildfires seen: 3    Read more

  • Backpacking South America
    1
    Day 39–41

    Pt. 3: Holy Mate and Unholy Roads

    February 5 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    We spent the next three days traveling further up the Carretera towards Futaleufu. Our first stop was in Coyhaique, the only larger city on the Carretera. Arriving there, we couldn't miss the opportunity of snapping some pictures at an interesting roundabout: In the middle was the "Monumento al Mate" , a large hand holding a mate cup, complete with straw🧉 What could be more South-American?

    Coyhaique was mainly a fill-up stop for us: Filling up our food storage in the supermarket, filling up our tank with fuel, filling up our tires with air and filling up our stomachs with burgers. We had been craving a proper burger for a while, and the ones at 455 hamburguesería did not disappoint 🍔 The menu also contained a surprisingly cheap drinks item, which raised our interest: A Mexican Michelada, which consists of beer mixed with tomato juice, lime, tabasco, soy and worcester sauce. Verdict: Avoid even for free ☠️

    From Coyhaique, we took a detour from routa 7 onto routa 240 towards Puerto Chacabuco, which lies at the head of the Aisén Fjord. We looked for an overnight spot at Lago Riesco, but had to turn around at the entrance of a private park. Another Chilean example of commercializing nature 😔 In the end, we spent the night in front of the entrance next to a small river. The next day, we drove into Puerto Chacabuco, hoping to find a quaint port town, but unfortunately it was mostly industrial. We quickly turned around and headed further north.

    Quite suddenly, the tarmac once again transformed into horrible gravel with lots of potholes and sharp bends. We were happy to stop driving for the day when we reached a dolphin spotting point overlooking Rio Quelat. It's being said that the weather in Patagonia can be all seasons in one day. And thus, in the afternoon, a storm came rolling in. With rain pouring outside, we stayed inside watching a movie and fell asleep with our camper being shaken by the howling wind.

    When we woke up, the weather was still grey and miserable. To warm ourselves up, we were hoping to hop into the hot springs nearby. On the way there, we passed the Ventisquero Colgante, a glacier "hanging" on the side of a mountain - quite spectacular! Unfortunately, the hot springs turned out to be fully booked, which left Tim‘s mood hanging as well. Trying to cheer him up, Laura decided to book a river rafting tour in Futaleufu for the next day - and convinced Tim that this would be a lot of fun and not suicidal at all!

    Later in the day, the sun came out again. We turned off the Carretera onto another terrible gravel road towards Futaleufu, where we found a beautiful lakeside campsite, took out our camping chairs, enjoyed the view with a glass of wine and went to bed excited (Laura) and anxious (Tim) for the day to come 🛶

    🐬 Dolphins spotted: 2
    🍿 Movies watched: 1
    ♨️ Thermal baths visited: 0
    🍹 Mexican Michelada: 1/10 -> would not recommend 🤢
    ⚠️ Road quality index: 3/10 -> a hell of a bumpy ride    Read more

  • Backpacking South America
    13
    Day 37–39

    Pt. 2: Camping Off the Beaten Track

    February 3 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    The Carretera continued to be a challenging drive from Puerto Rio Tranquillo towards Cerro Castillo, but over time, the road got wider and smoother. Wanting to cover some distance, we flew across the gravel at the suggested speed of 60 kph - until we were overtaken by another car, who‘s passengers kept pointing downwards while they were passing us. It dawned on us that something wasn‘t right - we had another puncture at the rear left 😞

    We couldn‘t believe it and were not looking forward to another tire change session. Luckily, another 4x4 had just pulled up. We chatted with the driver about our situation and before we knew it, he was on the ground and helping us with our car jack. This guy had clearly done this many times before! We had the replacement wheel fitted within 10 minutes (we had kept it on the rear seat for easy access) and he even had some gear to adjust our tire pressure to more appropriate levels for gravel roads. We asked him if he was a car mechanic, but instead he said he was a software engineer 👨‍💻

    We hit the road again, now driving more carefully, only to realise that one km later the gravel stopped and the paved part of the Carreteral Austral began. Talk about unlucky… Our next stop was in Cherro Castillo, where we found another gomeria. The technician was less than impressed with the state of our tires and told us what we had suspected all along: that they were not fit for purpose for the Carretera Austral. Thank you, Wicked Campers. For the rest of the trip, we kept the replacement wheel on the car, not trusting the original one.

    Initially we had hoped to go on yet another Laguna/Cerro hike there, as it is known as a very beautiful and not so touristy alternative to the more overrun hikes of the weeks before. But both still battling some form of cold, we had to let that one go.
    Instead we splurged on the first restaurant meal in weeks, treating ourselves to some local cuisine and a starter of Cevice (a Peruvian raw fish delicacy 🐟). Njam!

    From Cerro Castillo, we turned off the Carretera onto a small country road to head towards a campground close to Lago Lapparent. As it was already late in the day, the sun was starting to set and bathed the stunning landscape in beautiful light. When we arrived, we were greeted by a curious group of extra fluffy alpacas. The campground was situated right next to a small lake, with a nice view of the surrounding mountains, and we were the only guests that night 🏕. It was run by an older lady as an addition to her farm, who told us how much she enjoyed the solitude and the surroundings. The facilities were rustic - for a warm shower, we had to collect some firewood and heat a stove, which was then heating the water.

    We decided to stay an extra night to have a day to rest, enjoy the landscape and have another meet-and-greet with the Alpacas 🦙. From there, we headed onwards to Pto. Ingenerio Ibáñez, passing the Rio Ibáñez Waterfall, and back onto the Carretera towards Coyhaique.

    🛞 Flats count: 3
    🦙 Alpaca fluffiness level: through the roof
    🌵Amount of spiky shrubs on campsite: 1.000.000 +
    🪵 Amount of firewood collected: Enough for 2 medium warm showers
    🐟 Cevice eaten: 1    Read more

  • Backpacking South America
    1
    2
    Day 36–37

    Carretera Austral Pt. 1: Marble Caves

    February 2 in Chile ⋅ 🌬 13 °C

    Although it is the main and pretty much only road in this region, many stretches of the Carretera Austral (the „Southern Way“) are still unpaved and in surprisingly bad shape. But it makes up for it with stunning views of lakes and snow-capped mountains!
    Sadly, poor Tim could only partially enjoy them as he had now also cought a severe case of the man-flu (non surprisingly 🥲).

    We made our way to Puerto Rio Tranquillo, the next little town en-route, looking for a Gomeria once again. This town is mainly known as a hub for excursions to the marble caves on the adjacent Lago General Carrerea. So, since we were already here we opted for an early morning (8.00 am 😩) tour the next day, hoping the current rainy weather would change into sunshine by then. With the tire fixed and the first shower in 3 days acquired we parked our van on a parking lot right next to the harbour and waited for the (hopefully sunny) day to come.

    The next morning, we got out of bed way too early, put on as many layers of clothes as we could find and headed out to the harbour. Luckily, the weather had turned around completely! The sun was out, the sky was blue and the wind had subsided. Equipped with swimming vests, we were guided to our exploration boat, which was going to take us out to the marble caves together with 15 other excited tourists.

    Prepping us for the tour, our guide told us that we would be travelling in two modes: „Navegacion normal“ while exploring the caves and „navegacion rapida“ to cover longer distances. And „navegacion rapida“ did not disappoint! With the small boat motor turned to the max, we flew across the lake, wind blowing into our faces. At the caves, the boat navigated partially inside and we could see and touch the marble formations from up close and snap lots of pretty pictures. The final highlights were the so called Cathedral y Capilla (cathedral and chappel) de Marmol, two stunning marble formations with especially pronounced marble patterns.

    After we returned („navegacion rapida“, racing another boat) we felt quite cold to the bone, so we quickly had a hot soup as second breakfast, before heading further North on the Carretera Austral!

    🛞 Puncture count: 2
    🤧 Flu level: 8/10
    🚤 Boat races won: 1
    🪨 Caves entered: 3
    🏔 Landscape beauty level: 10/10
    💃 Successful rain dances for the weather gods: 1    Read more

  • Backpacking South America
    121
    Day 34–36

    Border Crossing in the Middle of Nowhere

    January 31 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    Over the next days we made our way to the famous Chilean Carretera Austral. For our border crossing we chose an especially remote border which sees very few (sometimes none at all) cars a day but promised some stunning scenery and wildlife.

    The initial drive north through the Argentinian pampa was quite repetitive and boring. But when we spotted a prestine looking blue lake in the distance, we decided to take a detour and were rewarded with a windy, yet beautiful sight of this seemingly untouched piece of nature.
    Hyped by this view, we quickly decided to take our drone for a spin! But...we quickly realised we were almost out of battery and someone 👀 packed the wrong charger. So, enjoy our first and last Drone footage of this trip! 🚁🎥

    On the way to the main road, something sounded...wrong. Turns out: we had a flat at the front right 😑 This meant it was time to see if we had the right equipment on board to change the tire, and get our hands dirty.
    30 minutes later we were back on the road and on the lookout for the next Gomeria - a tire repair workshop - to get the puncture fixed. Luckily there is a Gomeria in pretty much every village, no matter how small it is, to fix your tire for under 10€.

    Before starting the actual border crossing we made an overnight stop at the last fuel station before the border (and only gas station within a several hundred miles radius) and spent our last Argentinian pesos, thinking this would be our last visit to Argentinia.

    The next morning it was time to hit the gravel! Almost directly after turning off the main road the boring endlessness turned into a varied mix of colourful desert, pampa, lakes and canyons with lots of wildlife. We spotted many Guanacos, Nandus, birds, foxes and other animals, and the best: No trace of humans! This was by far one of our favourite stretches of southern patagonia!

    After two hours of stunning sceenery we made it to the actual border: A tiny cabin in the middle of nowhere. First we were worried it was closed but soon spotted some movement behind the curtains. It was the border guard who probably had to put on some pants first before he could attend us. As there was no Internet, the whole migration process was done manually and without computers. Our information was carefully written by hand into big notebooks. Multiple stamps and signatures later, we were back on the road to the Chilean post, which was much more modern.

    The guards there were very friendly and didn't bother to check our car for fruits or seeds and sent us on our way. We had finally made it back to Chile! Interestingly, the scenery changed pretty much immediately. The rocky and barren landscape made way for rolling hills with a lot more vegetation. Guanacos were still around, but they seemed fatter due to all the yummy green grass available.

    Shortly after turning onto the Carretera Austral north of Cochrane, we called it a day and found a nice field with a view of the river to spend the night. Looking forward to a relaxing evening, we parked our car and were ready to get out the camping chairs. Until we spotted our rear left wheel... Another flat tire! Which turned out to be much more difficult to replace. Lots of cursing and imprumptu engineering later, we had our spare wheel fitted but not much sunlight left. We still managed to have dinner with a view and got to bed, not looking forward having to find another Gomeria the next day...

    ⛽️ Nr. Of fuel stations in 500 kms: 1
    🚗 Nr. Of punctures: 2
    🍎 Apples smuggled accross the border: 5
    🤩 Sceenery beauty index: 11/10
    🎥 Drone footage recorded: 5min    Read more

  • Backpacking South America
    2
    Day 31–34

    A hiking Mekka - El Chaltén

    January 28 in Argentina ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    We headed off to El Chaltén with a full tank of fuel - not to repeat the same mistake again (see updated previous post). Seeing the outline of Mount Fitz Roy in the distance, we arrived there in the late afternoon and pondered whether we should just call it a day, relax for a bit and hike the days after. Luckily, we decided to briefly head into town to check the tourist information, who informed us that there would be only one day of good weather left. Since our goal was to see the summit of Mount Fitz Roy in the early morning hours, we hastily packed our bags, laced our hiking boots and headed the mountain towards the view point of Laguna de los Tres. For free! Take that, Torres del Paine.

    When we arrived at the base camp for the early morning summit just before nightfall, we were amazed by the rows and rows of tents sitting between the trees. Apparently we were not the only ones with this plan. We pitched our tent, snuggled up in our sleeping bags and went to sleep for a couple of hours, until our alarm clock awoke us shortly before 5 am 😴. Apparently, we were the late sleepers of the camp, since we could already see some head lamps slowly crawling up the mountain in the darkness. Determined not to miss the sunrise, we hurried our way up the 700m climb, overtaking a number of other hikers (turbo mode: ON) and just made it to the top with 10 minutes to spare. Completing a 1.5h hike in just about 55 minutes.🥵

     When the sun climbed above the surrounding mountain tops, it bathed the scenery in spectacular golden, red and pink light, giving us (and everyone else there) the chance to snap lots of pretty pictures.

    We headed back into camp, took down our tent, and headed back down the mountain. On the way we took another detour hike along the Madre y Hija lagoons and enjoyed having the track completely to ourselves…at least until we were back on one of the main trails which was as busy as it gets with dozens of people hiking up as we were going down.
    When we arrived at the end of the hike we spotted a sign that we must have had conveniently overlooked previously, stating that you could basically die at any moment on this hike, due to part of the mountain glaciers falling off and flash flooding the whole trek. Well, lucky us, today they didn‘t! 🤷‍♀️

    Once back in town in the late afternoon, we treated ourselves to coffee, cheese cake and Wifi in a nice Café.
    The rest of this and the next day were spent with chores, relaxation and recovery, since unfortunately, Laura had caught a bad cold somewhere along the trip.

    🥾 KMs hiked: 23
    ✅ Money spent on hiking: 0€
    ☠️ Chances to die: 1
    #️⃣ Days hiked: 2
    🔥 Cooking gas bottles forgotten: 1
    🍰 Cheesecakes devoured: 1 BIG piece
    🤧 Sneeze index: 100/10    Read more

  • Backpacking South America
    Day 30–31

    Detour back to El Calafate

    January 27 in Argentina ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    It was time to cross back into Argentina once again. Destination: The Argentinian hiking Mekka of El Chaltèn!

    But not without 2 maintenance stops.
    The first one was at the border, where our rental company's road side assistance dude came to meet us to hand over a new pair of camping chairs/table (the ones we had received in the beginning were so broken you could barely use them) and some other replacement parts.

    We then crossed the border, driving the 5km between the chilean emigration and argentinian immigration post twice, as they forgot to stamp our car's paperwork the first time around 😅

    From there we were off to our second maintenance stop: A car paint shop in El Calafate, which we were told would repair our dripping roof. 💦

    We had a quick stop in Esperanza, from where the drive to El Calafate was a mere 163 km through the Argentinian pampa. With a half-full fuel tank and an estimated reach of over 500 km, this seemed like no problem, so we decided not to refuel. Big mistake no. 1! We followed the road signs towards El Calafate and only 15 mins later checked our GPS. Somehow, we had driven in the wrong direction. Mistake no. 2! Now on the right way, but facing very strong headwind, the estimated kms of reach were dropping at an alarming rate. We started to get worried that we would not make it all the way to El Calafate. Turning off the A/C and reducing our velocity, we crawled along the road, baking in the sun like a pair of rotisary chicken. But luckily, we made it to the city with 60 km of reach to spare! Lesson learned for Southern Argentina: Take every refuel opportunity you can get and don‘t trust range estimates!

    Despite our doubts, the mechanic in El Calafate knew what to do, whipped out his ladder, immediately diagnosed the problem showing us some crumbly bits of silicone and went on to renew the window sealant.
    An hour later we were good to go!

    Being back in Argentina we made use of the last Grido shop en-route and treated ourselves to some Grido Frappucinos for Argentinian prices 🥰
    As it was already late, we opted to spend the night on a lovely camp ground in El Calafate, before heading to El Chalten the next day.

    🛃 Nr. of border crossings: 2, officially 1
    🚗 KMs detour for repair: 100
    🍨 Grido Frappés devoured: 1 each
    💧Leaks repaired: all of them (hopefully)    Read more

  • Backpacking South America
    11
    Day 26–30

    Exit through the Gift Shop

    January 23 in Chile ⋅ 🌬 11 °C

    We had a slow start and enjoyed our breakfast with a view before hitting the road, driving some 400km north to Torres del Paine, one of Patagonias big highlights.

    Fuel stations in Patagonia are notoriously scarse, so we took every chance we got to fuel up. At our fitst stop we got to chat to a group of not-so-young-anymore Germans who were on a tour from San Pedro de Atacama to Ushuaia (basically the end of the world) in something that called itself the "Rotel" -> A huge off road capable bus that doubled as a Hotel by unfolding the sidewalls to make room for 20ish bunk beds. Fascinating!

    We continued north and got to the national parks visitor centre - somewhere 50km past the official entrance, and since this season the last and only place you are allowed to stay with your camper for free - in the early evening, after a rather nasty stretch of gravel road. Which made us wonder, what are our entrance fees of 30 euro p.p. being spent on? Not on infrastructure it seems.

    The next morning we got up extra early (5am 😴) hoping to beat the crowds for the most famous route of the park: the hike up to the actual Torres del Paine. A demanding 22km or 9h (return) hike. 🥾
    The early start was absolutely worth it, as we got to see the landscape in the golden morning light, Gauchos bringing in the horses, and only met maybe a hand full of hikers on the way up. The last kilometre of the hike was more of a climbing session leading up up up over big boulders to reach the famous Laguna Torres viewpoint. The tough climb was totally worth it as we were rewarded with a stunning view of the towers and almost no other hikers. Well…at least for another 30minutes, which is when the masses caught up with us. On the way down it felt more like going against the stream on an especially busy german Autobahn. Yak.
    The end of the park's most iconic hike? Exit through the gift shop! Welcome to Chilean Disneyland.

    Towards the end of the day, the weather had turned around a bit. The wind had picked up and it started to rain. Being back in our van, we didn’t mind too much, cooked dinner and looked forward to a peaceful night of sleep.

    Oh well, did I say peaceful? As hinted to in an earlier post, we were in for some surprises with our van. Today’s episode: Wet dreams, or, why is it raining IN the car?!

    At some point during the night, we felt water dripping onto our faces and were suddenly wide awake. The roof window was closed, so where could this come from? First one, then two and by the end of the night five leaks had formed on the inside of our van‘s roof, right above the sleeping area. It was even dripping through the ceiling lamp. WTF!
    In the early morning hours the rain stopped and after some Macgyver-style fixing of the leaks, we could finally get some sleep.

    We slept through half of the day and spent the second half of it trying to get some sort of information and support from the car rental agency. Since there is no signal throughout the park, we were forced to buy one of the 10h wifi passes from the park‘s visitor centre for 16€ (what an absurd price, but still more acceptable than the 1h for 10€ pass), hoping to get it reimbursed at some point. With all of this going on we missed out on most of the 2nd out of 3 days of our park ticket. What a shame! The only thing we did this day was a hidden little nature/birdwatching walk which seemed to not yet be finished, as it did not even appear on the national park‘s trail map (which again had to be purchased separately to the entrance fee, of course).

    On our last day we hoped to go on another day hike on the opposite side of the park, a rough 30km gravel drive away. To get to the trailhead, and later back to the car, we had to take a 30 minute ferry across Lago Pehoe. The price for the ferry? Yet another whopping 50€ p.P. (return trip). The queue was long though, and we barely made it onto the boat, which shows that in Torres del Paine people are willing to pay whatever it takes to „savour the nature“.
    This park is best known for it‘s scenic multi-day hikes, the O and W trek, for which anyone wanting to complete them needs to factor in horrendous camping, food and transportation costs, easily summing up to 1000€ and more for 1 week of trekking. Incredible!

    From the arrival point of the ferry, we went on a very windy 4 hour hike towards a glacier view point. The path partly navigated through areas with burnt-down trees, which likely fell victim to the large forest fire that hit the park some years ago, caused by careless hikers and leading to a ban on wild camping throughout the park. The view at the end of the hike was nice, although could not compare to Perito Moreno, but more impressive was the wind, which almost blew us off our feet!

    All in all we felt that Torres del Paine was very beautiful but also quite overrated and commercialised by now. Apart from the hike up to the Laguna Torres, which is worth it if you start early enough to beat the crowds, it feels more like a visit to the (very crowded) theme park than a national park.
    Especially considering you can go on similarly beautiful hikes in El Chalten (Argentina) for free (more about that soon!).

    🥾 KMs hiked: ~36
    🐈 Pumas seen: 0 🥲
    💧 Nr. of leaks in the roof: 5
    😴 Hours of sleep lost: too many
    👥 Nr. of tourists hiking up torres when we hiked down: ♾️
    🌐 Price for 1h Internet: 1 kidney (well...almost)
    🏔 Iconic views enjoyed: 2    Read more

  • Backpacking South America
    1
    Day 25–27

    Punta Arenas and the End of the Road

    January 22 in Chile ⋅ 🌬 11 °C

    The day had come! We once again made our way south by bus, this time accross the Chilean border (where customes took all our remaining veggies, as usual for Chilean border crossings 😪) to Punta Arenas the largest and one of the most southern towns in Chile.
    We were surprised by the amount of infrastructure and food choices in the supermarket, considering this town is far away from everything!
    After yet another night in a temporary accomodation we set out to the sketchy outskirts of the city - was this a sign of things to come? - to pick up our ride for the next 3 weeks.
    Arriving there, the first thing we saw was a shiny, red and obviously quite new pickup camper that looked just like the one that we had booked.
    Unfortunately, after signing all the paperwork (basically releaving the company of all responsibilities) it turned out...this was not our camper. We got the Nr. 1 instead. The very first of its kind and you could definitely notice. Nevertheless, not having any other choice, we set off hoping the car (and we) would survive the journey to come.

    We decided to head a little further south to the so called "fin de la ...", the southernmost ..., to then start our journey northwards from there.

    Apart from a couple of road signs indicating the end of the road, there was a beautiful, long hike along the ocean shore to an abandonned lighthouse - again the southernmost lighthouse in the Americas! - that we ventured on.
    On our 3 hour hike we were lucky to spot quite a few Dolphins jumping around in the water and even a Whale passing by and blowing its nozzle 🐳
    Unsurprising, being so close to the Arctic circle, it was also pretty cold, which is why we were happy to get back to the warm and cosy Van. We found a beautiful camp spot close to Punta Arenas overlooking the ocean and called it a day.

    We woke up the next morning to the sound of the waves and packed up to make our way to our destination for the next couple of days: Torres del Paine national park!

    🛻 Number of wheels looking like they'd survive the trip: 0
    🐬 Dolphins spotted: 6
    🐳 Whales seen: 1
    🛒 Groceries shopped: a cart full!
    📍Southernmost coordinates traveled to: -53.8, -71.0
    🧄Nr. of Garlics abandonned at border: 2    Read more

  • Backpacking South America
    11
    Day 22–24

    Welcome to Patagonia!

    January 19 in Argentina ⋅ 🌧 5 °C

    After 3 weeks of travelling Uruguay and the north of Argentina it was time to swap out the bikini for a down jacket. Yet another freezing 17 hour bus ride and an overnight stay in Buenos Aires later, we boarded the plane to El Calafate in the (very) early hours of the morning -> Sleep deprivation is becoming our default state during travel.

    We were finally on our way to Patagonia! 🏔🥳

    A domestic flight of 3:30 hours duration tells you how large Argentina is and how remote Patagonia lies. Outside the airplane window, the landscape became more and more barren. So much emptiness!

    We touched down in El Calafate, took a shuttle bus into town to our hostel and later went to check out the city. The town basically exists only because of tourism. There are lots and lots of hotels and hostels, many of them looking like they were freshly imported from Switzerland or some fancy american ski resort, and one main road with all the shops and restaurants, including a Grido ❤️ So we obviously treated ourselves to a tasty cone of ice cream each.

    The main tourist magnet close by is the Perito Merino Glacier, which is fed by the Southern Patagonian Ice Field and is one of the few glaciers that doesn't shrink (too much). So we booked an (overpriced) bus for the next day to take us there for some sightseeing. While there were also more adventurous activities available like a boat tour, kayaking or hiking on the glacier, the prices made our eyes water, and so we decided to skip those and "only" go for the scenic trail walks.

    We (again) woke up quite early and took the bus at 8:30 to the glacier, hoping the first bus of the day would give us a head start before aaall the tourists arrived.

    We had around four hours to roam around the National Park until the return bus and were a bit worried that we'd be done early only walking the hiking paths. But it turned out not to be the case as there were so many different view points with astounding vistas! 🤩
    Turquoise water between mountains with chunks of icebergs, kayaks and boats roaming around, and of course the glacier itself, where every now and then a load roar announced some more ice breaking off and dropping into the water with a powerfull bang! 💥

    Luckily our plan worked out, and we had the trails (mostly) to ourselves for the first half of the day! Until for some reason lots and lots of French tourists started showing up 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♂️

    Tourists or not, the glacier was an absolute highlight and we'd both loved to stay at the park even longer to all its beauty - especially in this amazing, sunny weather! ☀️🏔 But the return was already booked, and so we boarded the bus in the early afternoon and made our way back to town.

    The bus dropped us off close to the city center and we could not resist passing by Grido once again for a frappuccino. On our last evening before entering Chile, we treated ourselves to a tasty stew and meat pie meal in a nice restaurant. We had read that it was a very popular place and when we arrived 5 mins before opening and saw a long queue already formed in front of it, we half expected to be turned away without reservation. But once again we were lucky and got some of the last seats 🍀 A perfect end to a perfect day!

    🧊 Glaciers seen: 1
    💥Icebergs seen collapsing: 1
    🚶‍♀️Hours spent walking the trails: 4
    📸 Pictures taken: 100+
    🍦 Grido visits: 2    Read more

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