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The road network in Argentina is difficult to maneuver because the standard of the roads are highly variable, even for the same road number. There is a famous RN40, which is supposedly going along the west side from south to north, but when we looked into it we had to choose differently or we would have likely ended up with car trouble. Leaving Bariloche, we drove the Camino de Los Siete Lagos, ending up driving RN40 on a good stretch and arriving in San Martín de los Andes

After a lot of talking with locals and learning about the strong wind causing road closures across all of Santa Cruz the following day, we drove the whole day to get to Comodoro Rivadavia. Arriving late Sunday afternoon, we found a nice hotel and decided to stay there to wait the weather out. The next day the city was closed down, meaning that all supermarkets were closed and any activities cancelled. The hotel didn't even have much to choose from food-wise, and it was a

We entered Argentina via the Paso Integración Austral border crossing, and it was a smooth process. On first sight it looked pretty much the same as the part of Chile we had just left, and not until we reached Rio Gallegos did we see the changes. The most obvious was the wind, it was so strong that the ferry we had taken to leave Tierra del Fuego was closed the following days. It turned out that Rio Gallegos is listed as one of the windiest cities on Earth, and when it is

We had one last stretch to cover in Chile, and we decided to do it via Tierra del Fuego which is widely talked about as the end of the world. We needed a ferry from Punta Arenas to Porvenir, the main settlement on the Chilean part of Tierra del Fuego, and we were so lucky that the weather was giving us good conditions for the 2-hour trip across. Porvenir met us with windy weather, and we learned that this part of Patagonia is always windy. The island is barren and dry, ther

From Puerto Natales we had roads to take going south and deeper into Patagonia. The hotel had posters on the walls with the famous images of the Patagonian Cowboy, and once we started to move around we could see real landscapes with cattle and sheep. It is dry and barren, but not like a desert, and it is windy and even in high summer the temperature doesn't get above +15, but it feels quite gentle. Life is not straight forward, and it can be hard to get supplies, and in th

The travel to reach the southern part of Chilean Patagonia is complicated if you travel by road. It is possible to drive, however there are sections where there is no road, and the use of ferries is necessary. These ferries go when they can, and it is quite possible that you would be spending days waiting to get the next one. Another way is to drive crossing the border to Argentina, and then back to Chile, and Argentina again, and so on. This is obviously not totally prac

Our next route was driving from Santiago to Puerto Montt. We had booked a ferry ride from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales, partly to be able to get there as the road conditions in Chilean Patagonia can be a bit on and off, and partly to see the beautiful landscape in the fjords. The ferry was due to leave on 28 October, but it was delayed by a couple of days for unscheduled maintenance. The drive from Santiago to Puerto Montt is some 1,000km, and we wanted a few days to comp

Getting to Easter Island became part of our wishes for the trip, and getting there is easiest from Santiago. It is a 5-hour flight, and there is one flight/day. An agent helped us setting everything up, with flights, accommodation on the island and all tours we could fit in. We decided to spend 3 nights on the island, and it turned out to be just right for us. The tour guide, Tamaru, turned out to be a cultural expert and a very knowledgeable person. We were lucky that we

After years we came back to Santiago, a city we have gotten to know over several trips since the first time in 2000. The very first trip was for Harold to market New Zealand made fishing rods, and after that it has been Karin who has worked in the city for her employer. This time we were mainly tourists, but of course we met up with friends while there. It is still a very nice place, and it has grown a lot since 2012 when we last visited. New, and tall, buildings have been

We entered via the small, remote and very straight forward border crossing at Ollagüe. Even though we had already had a long day, given...