When we arrived in Buenos Aries at the start of our trip, we were very excited to see Monk Parakeets strolling around the lawns. Half an hour, and many photographs, later we had noticed that everyone else was ignoring them because they are so common! That was our introduction to a group of birds (parakeets, parrots and macaws) that we grew to be very fond of over the course of our journey. The sound of a flock of parakeets flying overhead became something of a home comfort to us. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Chile
Birding from the Yellow Van I: An overview by two complete amateurs
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Climbing in Chile and Bolivia: Places with potential
Rock climbing has only recently become a popular activity in Chile and Bolivia and this is most obvious when you see who is climbing – most people are in their 20s. Unless you are a mountaineer, or fancy a go at climbing the formidable Torres del Paine, then the crags are probably best visited as an element of a wider trip to explore the country, as they were for us. Saying that, there is plenty of potential for rock climbing in these two beautiful countries. Continue reading
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Some thoughts on the wines of Argentina and Chile
Comparing some Torrontes
A wonderful thing about spending much of 2015 travelling around both Argentina and Chile was that we had an opportunity to do quite a lot of wine tasting in two of the world’s great wine regions. This was a task we took seriously to heart and luckily there was some trekking in Patagonia to try and offset the expanding waistlines…
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A year in the van in review
A year ago today, the van was pushed out of it’s shipping container, given a push start by a fork-lift truck and then made it’s first journey on South American soil straight to the nearest VW garage! A year later, these 12 pictures are our highlights of our first year on the road in Latin America, along with some reflections…. Continue reading
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The Atacama Desert: More of it, and for longer, than expected
As we descended into the Atacama Desert, the driest place on earth outside of the polar regions, on Sunday 12 July, we were expecting to spend around a week exploring the area around San Pedro de Atacama, but that wasn’t quite how things turned out…
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Cities, wines and climbs: Santiago to Mendoza
Central Chile and mid-Andean Argentina is where most of the vineyards of these two great wine producing countries are. The region also includes some great cities (Santiago, Valparaiso and Mendoza) that have the added charm of decent climbing nearby… Continue reading
A tale of two islands: Robinson Crusoe and Easter Islands
With Santiago as our base, we were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to travel to both the seldom visited Robinson Crusoe Island, to do some research fieldwork, and the more famous Easter Island (Rapa Nui), as tourists….
The winding road to Santiago – part 2: Southern Chile
Buying blue (and other) potatoes on Chiloe
On our route north to Santiago we a zig-zaged, to and fro across the Andes, between Argentina and Chile. The Argentinian sections are in the accompanying blog here. Our Chilean journey started with the wild Carretera Austral in far south. We then detoured back east into Argentina, before a final leg back in Chile from the largest island in South America, passing (and narrowly missing) active volcanoes all the way up to Santiago.
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Southern Andes: Our first three encounters
We started our journey north, following the Andes, in Tierra del Fuego, where the very southern peaks are smaller but magical, covered in snow. From there, the roads north take you back into the desert of the Patagonian steppe, with the mountains usually not far from view to your left. Only forays into the national parks along the eastern edge of the range are possible by road – but those encounters with some dramatic massifs have been breathtaking…
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Yellow Van Days 