Last stop on our whirlwind trip of Patagonia was the coastal town of Puerto Madryn. Its conveniently placed around about the halfway mark between Río Gallegos (right down south on the Atlantic coast) and Buenos Aires, some two solid days travel away. It turned out to be a bit of a bitch to get, Read More
After our recovery day in El Calafate we headed further south towards Torres del Paine, which is in neighbouring Chile. Our route there took us across the flat, open and incredibly barren pampas, with the occasional estancia or glimpse of the Andes to the west (we even say Torres del Paine in the distance, Read More
We spent a day in El Calafate to have a well-earned break, unwind and recover from our climb. We however couldn’t leave Calafate without seeing the world-famous Perito Moreno Glacier 80km away, and took the bus out there in the morning. Now I’ve seen a lot of glaciers in my time, but this one, Read More
I remember the first time I heard of the Ice Cap (also called the South Patagonian Ice Field or the Continental Ice Cap), many years ago now as I was just getting into the mountain scene. I was flicking through a Macpac outdoor gear catalog from NZ and they had a full double-page photo of their, Read More
What can I say, I loooooooove this city!!! I’ve been here for a few weeks now and am really getting into it. I arrived after a hellishly long trip across the Pacific. I first had an 18 hours stopover in Auckland overnight which sucked (ever wondered who “that guy” is sleeping on the lounge, Read More
The final stop on our South American vacation was Ecuador. We flew into Quito – the 2nd highest capital city in the world! – and while it’s at 3000m we didn’t have any problems acclimatizing to the altitude as we’d just come from Bogota which is also pretty high. Fascinating Quito! We, Read More
Now I have to admit that my desire to backpack through Colombia was for a few different reasons: I felt like traveling somewhere considered “unsafe” (I had my reasons but you’re not allowed ask me why) I wanted to see what Colombia was all about ,and whether it deserved the bad wrap it usually, Read More
Andy Passmore and I flew down to South America for our Christmas vacation. We didn’t have a firm plan as such: we just bought a Lonely Planet guidebook and looked for a cheap fare to South America. And that’s how we ended up in Caracas. We arrived in Caracas at night without a hotel, Read More
Rugby Club Zurich has a tradition to go on tour every Easter, typically to a city around Europe like Berlin, Edinburgh, London or Stockholm, but in 2002 the club decided to go big and head to Brazil. Some 35 team mates signed up for the tour and our trip was for around 2 1/2 weeks with three, Read More