Medellín

A few weeks ago, we made use of another opportunity to travel to Colombia, when a conference which Patricia was invited to speak at coincided with the Fiestas Patrias National Holiday in Chile. This meant that the country pretty much shut down for a whole week, which made it easier to escape form our work commitments for a few extra days.

The Cordillera Blanca, Peru (part 2)

Once we were back from our Santa Cruz Trek, we had a few days left in Huaraz, which we spent recovering/relaxing in town and going on a couple of day-trips: 

The Cordillera Blanca, Peru (part 1)

Travelling back from Bogotá, where Patricia had attended a conference recently, we made a stop-over in Peru instead of heading back directly to Santiago. For a while now, we've been wanting to visit the Cordillera Blanca, last year we nearly made it… but then Patricia started a new job and the plans were shelved.

Bogotá

Patricia had to go to a conference in Bogotá recently, and since we hadn´t been there before we decided to travel together and spend a couple of extra days to explore the city. Colombia is quite a way from Chile (i.e. a 6 hour flight), so after all these years in South America it was only our second brief visit to this beautiful and diverse country.

Fiery drinks and snowy peaks

The southern winter has caught up with us again and, just like in previous years, the mountains around Santiago have had their first coat of fresh snow at the end of May, while down here in the city we finally received some badly needed rain.

Valle de Aguas Calientes

It is early May and the summer heat has given way to a pleasantly sunny central-Chile-autumn: the perfect time for some beautiful hikes! With the International Workers' Day falling on a Tuesday this year, we thought we'd make an extra-long weekend of it and spent it in Las Trancas near the Nevados de Chillán volcano complex, about 400km south of Santiago.

Cerro La Leonera - 4950(ish) meters above sea level

One of the benefits of living in Santiago are the numerous hiking opportunities that present themselves nearby. This is a blog post about a trek to a nearly 5000m peak, which had been on our to-do list for a few years now, and which we managed to "bag" a couple of weekends ago q-:

Bariloche

The last leg of our end-of-the-year-2017 trip took us to Bariloche which is (apparently!) the most visited spot in Patagonia. It is a nice place and with all of the amenities (including decent veggie food options), although we would not consider it "real Patagonia"... at least compared with where we had just travelled from it seems a little too manicured, with nice lawns and nice houses and golf clubs etc.

Futaleufu and the rock of the eagle

Futaleufu (or Futa) is a city of approximately 2000 inhabitants located in northern Patagonia. In Mapudungun (Mapuche language) the name means "big river". It is well known for its water sports. Its name comes from the closest river which is known as one of the top 3 spots for rafting worldwide.

Puyuhuapi

Having completed our Cerro Castillo Trek, we started travelling north from Coyhaique along the Carretera Austral, using one of the local buses that are heading that way. Once leaving behind town, one is quickly surrounded by lush temperate rain forest and an impressive mountain scenery. Our first stop was Puyuhuapi, a tiny village about 140km north for Coyhauique.