Patagonia and other adventure travel destinations

  On the Patagonia cruise tours between Punta Arenas and Ushuaia, there’s plenty of wildlife, including elephant seals, sea lions and penguins, but whales are relatively uncommon. Chile has enacted legislation declaring the country a whale sanctuary, and populations are increasing, but in the eastern Strait of Magellan and the Beagle Channel they’re usually vagrants […]

Wayne Bernhardson

Recently, in Punta Arenas, I paid my first visit to the Instituto de la Patagonia in several years. It’s actually an academic research institute, founded by local historian Mateo Martinic in the 1970s and affiliated with the Universidad by Magallanes, but it also features the Museo del Recuerdo, a mostly open-air museum that makes an […]

Wayne Bernhardson

This is our proposal for a 2 weeks Itinerary around Chile.

Australis

Paraguay Unmissable Highlights Less developed and more inaccessible than the other countries that make up the Southern Cone, Paraguay requires a greater deal of pre-planning to ensure that you can safely visit its highlights. But despite its unpolished exterior, Paraguay astonishes with its huge expanses of semi-arid but wildlife-rich virgin forest and crumbling monuments that […]

Australis

An old maritime saying claims that: “Below 40 degrees latitude, there is no law. Below 50 degrees, there is no God”. Cape Horn, which lies at 55°56’ south latitude and 67°19’ west longitude, certainly fits the sentiments of this adage. Given the wildness of the waters and the winds that plague the oceans surrounding this […]

Australis

One of the greatest challenges facing visitors to Cape Horn is the weather that they will likely encounter. Cruise ship companies sometimes incorporate two attempts at rounding Cape Horn and landing on the island into their itineraries to have a better chance of success in the face of possible inclement and difficult weather conditions. What […]

Australis

  As I wrote recently, my own semi-spontaneous Patagonia excursions differ from those of visitors who cannot devote so much time to the Patagonia region that I enjoy every year. In contrast to that earlier itinerary, today I’ll suggest a rather different but overlapping trip to Patagonia; it starts in Buenos Aires and ends in […]

Wayne Bernhardson

  Visitors on a Patagonia adventure cruise are usually well-traveled people, and may notice that South America’s Pacific coast is a mirror image of North America’s. Southwest of Puerto Montt, the island of Chiloé has a geography similar to Canada’s Vancouver Island – a verdant, densely forested Pacific coastline that alternates rocky headlands and seemingly […]

Wayne Bernhardson

Looking at the map, many travelers planning a Patagonia cruise overestimate South America’s remoteness because, beyond the tip of the continent, the next thing they see is Antarctica. In reality, at a latitude of 56° S, Cape Horn is almost exactly the same distance south of the Equator as Edinburgh is to the north, but […]

Wayne Bernhardson

Fancy running through wild, unspoiled terrain close to one of the world’s most spectacular national parks?   You’re not alone: on September 6th,  the 6th annual Patagonian International Marathon saw fearless runners attempting the most ancient of running distances – but in a completely unique location. Confronting some of Patagonia’s most beautiful landscapes 10 km, 21 […]

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