So excited to start on a new adventure – more than 6 weeks of exploring Chile from the southernmost tip of the country (Tierra del Fuego) to the highest peaks of the Andes in the Atacama desert. And the best part: Julian will come along for some extended father – son time.
The rough plan is to spend some days in Santiago de Chile to get used to climate, culture, and food and do some day-trips birding in the surrounding region. Then we will fly to the Isla de Navarino in Tierra del Fuego south of the Beagle Channel and vis-a-vis Antarctica for our first hike. Following that remote excursion we target the 7-day O-loop hike in the Torres del Paine National Park after which we move north with a five day ferry towards Puerto Montt through fjords and the open Pacific. After well deserved and sufficient relaxation (they offer deck yoga, I heard), we will then climb a small but very beautiful glaciated volcano, the Osorno. Quickly hurrying northward for 2000km in two overnight busses, we will then explore the Atacama desert in a 4WD rental car. Not only is the Atacama desert the driest desert in the world, it also offers a lot of high and therefore enticing mountains – let’s see in which state our fitness level and our psychological endurance is by then and how far (high) we get.
A lot of preparation and planning has gone into this trip, logistics are all in place, physical fitness leaves some room for improvement but as usual I will work on it on the road.
We will have a lot to carry as we have to be prepared for a wide range of environmental conditions, mainly high winds, rain, and low temperatures, and need to bring along tent, mattresses, sleeping bags, cooking gear, and food.
And all the new equipment needs to be tested of course, so we have already spent a winter night in our new 4-season tent in the backyard.
And test cooked some of the freeze-dried food on our multi-fuel stove.
In case we really make it to the end and have enough stamina to try the highest mountain of the Atacama desert, the Ojos del Salado (6870m) we will have a small section of fixed ropes. Apart from helmet, crampons, and ice axe (for potential snow), this requires equipment for safely ascending and descending (abseiling or rappelling), so I treated Julian to some theory lessons and we practiced rappelling from our walnut tree in the front yard.
I hope you will enjoy partaking in our travels! Here are new developments on the homepage that might help:
- On the top right of the homepage (wolebetravel.com) there is a field “Active Location” that shows you where we are, when we are actively moving, and all the tracks that we have completed.
- We will not have regular access to the internet, so upload might be irregular. If you don’t want to miss anything, subscribe to receive mail updates by providing your e-mail in the field at the bottom of the home page.
- There is access to previous trips (Nepal, Costa Rica, Corsica)
- There is a search field in case you look for specific information within any post
- And please comment and provide feedback
And here we are, the last picture from Germany at the airport, Julian and I ready to go.
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