December
2009
Patagonia
The southern tip of South America is a wild place, with some of the most beautiful scenery on earth all packed into a tight little area. One of the reasons I chose Chile for my year abroad was this place, and after 11 months of working in Santiago/London/Sao Paulo, Ashley and I were finally able to get down there for two weeks in December. We headed 3,000 km south from Santiago to Punta Arenas and began our journey there.
We spent 5 days trekking in Torres del Paine, the most famous National Park in Chile. The weather was incredible, unseasonably warm and calm (constant 70 km/h winds are common) and we had loads of sun. Other than some unfortunate food poisoning on our last day, the 80km trek was fantastic. We saw huge granite towers and peaks, crystalline blue water, guanacos, glaciers and took in the clean air.
Next we headed overland to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world at the very edge of Argentina on an arduous, 14-hr bus ride across the most barren sheep grazing country we’d ever seen. We boarded the Cruceros Australis and spent 4 days circling Tierra del Fuego and the archipelago along its western coast.
The two weeks flew by and sadly we had to return to Santiago to liquidate furniture and pack up for our trip home.
You can find the full set of photos here.
Matt 
