Horsing around

Salto de las Rosas, San Rafael, Mendoza, Argentina [by Jeremy] We haven’t seen another soul all day. The mountains reflect as if the lake were a shimmering sheet of tinted glass. The gentle swish as we ride through the shallows of the clear lake waters is the only sound. This is nature, on a grand […]

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Hell of a hike

San Rafael, Argentina / Kent, UK [by Paula] Occasionally, I may be prone to over-stating things – just a little. So when we woke up in what should have been a peaceful mountain refuge, to the sounds of 30 hysterical children rampaging around in the dorm we were sharing with them, I looked at Jeremy […]

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In pursuit of penguins

  Bariloche, Argentina [by Paula] If, like us, you’ve got a bit of a thing for penguins you’ll probably enjoy this blog post. If you’re not that bothered about penguins, well, you are clearly dead inside. Not enjoying this blog post is, therefore, the least of your worries. Come on, can you really resist this […]

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Because I’m worth it

Esquel, Patagonia, Argentina [by Jeremy] Well, we’re here now. I suppose we better go and see what all the fuss is about. There are some places that are so hyped, so over-hyped, so busy with group tours, so universally covered in glossy travel magazines or eulogised by backpackers that you instinctively feel like you’re going […]

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Land of fire

El Calafate, Argentina [by Paula] When European explorers reached ‘the end of the world’ at Tierra del Fuego in the 1500s, they called it the ‘land of fire’ because they could see hundreds of little blazes on the coastline and believed the indigenous natives were waiting to ambush them. In fact, the people were just […]

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Ice, ice baby

Punta Arenas, Chile [by Paula] It would be fair to say that Christmas Day 2014 did not begin with a cheery festive smile. Anyone that knows me will be aware that without an early morning cup of tea, I am a non-functioning mess of a sub-human, as well as being really very unhappy. Jeremy knows […]

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Charming Chiloé

Ushuaia, Argentina [by Paula] Last week we blogged ‘live’ from our arrival in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego. But there’s still some catching up to do about the places we visited on the way here, over the last month. Here’s a flashback to Chiloé, Chile, in December. — In these chillier climes, there are fewer things […]

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End of the road?

Ushuaia, Argentina [by Paula] We did it. After 1,199 days, with 17 countries visited and 41,657 miles (66,651km) travelled, at lunchtime yesterday we rolled into the southern-most city in the world. Ushuaia, in Tierra del Fuego, was our ultimate goal. From here, the only way is up. There were watery eyes as we drove the […]

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Snow joke

Cucao, Chiloé, Chile [by Paula] I like to think that one of the few positives of being away from the family is that my parents have taken some trips to Latin America that they might not otherwise have embarked upon. Each year they can escape those harsh Scottish winters and spend a few weeks somewhere […]

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If you’re tired of Buenos Aires, try harder

Villa La Angostura, Argentina [by Paula] We arrived in Buenos Aires on an overnight ferry, bleary-eyed and begging for more sleep, and things pretty much continued that way until we left a month later. BA is the kind of city that you gorge on until you feel a bit sick. So many atmospheric bars, quality […]

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The road to Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires, Argentina [by Paula] The urge to just get ‘there’ – wherever there may be – is not something with which the slow traveller is familiar. Whilst most of us have goals and destinations in mind, the desire to arrive has to be resisted, or else you’re not really going to appreciate the things […]

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Water, water everywhere

Buenos Aires, Argentina [by Paula] We Brits are sticklers for punctuality. So it seemed a trifle rude to turn up to our friends’ house in Buenos Aires, more than a year late. “Sorry about that,” we said. “Hope the dinner’s not ruined.” We’d last seen Karen and Gustavo at a trade union conference in Costa […]

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Argentina, we meet at last

San Ignacio Guasú, Paraguay [by Paula] The arid deserty landscapes of northern Argentina notwithstanding, the country is proving to be something of an oasis. With a few small exceptions, we’ve loved so much about the 15 countries we’ve visited on this trip, but the thing about Argentina is that it has so many of the […]

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On a mission

Salta, Argentina [by Paula] Given how unbelievably sweaty, dusty and thirsty we were, it was hard to imagine how it must have been for the 17th-century Jesuit priests who had to trek here from Paraguay. I mean, I don’t think they even had ice cream shops then. The majority of our associations with Bolivia are […]

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Home from home

By Jeremy Put a few travellers in a room, add a beer, rum or vino to the equation and talk always turn to it. Could you live here? Everyone has had the feeling at some time or another, be it whilst whiling away the days in a hammock on a golden sandy beach, atop a […]

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Ramble in the jungle

La Paz, Bolivia [by Paula] There are so very many bitey stingy things in the jungle, but it was the ants that really messed with my head. You just can’t see those bastards coming. And of course there’s nothing a jungle guide likes more than to tell stories of agonising pain, poisoning and death to […]

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Road days of our lives

La Paz, Bolivia [by Paula] We often berate ourselves for forgetting to properly record one of the most significant parts of this trip – those days on the road that, periodically, take so much of our time and energy. We’re not exactly rapid travellers – our daily average mileage over the last three years is […]

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Over the top

Cusco, Peru [by Paula] There was a time in our lives when we thought we were beach people. From our London desks we used to dream of building some little cabañas in Zanzibar or on the Pacific coast of the Americas, and living out the years with the sand between our toes. But one thing […]

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Life’s a beach

Huanchaco, Peru [by Paula] I’d like to say that the month we’ve just spent at the beach in northern Peru was a necessary pit-stop, a chance to get fit by jogging daily, perhaps, or the perfect opportunity to brush up on some Spanish verbs. But really we were just plumbing previously unchartered depths of laziness. […]

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A transmission tragedy – abridged

by Paula You might have wondered how a broken van could possibly take 11 months to repair. We’ve frequently pondered that too. Now that we’re happily on our way again, lazing on a sun-kissed Peruvian beach, let’s have a little flashback. If you are not remotely interested, step away now because it’s not going to […]

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