Che and the myth of those Motorcycle Diaries
December 9th 2022, Lautaro.I am writing this dispatch from this small town in south central Chile and I am doing so for a very particular reason.Over the past number of years, when I have mentioned to people my wheeze about riding a motorbike from Tierra del Fuego to...
If you are into motorbikes, this is the place for you
December 7th, Puerto Octay. Alexander (32) from Switzerland used to sit in an office where there were computers on every desk. Most of them had the sort of screen savers popular almost everywhere -- photos of beautiful, often dramatic landscapes that would appear...
Andres and Enrique: heroes of Bahia Murta
November 28th 2022, Bahia Murta. The prospect of 200 or so kms to Coihaique didn't faze me a jot. And it was almost all going to be on an unpaved part of the Carretera Austral, Chile's southern-most highway before the South Patagonia Ice Field severs the country from...
Sometimes, you have to just stand in silence and gaze in awe
November 26 2022 El Calafate, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. I got back to Punta Arenas from Puerto Williams at around midnight and, unlike at Puerto Williams, the ferry crew would not allow passengers without accommodation in the town sleep the night on the boat. I...
An unpaved road and jawdropping vistas
Filed from Puerto GuadalA day that began with such little promise ended in triumph. The road that was worried over, was in the event traveled and traveled well, thanks to the urging of an Australian geologist. The reward was great.I spend the night in a truck stop...
My first Tip2Top cops!
Filed from Curicó, December 11thI had my first Tip2Top cop encounter yesterday -- two of them in fact in quick succession.I was heading north along Ruta 5, the main transport spine that runs north/south the length of the country, ending in the north only when it hits...
Osorno versus Puerto Octay – no contest . . .
Osorno, December 8thWhat must surely be the world's ugliest church, Parroquia San Francisco, looks out over Plazuela Yungay in the center of Osorno. I came across it last evening on my wander, having settled into my latest hostel, the Hostel del Chaman, a really nice...
A little bit of Germany in Chile. . .
December 5th 2022Puerto Octay, near OsornoI am sitting on a bench in a campsite in Puerto Octay. It's early morning, the sun is fighting to break through some dull, misty cloud and I'm feeling rather pleased with life.This is a lovely little place.I got here late...
Santiago
When things start coming at you, they can come slowly at first and then all of a sudden. It’s Monday, March 20th and I’m in Eliana’s place, my hostel bolthole in Punta Arenas. I got into Chile four days previously, on the eve of the Argentine/Chile border being closed...
A journey through the Americas: Soldiers, flamingos, Andes (Irish Times Article)
Having made it into Chile from Argentina just before the frontier was sealed to all transnational movement because of coronavirus, the question now was, “is there a way to move up the country?” Chile’s southern-most region, the very bottom of continental America, is...