Cerro Castillo
Doubts. They just keep coming back. No matter how many hikes I’ve done, problems I’ve solved and adventures I’ve lived, I always end up questionning if I’ve got what it takes. This time I’m feeling particularly vulnerable. I leave camp early and the thoughts start rolling in. Then I’m doing…
50 shades of blue in Río Tranquilo
There’s a lot of trekking on the Patagonian part of my trip. Currently I’m on the carretera austral, Chile’s southern highway, and it’s basically a string of national parks. But after many hikes, it was nice to make Puerto Río tranquilo my base for a few days of different activities.…
Patagonian challenges
Some days are tough. There’s not always a clear reason and often it’s more a feeling of being out of sorts. Of being in your head. Of not really being in the moment. And I had this the day I took all my things into the Chacabuco sector of Patagonia…
In between
Crossing the border from El Chaltèn to Villa o’Higgins I’m sitting on a big boulder. There was a sign that says “mirador Fitzroy”. I have already exited Argentina and this time even received a stamp, but although I’m on Chilean territory, the border authorities do not know I have arrived…
Trekking los Glaciares: laguna Torre
After a beautiful first day, I woke up to a much better day than expected. The sky wasn’t completely covered in thick grey clouds and my tent wasn’t wet. How unexpected. Some people head up the steep trail to laguna de los tres in the dark in order to catch…
Trekking Los Glaciares National Park: Fitzroy
The weather forecast looked horrendous when I booked my campsites. But if there’s one thing I learned, it’s that the mountains are unpredictable and in many places the forecast has been wrong. So I was pleased to wake up to a seemingly perfect day. Sure, there were some clouds, a…
The growling glacier: Perito Moreno
It’s expensive. 45.000 pesos for a day in the national park, which is about 45 euro. I decided to buy a one year national park pass for 200 euro instead, hoping to visit many more of Argentina’s parks. On top of that I shared in rental costs for a car.…
The land of fire
At the end of the world, as they call it, you can find the national park Tierra del Fuego, land of fire. I’m not sure where the name comes from, but there are signs everywhere saying you can’t make a fire. Fire has devastated much of Patagonia’s national parks and…
Veni, vidi, Vinciguerra
One evening I’m sipping tea and see a familiar face arrive at the hostel. Judith had made it to Ushuaia and I told her about my plan to hike to the Vinciguerra glacier. The next day we hopped into an Uber to the trail head together. Our enthusiastic taxi driver…
Defeating self doubt in laguna del Caminante
After lots of doubts I now stood at the start of the walk to laguna del Caminante. The trail head was only 5 km away from my hostel and I would walk all the way around the side of Ushuaia through the mountains, with an overnight stay at the lagoon.…