Backpacking South America

Happy New Year! This post arrives a few days late, but hopefully you’ve all had wonderful celebrations and have a clean slate for the upcoming year.

We started our journey August 19, 2009. We’re now more than 4 months in and I think the greatest adventures still lie ahead of us. Our plan has changed slightly, but not significantly. The biggest change to our original plan is that we will make it to Ushuaia via Argentina and Chile and fly back north, instead of retracing our steps or taking a combination of a boat ride and bus trip spanning several days.

Anyway, here is the rough outline of our travels in 2010 that will take us through Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia.

Central Chile – Santiago to Chiloe

From Buenos Aires we’ll make our way to Santiago, Chile and spend a few days exploring the city and nearby wine regions. We then begin making our way south through the Central Valley (more wine…), volcanoes, and lakes of Chile. When we reach Puerto Montt, we’ll take a ferry and a few days to explore Chiloe, an island with wooden churches and mysterious other-world feel.

Southern Argentina – Bariloche, Lakes District and the Glaciers

We’ll cross into Argentina from Puerto Montt, Chile and stop in Bariloche.

This post has been updated as of January 2009

The New Year is a long way off, so a lot can and likely will change.  Our trip plan becomes a bit less defined at this point.  We hope that encounters with fellow travelers will help shape our exact itinerary, but we have a general plan of heading south along route 40, which lies in the shadows of the Andes.

Lakes District and Patagonia

We will be making frequent stops in mountain towns like Bariloche and El Bolson, the Welsh villages of Esquel and Trevelin, and a visit Parque Nacional Los Glaciares – home to the world’s third largest ice cap.  All this as we make our way to the southern most city in the world – Ushuaia.  We intend to take our time, enjoy the scenery, and likely fight the summer vacation crowds along the way.

Chile

Once we reach the bottom of the continent, it will be time to make our way back north.  At this point, our trip will decidely shift to a focus on Chile. Our first destination with be Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, where We’ll head out on a 5-7 day hike through the park.  After exhausting ourselves with the hike, we will take a few shorter hikes and hopefully spend a couple days kayaking in fjords of Chilean Patagonia.