It’s been a while since I last posted photos on here but ill health has prevented travel for the last 3 months.

In 2008 we went on a land tour to a few South American countries. At the time I had a pretty simple camera so I haven’t posted any photos on this site (yet). We recently watched and enjoyed the presenter Simon Reeves when he focused on The Wilderness as this included Patagonia in South America. It rekindled our desire to return to this part of the world. It was touch and go as to whether I would be fit enough to travel but I was given the go ahead 5 days before we were due to depart!!

The trip was planned out for us by Phil at the South American specialists Last Frontiers. These guys have all visited the areas they recommend and work closely with their agents in each country. I must say we felt safe and stayed in really nice places. The agents in Chile particularly impressed us, actually coming to meet us in Puerto Varas where they were based.

Chile and Argentina had both changed since 2008. Argentina in particular has suffered from huge inflation – from about 6 pesos to the £ to currently 1300 pesos to the £. Prices were high especially in the tourist areas where we paid a lot to eat in a restaurant. Chile was more reasonable and the food was very good. Try a Parrilla – it will feed you for a week or empanadas which are so much nicer than our savoury pies and made freshly and quickly.

We kept the travelling simple, visiting the Chilean Lakes, Torres Del Paine in Chile and El Calafate, Ibera Wetlands in Argentina. Notable places were the wonderful Posada de Laguna in Ibera where the food served was 5* and Mirador De Guadal in Puerto Guadal, run by the friendliest and most helpful Dutch family and also wonderful homemade and freshly cooked food. If you love birds you must visit the local disused mine – it’s a goldmine for birds!!

I hope you enjoy the photos – I have a few interesting photobombs which I have included and we didn’t manage to see one puma in Torres Del Paine – we saw 2!! They were of course not that close as we didn’t want to become breakfast!!

As ever, please feel free to comment or ask questions. If you are tempted to write an unrelated comment – please don’t as it will just be trashed. Thank you.