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The story of how Chile’s greatest puma hunter became a puma protector, was one I’d heard countless times in Torres del Paine over the last couple of years. His skills were the stuff of legend, and even the most experienced puma trackers I met at lodges would smile and shake their heads in disbelief when […]

When it comes to Patagonia’s wildlife, people often talk about the ‘Big 5’: the puma, condor, guanaco, huemul deer and Darwin’s rhea. They’re all great to see of course, but there’s a certain degree of terrestrial bias when it comes to the list: they’re species you can see inland in one of the region’s great […]

If you’re a red wine drinker, the chances are high that you’ve enjoyed at least one bottle of Argentina’s most celebrated export at some time: its world-beating malbec wine. You can find a bottle in just about any supermarket that sells wine, but until now I didn’t know much about its story, so I headed […]

Some destinations are places of the imagination as much as points on a map. The Pyramids, the Grand Canyon or Mount Everest – they’re the sort of places that inspire you to dream of travel, even before you really know exactly what you’re going to find there. Easter Island is definitely somewhere like that, an […]

Shut your eyes and imagine Patagonia for a moment. What do you see? If you’re like most people, you’ll probably have a picture of some wild mountains. And if you added some animals, there might be condors soaring high above, while a puma stalks guanacos on the slopes below.  If this sounds like a cliché, […]

It’s been 25 years since I first travelled to Patagonia and had my heart captured by its amazing wild landscapes. When I founded Swoop 10 years later, the region was on the cusp of change, with increasing tourist numbers and many of the challenges that can bring to both the environment and local communities.  I […]

What’s the most iconic drink in Argentina and Chile? If you take a look at a wine rack, you might imagine a full-bodied Malbec from Mendoza, or a flinty Sauvignon Blanc from Chile’s central wine valleys. They’re both delicious of course – and internationally celebrated, but if you’re an Argentinian or a Chilean, you’ll be […]

‘Eat locally and eat seasonally’ is what people say when they’re recommending healthy meals that have a low impact on the planet. It’s a great aspiration, but one that’s not always simple to stick to with a busy lifestyle. When the convenience of a supermarket or home delivery is there, sometimes it’s easier to eat […]

For a number of years I have been travelling around Chile, documenting rural life and learning about my country’s many traditional cultures.  This April, I went to Lonquimay in Araucanía, just north of my home in Pucón, to photograph the annual Fiesta del Piñón. This festival celebrates the harvest of the pehuen (or piñón in […]

There are few things as completely Argentinian than the tango. It’s the dance that defines our national character, born out of the country’s immigrant experience in the first decades of the 20th Century. Sometimes it’s slow and sensual, and sometimes it snaps like a sharply turned heel. Either way, I love it.  Most visitors to […]

What do you do when your inflatable kayak gets a puncture while you’re crossing a lake strewn with icebergs, and you’re over a week’s overland travel from the nearest town? That was the challenge faced by explorer and environmentalist Charlie Tokeley on his expedition to Lago Greve, one of the largest, most remote and least […]

We’ve long been in love with Patagonia’s extraordinary landscapes, but what keeps us coming back time after time are its people. The deep relationships that we’ve built with our friends and partners over the years in Chile and Argentina allow us to show travellers the very best of the region – and we always adore […]

Torres del Paine National Park is home to some of Chile’s most iconic sights. Any hiker or trekker will be instantly familiar with views of the immense granite Towers that give the park its name, and the wild crags of the Cuernos that sit on top of the Paine Massif. Put together and they’re a […]

For most people, Patagonia conjures up visions of endless mountains, with condors soaring down from the snowy peaks, endless plains of pampas grass, the blue glaciers of Tierra del Fuego or the Chilean Fjords. But there’s another side to this vast region that deserves to be better known: Patagonia’s Atlantic coast.   This is an area […]

In the late 1920s, sub-editors on the Times of London came up with a game to entertain themselves during tedious evening shifts. A prize was awarded to whoever wrote the dullest headline that made it into print. In his autobiography, journalist and novelist Claud Cockburn claimed to have won the competition on one occasion with […]

At Swoop, we don’t just talk about Patagonia all day – we live and breathe it. Our team travels regularly throughout the region, plus we have many Swoopers who live in both Chile and Argentina, from the Lakes in northern Patagonia right down to Puerto Natales close to Torres del Paine.  In the 2024/25 travel […]

Patagonia is a place where everything seems to be produced on the most epic scale. It’s a place of huge landscapes, impossible mountain ranges and plains of pampas that seem to stretch out to the horizon forever. It can feel like small measures don’t exist here.  But maybe they should. On previous trips in Patagonia […]

Most travellers’ experience of Tierra del Fuego starts and finishes in Ushuaia, Argentina’s southernmost city, that sits on a narrow strip of land between the mountains and the waters of the Beagle Channel. It’s a fine place to start a trek or catch an adventure cruise ship to Cape Horn or even Antarctica, as well […]

‘Patagonia!’, wrote the British aristocratic explorer Lady Florence Dixie in 1880. ‘Who would ever think about going to such a place? … Why, it is thousands of miles away, and no one has ever been there before, except Captain Musters, and one or two other adventurous madmen!’ Well, Lady Florence, Captain Musters—or to give him […]

I grew up in a bilingual household, speaking both English and Welsh and I’m very proud of my Welsh heritage, but I never realised, until I started working for Swoop Patagonia, that the connection my family home in north Wales had with Patagonia. It is a hidden history that I wasn’t taught at schools – […]