Author: Paul

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 home to some of the most dramatic landscapes on the planet, from thick temperate rainforests and wild steppe to fjord-crinkled coastlines and the great glacier-clad spine of the Andes Mountains that run along its entire length.  These aren’t just beautiful wilderness areas, ripe for exploration by adventurous travellers. A recent study has shown […]

In March and April 2025, a cheerful scene has been playing out in Chacabuco Valley in the heart of Chile’s Aysen region. Dozens of baby birds, looking like stripy ducklings on stilts, peck happily in the dirt and grass, investigating their new home. They have been bred under the most careful supervision, and are getting […]

It’s a classic movie scene. Two children in a car huddle in terror. The ground shakes with the approach of something scary. We catch glimpses of the beast: a passing tail, an enormous clawed foot and a beady eye looking through the car’s rain-streaked window. As the tension builds, the camera finally pulls back as […]

If you could bottle a country, what would it taste like? Ireland surely would taste of Guinness, Italy a shot of espresso, while a reassuring cup of tea would stand in for England. And Chile? Well, as the fourth biggest wine exporter in the world, the answer lies on the wine aisle of any supermarket. […]

The coastline of Chilean Patagonia is crinkly edged. The Andes Mountains begin their slow eruption for the sea here, leaving behind them a steep-sided landscape punctuated by some of the world’s most spectacular fjords. It’s a perfect landscape when seen from the water on an expedition cruise or by kayak, but until relatively recently little […]

The map of Tierra del Fuego is littered with so many sad place names that you’re often left feeling that its first European visitors just weren’t having a very good time. Places like Disappointment Bay, Port Famine and the Gulf of Sorrows hardly offered encouragement to potential colonists – and even today a traveller might […]

Any traveller to Argentinian Patagonia quickly becomes familiar with the name Perito Moreno. It’s the name of one of the region’s most celebrated landmarks, the epic Perito Moreno Glacier in Los Glaciares National Park, which can be explored in a host of ways, from boat trips along its frozen cliffs to ice-hiking on its back. […]