Author: Paul

A road trip is one of the great dreams of travel. It’s no wonder that time and again songwriters have returned to the idea of a car and a highway that stretches on forever as the ultimate promise of freedom. Bruce Springsteen practically built a career on the idea, and everyone knows that Route 66 […]

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. […]

Patagonia has no shortage of incredible scenery. From the volcano-dotted landscapes of Chile and Argentina’s Lake Districts, the spine of the Andes mountains with its glaciers, ancient forests and crinkled fjords, to the wild coastline at the southernmost tip of the Americas, this is a region made for adventure travel.  But which are the best […]

Note: This article was updated on 14 November 2024 In July 2024, Chilean authorities announced that the Las Guardas Bridge, a key crossing point along the O Circuit trail in Torres del Paine National Park, had been seriously damaged by winter avalanches. We are pleased to announce that thanks to the support of Swoop customers, […]

The trees outside my window were bent double by the wind, a permanent reminder of what a tough place Patagonia can sometimes be to make a home. I was on Navarino Island in Chilean Tierra del Fuego, and I was waiting to see the dentist.  Not just any dentist – my teeth were actually just […]

At Swoop, we like to think that no one knows Patagonia better than us. Every year we send our team out across the region to experience the best of Patagonia – and that’s on top of the many members of our team who already live there, from Bariloche and Pucon in the north down to […]