Category: Epic Adventures

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 […]

The ship had barely pulled out of Punta Arenas when the talk turned to Cape Horn. Would we really get there? It felt like a mythical place, all treacherous weather and shipwrecks. Not quite the southernmost tip of the world when you look at the map, but definitely the most extreme in my imagination. It […]

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 […]

There’s a common idea that a meal at the best restaurants should come with a side order of drama. Dinner served up from a theatrically pretentious menu perhaps, or from a red-faced celebrity chef shouting orders at his harassed crew. They certainly don’t come from a remote cabin that looks like a fisherman’s shack and […]

Torres del Paine captured my heart on my first visit there nearly ten years ago. I was so won over by its wild beauty that made me want to become a mountain guide. It was where I did my guide training and where I then worked for five seasons, guiding guests from all over the […]

Torres del Paine is the most popular hiking destination in Patagonia by quite some way. In the height of the trekking season in the long summer days of January and February, hundreds of hikers hit its trails every day to enjoy some of the most spectacular landscapes in South America. The popularity of routes like […]

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 […]