Category: Stories & Inspiration

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 […]

‘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 […]

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 […]

At Swoop Patagonia we’re obsessed with the ends of the Earth. Few things excite us more than the view of peak after snowy peak after climbing a stiff mountain pass. Or the release after holding your breath as you watch a puma pass by with her cubs, or a wind so bracing it cuts like […]

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. […]