Tomorrow we begin the last leg of our 14-month trip. We fly to Santiago, Chile where we'll be embarking on a 52-day road trip through Patagonia, snaking back and forth between Chile and Argentina. Besides the epic drive and scenery, we hope to find some great flyfishing and hiking along the way. Upon leaving Santiago, we'll set our compass to 180 degrees south and continue until we can go no further, reaching the end of the South American continent in Tierra del Fuego.
We haven't decided on an exact route, but there are basically only two roads heading south along the Andes: 1) The Carretera Austral in Chile which runs north-south for 770 miles (almost all of them unpaved) through the southern spine of the Andes. 2) The Patagonia section of Ruta 40 in Argentina which is regularily described as one of the world's epic drives. As the route skirts the eastern edge of the Andes it crosses 18 major rivers and 236 bridges, passes 13 lakes, and goes by 20 national parks. Like the Carretera Austral in Chile, the majority of it is also unpaved. Needless to say, we should be in for one heck of a grand finale to our trip.
On a side note, after the first week or so, internet will most likely become very scarce so we're no longer making any promises on weekly blog updates. Sorry.
But before we head to Chile and spend the next two months in a van, we decided to spoil ourselves with a stay at the Radisson-Lima. Plus, tomorrow will be the one-year anniversary of when we first started this trip so we had to celebrate. We ended up getting a good deal, but the $70/night is still by far the most we've paid for a room this entire trip. Anyway, as you can imagine, we're taking full advantage of the luxury and loving every minute of it.
3 comments:
Have fun! Be safe! So excited for you guys to be back soon :o) Can't wait to see pictures of this last leg of your journey-should be amazing~ Love you guys.
PS-don't think I didn't notice 2 blogs within 3 days :o)
Did you buy another van and fix it up to sleep in?
Connie
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