Jaryd's Adventures

A Quick Summary We flew down to Punta Arenas, which is in the southernmost part of Chile in the Patagonia region. From there we took a bus to Puerto Natales, to explore Torres del Paine national park. We then took a bus north to El Calafate and then El Chalten in Argentina for some more hiking.  It's the dead of winter here, which has made for some cold days without much daylight. However, it has meant that the parks are way less crowded and we've had some really popular hikes all to ourselves! I'd take a bit of snow over crowds any day. Full trip map Zoomed in map Highs and Lows Church in Punta Arenas: Last week while I was in a park in Valparaíso, I ended up talking to a local guy named Ivan for a few hours. When he found out we were going to Punta Arenas, he gave me his friend's number who lived there. When we arrived, I texted his friend, Rodrigo, and David and I went with him to his church in Punta Arenas.  With Rodri...

A Quick Summary We spent a few more days in the Atacama desert before flying down to Santiago. For the rest of the week, we explored Santiago, including a day trip to Valparaíso on the west coast of Chile.  Highs and Lows Off-roading in the desert: On our salt flats tour, we met this German guy named Simon, who was travelling with his nephew Ezra. After the tour, they rented a truck and offered to let us join them in exploring the desert.  Our new friends At one point, we were driving down the highway and passed a dirt road with a sign that said "mirador", or viewpoint. Simon turned the car around and we headed down the road which ended up being way longer than any of us expected. After a few dead ends and almost getting stuck on a hill, we loosely followed some tire tracks to a viewpoint overlooking this massive salt flat (that was actually in Argentina as we had driven almost all the way to the border). Cam lookin...

A Quick Summary We spent a few more days in La Paz, where I unfortunately got sick again and didn't get up to much. After that, we took a bus to Uyuni, where we met up with David! We then did a 4 day tour through the Uyuni salt flats and Atacama desert to end up in San Pedro de Atacama, in Chile. Highs and Lows Mountain biking death road: Before I got sick in La Paz, we had the opportunity to mountain bike down "death road" a 64km stretch of road through the mountains dubbed as the "world's deadliest road". The gravel road is cut into the side of the mountain with a cliff drop on one side, and at some points is barely wide enough for a car (only 3.2 meters)! Our tour guide gave us a bit of history on the road: prior to 2006 when a different road was built, this was the only way through the valley. The combination of the massive cliff drop, two-way traffic, and the unpredictable mountain weather made it extremely unsafe; on average, ov...