OurBiggerPicture

For the first time in 25 months, the little digital compass readout on our rearview mirror (a mirror rendered otherwise useless with our huge camper in the truck bed) shows an N instead of an S. We are heading north. Yet getting back into the rig after hitting our goal of Ushuaia, and then Antarctica, feels a little anticlimactic. I don’t have the energy to psyche myself up for the long drives anymore, and John isn’t as enthusiastic for them either. We’ve been in mostly cold

First we drove to the end of the world, then we sailed off the edge of it. We can now say, unequivocally, we have gone as far south as possible. There are so many superlatives that could describe Antarctica but “otherworldly” seems to be the only one I can come up with. If the Uyuni Salt Flats and the Lagunas Route in Bolivia were the Moon and Mars, Antarctica is a frozen, icy, white star. Throughout much of our time on the world’s most southern continent, John and I kept sa

Goalllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!!!! We did it! We drove to the point where the road ends. No Mas. We left Puerto Natales for the last leg south. This last bit included a ferry and a border crossing back into Argentina, followed by a lovely night of sleeping in a YPF gas station in the town of Rio Grande. (Side note – virtually every car in Rio Grande needed air in their tires. We had to park next to the tire air machine. Usually with music. Pssssft….generator……Pssssft…

The road out of Chile was rough and bumpy. For hours we drove on washboard roads, snaking up through the mountains and then back down to the pampas toward the border of Argentina. We didn't see another car the entire drive. A few hours in we stopped to air down the tires and I picked my way through the grass to pee. I looked up as the herd of cows grazing close by all picked up their heads and stopped to stare. I said Hi. It hit me then that this was my new normal - bathroom

Patagonia. The land of the explorer, the outlaw, the exiled – people drawn to the sheer enormity of its physical space. This is where the rivers run turquoise and lakes are so clear you can see right to the bottom. Where condors fly overhead and wild guanacos join you for breakfast. It is also where the wind blows incessantly. Patagonia is one of the crown jewels of our journey and we were excited to finally get here. Patagonia covers about 260,000 square miles in size—roughl

I started this blog post writing about penguins. And eventually it will be about penguins. I have gone back and forth on writing about this here. But this week I woke to news so disheartening, so...disturbing, I have to deal with the emotions that are clouding my days now as we sit in one of the most remote places on earth. I woke to the news of the election, and as if I were a watching some “end of the world” movie - the evil villain had actually won. I don't recognize the c

We didn’t start out on this long drive just to end it in BA. We are going to Ushuaia, to the end of the world, and it’s time to make some pr

Our last few weeks in Buenos Aires we dug a little deeper into the culture of the city. We witnessed art whose origins arise from the grit and struggle of the streets, and we took part in a religious experience with 50,000 other Argentinians. Of Art: The tango is an art form that represents the history and the struggle of BA’s immigrant population. It was born in the late 1800’s in the bars and bordellos of the working class neighborhoods of La Boca and San Telmo. Once consid

You might expect this post to be about some of Buenos Aires’ fancy restaurants and perhaps a performance at the world renown Teatro Colón. It is not. It’s about cooking cephalopods in a tiny New Yorker’s Recoleta apartment and a chance meeting with some musicians on bicycles. Yes, I said cephalopods. First a little about the city of Buenos Aires. Chances are you know someone who’s been here and raved about it. We certainly do. I had high expectations for this city. Expectatio

We left the Iguazu Falls and headed straight south. We planned to stay in the northeast province of Corrientes for a little while longer to visit the Iberá Provincial Reserve—a 3.2 million-acre protected wetland area within the vast Esteros del Iberá. Iberá is one of the most important fresh water wetlands on the continent and the second-largest wetland in the world after the Pantanal in Brazil. These wetlands are difficult to get to - access is either by private plane (the p