A journal from the fjord
Stories from places
no road reaches
Notes from expeditions to Chilean Patagonia and the things that don't fit into an itinerary. Unfiltered, just as they happened.
I write them while preparing a 12-day expedition to the Aysén Fjord for six people. What the expedition looks like →
· Guide
Aysén or Torres del Paine? A comparison for the undecided
Torres del Paine drew 380,000 visitors in a season; all of Aysén about 230,000 over an area nearly fifty times larger. A fair comparison and when to choose which.
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· Aysén in depth
Darwin in the Chonos Archipelago: what he wrote in his diary
On 13 December 1834 the Beagle entered the Chonos Archipelago. Wild potatoes, five castaways, the granite of Tres Montes and Isla Kent, where we sail in January 2027.
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· Aysén in depth
Whales, orcas and dolphins in Aysén: what you will really see
In the fjords of Aysén the animal you mostly see is not the whale but the dolphin. A dedicated survey covering 194 hours on the water recorded 55 groups of Peale's dolphins and only four groups of blue whales, and not one orca. Here is what lives there, when to go, and why an honest skipper will not take you closer than three hundred metres to a blue whale.
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· Aysén in depth · 24 min listen
The Ring of Fire in Aysén: volcanoes, a fault and a fifty-metre wave
Under the fjord at Puerto Aysén runs a fault a thousand kilometres long, with volcanoes standing on its branches. In 1991 Hudson buried more than a hundred thousand square kilometres under ash, and in 2007 twenty million cubic metres of rock fell into the fjord and raised a wave. This is what can still be seen of it today.
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· Guide · 7 min listen
Patagonia: Chile or Argentina? How to Choose
Wet west, dry east. What is in Chilean and what is in Argentine Patagonia, and how to choose between them.
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· Guide · 8 min listen
What a Trip to Patagonia Really Costs
Beds, food, fuel, ferries, boat trips. Three two-week budgets for Chilean Patagonia.
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· Patagonia from scratch
The Aysén region: a province younger than Czechoslovakia
Aysén in Chilean Patagonia: 107,000 km², a hundred thousand people, a road only since 1988. The region and its short, violent history.
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· Before you book
Patagonia Tour or Small Expedition?
What a packaged tour offers and what a small expedition offers. Group size, route, price, guarantees. And what to ask before you pay anyone.
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· Guide · 7 min listen
Carretera Austral: What Driving It Actually Takes
Over 1,200 km, three ferries, gravel. How much time the Carretera Austral really needs.
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· Guide · 5 min listen
When to fly to Patagonia
January and February. Temperatures month by month, fifteen hours of daylight, flights from Prague from CZK 32,400 - and when to buy, because by March the price goes up.
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· Guide · 8 min listen
Patagonia Without the Crowds: Where to Go Instead
Five places in northern Patagonia with southern scenery and none of the southern crowds.
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· Expedition journal · 2 min listen
San Rafael Glacier: the day the glacier spoke
The boat slowed, the engine went silent. "Now a moment of quiet. The glacier is speaking," said the guide. Four minutes later, the first piece of ice the size of a car broke away.
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· Guide · 5 min listen
Chile's Marble Caves: How to Get There
Capillas de Mármol: where, when, how and how much. Plus four mistakes people arrive with.
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· Guide · 7 min listen
Cerro Castillo: The Trek They Call the New Torres del Paine
The four-day Cerro Castillo traverse: route, difficulty, registration and how it compares with the W trek.
Read the guide →Written from Aysén
What didn't fit in the article
Every so often I send an email about what is happening in Aysén, new articles like this one, and chapters of Václav Nový's memoirs, which I translate from the Spanish. When places open on an expedition, I'll mention it in one line. Nothing else.
Two emails a month at most. One-click unsubscribe. Your address is never shared, privacy policy.