Mellow Expeditions - @fedbyfield
This week we spoke with @fedbyfield about his 6 month trip around South America. This wasn’t your usual honeymoon to Greece for 2 weeks, Connor and his partner chose for an action packed trip travelling everywhere from Argentina to Chile to Columbia. Here’s what he had to say..
Since we got engaged, the thought of an extended honeymoon to travel across South America had always been on the cards. However, after a couple of years of build up, things suddenly became real as we touched down in Buenos Aires, with just a couple nights in the city booked to kick off our 6 month trip that took us across Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, The Galápagos Islands and Colombia.
From there it was a case of seeing where the road took us, along with the people we met along the way, leading to what was a truly breathtaking trip across one of the most diverse regions of the world. We soon found ourselves deep in Patagonia, somewhere we had dreamt of visiting for years, watching whales breaching from the cliffs and climbing across the Perito Moreno Glacier. For me, El Chalten and El Calafate defined how I had imagined this magical environment to be. Retro campervans and tin cabins lined the street, with snow capped mountains as the backdrop and the smell of slow cooked lamb over the fire filling the air.
The highlight of our stay in Patagonia, was waking up at the crack of dawn to hike the Laguna de los Tres and watch the sun rise over the iconic peak of Fitz Roy that many of you will recognise from your Patagonia caps and clothing. We were completely alone, in this vast wilderness and felt completely free from the fast paced life back home. We hiked through the icy valley, across frozen lakes and watched the colours of spring emerge in the Forrest as the sun continued to rise and glisten off the ice. Another four hours later, after a steep 400m climb in the final kilometre to reach the summit, through 2m thick snow we cracked open a beer and took in the view. This was a surreal moment, both drenched in sweat despite the snowy conditions, making it one of the best summit beers I had ever swigged. The decent back down was a little more sketchy as the ice started to melt in the sun and the trail began to vanish, leading to moments of panic as we slid down a few steep sections. But definitely a story for the campfire!
The rest of the trip holds too many highlights and crazy moments to go into much depth, but I look back on it with the fondest of memories. We ticked off more snow covered peaks, climbed up trees in the amazon, camped out in jungles and even swam alongside Hammerhead Sharks when scuba diving in the Galápagos Islands. I feel like our pre-conception of South America was so different to what it is actually like and I have loved spreading the word about how welcoming the people are and how diverse the culture is across the continent. The Andean lifestyle is a beautiful one, filled with time outside, honest work and putting family and friends at the centre of what you do.
This was highlighted when we undertook the 5 day Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu, spending hours each day walking through jungle paths, sharing stories with local people and guides. They spoke about their country with such passion and it soon took the edge off the steep climbs at altitudes of over 4000m, that we still hadn’t quite become accustomed to, even after about a month of being up high travelling across Bolivia. But this trek culminated with seeing Machu Picchu exactly as we had envisioned it, with the rain from the previous days dispersing to leave golden peaks wrapped in rolling clouds that made the city feel like the true wonder of the world that it is. It was one of those moments where nothing else mattered, you just had to sit and enjoy the view after all those miles walking and the 3000 steep steps at 5am to get there for sunrise.
South America and in particular Patagonia, hold a special place in our heart as lovers of the outdoors and adventure. We left ready to come home after six incredible, but tiring months of hostel dorms and 20+ hour bus journeys across the continent, making friends and memories that will last a lifetime. However, it wasn’t a goodbye, it was a see you next time as we can’t wait to get back and experience the rest of what it has to offer, such as Torres del Paine and Trekking Horseback across la pampa with the Gauchos!