San Carlos de Bariloche, my starting point in the north of Patagonia, is an absolutely stunning town. Sitting on the edge of Lake Nahuel Huapi lined with the snow-capped Andes Mountains, you really can't ask for a better view. The town has German and Swiss roots, and you can see it everywhere in the architecture, the chocolate shops, and the craft beer!
I spent a day shopping for supplies (mostly food for camping), getting a tattoo, and I had the luxury of finding two breweries! I've been living in both Mexico and Argentina for the last few years, and outside of the major cities, it's literally impossible to find craft beer. Being from the Great Pacific Northwest(!) I'm a little bit spoiled with beer choices, so I can't begin to tell you how exciting it was to find good beer!
As I prepare to depart on this journey, I want to say thank you. Thanks for following me from the beginning. I certainly expect this to be a hell of a journey, and you all being with me helps quell the butterflies a little bit. It's been an adventure just to get here, but the real adventure starts now.
A little about my plan...
Patagonia encompasses the southern tip of South America, both the countries of Chile and Argentina. My plan is to do a little bit of country hopping, as there are things on both sides that I'm interested to see, on my way to the very southern most tip. Ushuaia is the town that awaits me at the bottom and is the southern-most inhabited place in the world. With the basic outline of a route I have planned (very subject to change, haha), by the time I finish I will have traversed the distance approximately from NY-LA.
While the title of this adventure is "Hitchhiking to the End of the World," I do not plan to solely hitchhike, however I do plan to hitchhike the majority of the time. I also intend to get on some boats, walk for short periods, and hop on busses when I reach absolute desolation and the cars cease to pass. Along the way I'll be checking out lots of towns and villages, sleeping in hostels, and hopefully camping a ton.
Packing has been interesting. While I'm quite used to extended travel, both as a travel backpacker and a mountain backpacker, I have yet to do these things together. Throw in the fact that I'm in a 3rd world country and finding supplies isn't as easy as a jaunt down I-5 to REI, I have a lot in my pack. At all times I plan to have enough food to be stranded for 2 days. I also have all of my equipment to produce this blog (computer, tripod for my phone, power banks, etc.), as well as cold-weather clothing. So you can imagine my load is not light. But it is what it is.
My safety...
There are two main roads I'll be traveling along that essentially parallel each other, one in Argentina (Ruta 40), the other in Chile (Carretera Austral), with the Andes creating the border in between. You can think of these as "Route 66." They're very famous for roadtripping, and it's quite common for locals here to hitchhike between towns, so it is generally considered very safe and very normal to hitchhike.
That said, there are going to be times I'm without cell service. Matter of fact, I expect to be without service the majority of the time. I'll be using Google Maps offline feature. If you haven't used it before, I highly recommend checking this out when you travel. In your settings in Google Maps, there is a feature called "offline maps." With this feature you can download maps (before you go, while connected to wifi), that way when you're offline and out of reach you still have access to roads and routes (your GPS will always work so you can at least see where you are). It doesn't provide info such as restaurant photos, but you can still search for local businesses and driving routes.
Considering the remoteness of many parts of this region, there may be instances I'm without service for several days. But sometimes heaading over a mountain pass you get lucky and catch signal for a minute or two. In these (hopefully rare) moments, I'm going to post a screenshot to my instagram stories (@adventures_ofthecaptain) of my Google Maps location with the words "I'm alive," haha. This way you all know where I am and that I'm just out of range.
Ok. I think that's enough for today, I'm getting anxious to get into these mountains. While I'm here in the beautiful "Lake District" I plan to camp for the next few days and see as many of these natural beauties as possible!
See you out there,
J. James
