7 Tips for managing digital photographs while overland traveling

Fast cameras do a few things very well, and filling up cards and disks is one of them. It may not be something that we really want to happen, but with the best will in the world it does happen. When you are overland traveling, that brings its own issues. This post is about how we manage digital photographs and video files, and what works for us.

Step 1. Download every photograph.

Every evening, we download everything. We shoot with a number of cameras, and any camera that got used, gets down loaded.

Tip 1: We download and review images in the evening so we can see the laptop screen correctly! doing this with strong sunlight on your laptop makes it very hard to properly evaluate your images. At the very least, view the image in the shade with no sunglasses on.

We download using a Sandisk Extreme USB 2.0 reader. Ours is a couple of years old now, but still plenty fast. you can get models that will take multiple card types, or just one card type. Either is fine, but be sure you use a robust one as they are not that easy to come by when your on the road. You will find cheap ones in various stores but they will often be slow. After having been through a few “iffy” card readers, we now only use good ones.

We download to an external disk, and never to the laptop directly. This is mainly because our laptop does not have much extra space on its disk, but also because we use a number of external disks specifically for photographs and video. Regardless of where you download the files to, the important thing is the directory structure. We have been using the same structure and practice for over 3 years, and it works well for us.

We use a new directory every time we have a new subject, or area that we are shooting in. If this does not change, we create a new directory every 2 weeks at the longest, or when there are over 1000 images in the directory. So, no directory will hold more than 1 subject, more than 2 weeks images or more than 1000 images. The directory names have the structure “BUC_999_subject”. An example would be:

  • BUC_310_Torres_del_paine
  • BUC_311_Camping_chile
  • BUC_312_El_Chalten

The reason for this is that it puts all our images into chronological order, and this makes the backups easy to do. If we were in Torres del Paine for 1,2 or 12 days, then all those images can be in one directory. If we were doing the directories by date, then it is broken down by day, week or month, and not by the time we left one place and started in another.

Directory structure managing digital photographs

Directory structure managing digital photographs

The sequence number is what manages the order, and be sure to start with buc_001_subject so that the sort order does not go funny after the 9th directory. Those leading zeros help a lot.

Tip 2: Pick a structure and a route of how you do this, and stick to it. It will make it easier to identify where images are in the future.

When downloading all your cards, do NOT delete all the images from them. Leave that until later just in case you make a mistake along the way. At this point, you have 2 copies of today’s images, on the cards and on your disk.

There are 3 reasons we download every photo.

  1. It is hard to decide on the back of the camera if an image is worth keeping or not. Its easier to do it on a larger computer screen, even the laptop is way better than the back of the Camera.
  2. If you delete on the camera and you make a mistake, you may delete the best (or all) shot(s) of a given subject. At that point there is no backup, no way to easily fix it. Yes, there are undelete programs available, and you may well have one on your computer, but isn’t it just easier to wait till you can see them on your computer?
  3. Looking at the images on the card from the camera, and just picking the ones you want isn’t bad, but what if you make a mistake, and don’t copy the one you really want?

Step 2. Document / Catalog your Photographs

Once you have the photographs downloaded, it’s time to catalog them. You may also do this as you download them depending on what software you are using to help you out. We use Lightroom, and find that it works well for us. It allows us to set the IPTC fields to our preferred values. The IPTC fields are places in every digital photograph where you electronically record information such as who took the picture, when it was taken, who owns the copyright etc. With Lightroom you can set this up to be done automatically.

Tip 3: Whatever download software you decide to use, take the time to see how you can set defaults for some of the IPTC field such as Photographer, copyright, contact email address. This is an area that is not always 100% clear, and why not make it clear that they are your photos?

digital photography Properties of a jpg to show IPTC fields - 5 tips on managing digital photographs

Example of Properties of a jpg to show IPTC fields

If you look at a directory of photographs on your computer, and if you were to right-click on one (Windows computers), and you were to look at the properties, you would see some of the IPTC fields. The main one we see is the Author, which says clearly who the Author or Photographer is. There are many other fields like contact email address, phone number etc that can be seen by looking at the IPTC through Photoshop or other photo software.

You can also see a field named TAGS, and this lists all the tags that the image was marked with. We usually mark digital photographs with a number of tags for different reasons. For example if the picture was of both of us, and the truck, and had Torres del Paine in the background and had a sunset, we might use the following tags.

  • Torres Del Paine
  • Chile
  • South America
  • Sunset
  • Landscape
  • People
  • Sarah
  • Merv
  • Moglander

The reason we do not create specific directories for each subject is because some photographs cover more than one subject. What if you had a directory of landscape images, or a directory of people images? or both? Would you put a landscape photo with sarah in it into both directories? if not, which one?  What about if you have a directory for sunset images.

Tip 4: It is much simper to have just one copy of the photograph with multiple tags on it. We will see how to search for them later in this post

Step 3. Select the best, dump the rest

Now it’s time to select or rank the best shots. We have a couple of rankings.

  • 1 Star means it’s good enough for web use, it’s a nice shot, clean and in focus.
  • 2 stars mean it’s really good. Nice and sharp, nicely exposed, good composition and the best of a selection of shots on the same subject.
  • 3 starts means it jumps off the screen as being a pick of the day photo.

Now comes the tough bit. Filter down to the unranked images, just look at the ones where they did not even make a 1. Take a good look and pick out the handful you really want to keep, the only shot you got of a signpost, or you got photobombed by a local. Sure, keep them. Make them a 1. Do this for 10 minutes or so, then delete the rest. The whole lot of them. You either are impressed by them or not. This part is not easy, and it’s a personal choice to do it or not. But you do need to ask yourself, do you need or want more than 5 images of the same church from the same angle? maybe just different DOF, different exposures, different clouds behind it, different strangers in front of it. It’s time to house keep! Hit that delete button!

Tip 5: in Lightroom, you can mark all the photos you plan to delete as “Rejected”. You can have them hidden from view, and just before you decide to delete the rejects, you can take one last quick peek in case you still need any of them.

Step 4. Backup, Backup, then Backup again!

The backup process for us is easy. we have a second external hard drive that holds the backups of buc_000_subject directories. We backup a whole directory at a time, so the only thing we need to check is is what is the last directory number we backed up. If we backed up as far as buc_320, and buc_321 and buc_322 exists, then they are ready for backup. We just copy them from the “working” hard disk to the “backup” hard disk. There is no real point in doing a backup onto the same disk, that will protect against some human errors, but the biggest worry that we have on the road is damage to a hard disk from the vibration and dust.

Once we have completed the backup copy process, both disks typically have identical sets of photos on them. Now it’s 100% safe to reformat the cards from the camera. They were our backup right until this point.

Tip 6: Don’t delete anything off your cards for your camera until the day you plan to use them again. That way you have a “just in case” copy as long as possible.

Store your disk drives safely

This probably sounds silly, but mind your disk drives. We store the “working” disk in a plastix box with all the cables etc to give it a little bit of cushioning as we drive, and box keeps it clean. It’s kept out of direct sunlight, and somewhere it cannot fall or get wet.

The backup disk is stored inside a pelicase. Fully padded, and well protected. We take no chances with this if we can help it. Every now and again, we try to send the backup home, or leave it with someone for safe keeping (after all, we hope we will NEVER need it again). We would like to do this more often, but we do the best we can.

Tip 7: We don’t use the disk drives as we drive, or when the engine is running. We try to keep the dust, vibration, strong sunlight, heat and damp to a minimum. Regular hard disks have rapidly spinning disks inside, and have readers that skim over the disks very very close to the surface. Picture an old record player hopped up on 3 espressos, and you’re not a million miles away. Imagine using one of them as you drive down a dusty track?

 

Searching for Photographs

This is where the hard work will pay off. Searching for pictures using tags is really easy.

manage digital photo windows explorer

Windows explorer showing all photos in a directory

The above screen shows all the images in a given directory. Each image is tagged using a few different things, including the name of the species. If we wanted to find all the Cheetah pictures, Windows can do this for us. We just type Cheetah into the search box in the top right of the screen.

manage digital photo windows explorer

Searching for Cheetah

We use Lightroom from Adobe which has this, and more powerful search options available in it. So does many other software products, just find the one that works for you.

Well, this is how we managing digital photographs.  There are more considerations  such as Raw Vs  JPG, but I think that may be the subject for another post.

 

This is the first post in a series of articles I plan to write about overland travel photography. I hope it helps someone when they are planning their trip.

Categories: background | 4 Comments

Antarctica – What landscapes can I expect to see?

There are loads of landscapes that you might see in Antarctica, and I have tried to show a sample of some of them here. These images were shot on our trip with Quark Expeditions from Ushuaia in Argentina. When we got back from that trip, we wrote up 2 blog posts about it, The first on the Falklands and South Georgia and another one about Icebergs, Penguins and other fun photos. Obviously we could not post every photo we shot, but it might be nice to share some more ice cool photos.

Antarctica Landscape Photographs

 

Photographic considerations

In the gallery above, there are shots taken with a 14mm prime lens, a 600mm prime lens, and a good mix in between. It is difficult to know what to recommend to anyone going on such a trip, but I would encourage anyone going to bring a good range of lenses. you don’t need to carry them all every day, but you will eventually use everything!  one of the most important things is to have a good bag that is ideally waterproof, or at least semi waterproof. Sea spray from the zodiacs would not do many cameras much good!

Also, when choosing photographic equipment for a trip like this, you might like to look at this blog post by Kellie Netherwood, a fellow photographer who was on the same trip as us. She has written about photographic equipment selection.

Categories: Antarctic | Tags: , | 6 Comments

Aconcagua National Park

After our great two weeks of helping on the Finca it was time to start moving again.  It was a little strange not driving the mog for two weeks so our feet were getting itchy, places to go, places to see, oh so many of them here in South America.

Early morning in the park

Early morning in the park

Aconcagua is one of the country’s (in Argentina) most well-known parks as it contains one of the world’s highest summits and at 6,962 meters it is the goal of many novice mountaineers, by the way we didn’t tackle it, as we were a little late for the climbing season, as the best time for doing this is from end of December to February.  Phew lucky us !! Apparently the north face is relatively easy to climb, once you are of good physical condition, but I gather the south face is virtually impossible  and only with guides. We slept overnight in the Parks car park which meant that we had the most spectacular view of the mountain as soon as the first bit of sun hit it.  This we could see from our truck, without even having to get out.  Once it was bright , and a little less cold, once the sun. arrived, we did a three-hour hike to see this fabulous mountain silhouetted against the clear blue sky.  There was only the two of us in this entire park, the silence was golden, and this was not interrupted until about 11.oo am when we spotted some day trippers.

Sarah getting the low down on the park

Sarah getting the low down on the park

The ice in the lake messed up the reflection

The ice in the lake messed up the reflection

 

The wire bridge is as far as you can go without a guide

The wire bridge is as far as you can go without a guide

 

These rocks are bigger than the mog, and were washed down this valley in a SERIOUS flood

These rocks are bigger than the mog, and were washed down this valley in a SERIOUS flood

The roadway to basecamp

The roadway to basecamp

 

Unlike many national parks, Aconcagua has relatively little to offer other than its wonderful scenery .  This is one of the Andes’s most barren sectors, with little vegetation and few mammals.  We were lucky to spot the Andean condor, which came close to extinction due to hunting.

Close to here we also visited Puente del Inca which is a natural bridge formed by sulpher bearing hot springs.  There once was hot thermal baths just under the bridge,  now dilapidated , but they were believed to be really good for medical treatments.  Also here there used to be a hotel, sadly now in ruins too but just image the scenery as you soaked, the Andean Valleys and Aconcagua, what more could you ask for?

Disused rail tracks do'nt rust  due to the lack of moisture

Disused rail tracks don’t rust due to the lack of moisture

Sarah look at the old building under the natural bridge. You can no longer cross the bridge due to cracks, which are due to the lack of water running over it.

Sarah looking at the old building under the natural bridge. You can no longer cross the bridge due to cracks, which are due to the lack of water running over it.

We then said good-bye to Argentina , and  crossed  into Chile again , and we are about 2 hours north of Santiago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Feeling Fruity on a Finca in San Rafael

We have been traveling long enough now to start wondering what it’s like to stop. We are not sure what that’s like, and are not sure we like the idea of stopping. What if we cannot get jobs? What if we do not like the jobs we can get? What if we hate the weather back home in Ireland? What if we’ve changed so much we cannot fit in any more? So many questions, and not that many answers. Some travelers have the solution of just not stopping, and some are on fixed timetables with return trips booked before they start so they cannot have the debate we’re having. What’s it like to stop? We heard it on the grapevine. We heard of an English couple that traveled round the world for a few years, but decided to stop in the province of Mendoza, Argentina as it was the nicest spot they had seen. The climate was great, the lifestyle good and it’s easy to own way too many dogs (Ok, I made that bit up). We got in touch with them to see what their lives were like, and went to stay for a few days, maybe a week. This post is about the 2 weeks we ended up staying on their Finca.

The Finca

John and Annette

John and Annette

John and Annette have a Finca, which is a fruit farm just outside of San Rafael. They live in the countryside on their farm along with 5 dogs (told ya!) – Mo Didley, Rosey Lee, Posh, Rita and Blackie. There is also a collection of hens, ducks and 2 geese (George and Mildred for those who like old British comedy’s). They have a superb old tractor, an old ford pickup and a collection of all the tools you need to do all your own work on a Finca. Their year is busy as they grow a number of crops, mainly plums and grapes but also some walnuts. For the house, they have a superb vegetable garden and grow most of their own vegetables and herbs. They do all the work themselves, and welcome overland travelers to come and stay with them, pet the dogs, peel the spuds and help out with whatever is going on. Within a few days you really feel at home, and their enthusiasm for what they are doing is infectious!

a birthday party

Gladys's birthday cake.

Gladys’s birthday cake.

It’s not all business at John and Annette’s. We were lucky enough to be there when it was a neighbor’s birthday, and we were all invited. Sarah and I have been working on our Spanish for a long time now, and it meant we could understand much of what was said, and have basic conversations with everyone, so that was great. The party was held inside a tiny Bodega, and as they were still making wine, the smells were fantastic. They served some of their previous years wine, and it was superb. It is a “casa” wine, which means they are only allowed to produce a few thousand bottles. Any more than that and they are “Artisans” and they then have a limit of 15,000 bottles per year. Any more than that they are treated as commercial, and this has serious tax implications. Anyway, for us it just meant we were drinking wine that never leaves the region, and it felt like a real treat. They served home-made empenadas, and the filling and pastry was made that morning, and as they came out of the outdoor wood oven, they were served. Wow! They were superb. After this, they served Pork. A whole suckling pig to be precise, and a cabbage salad with oil on shredded cabbage and a spud and carrot salad. For dessert they served an ice-cream cake that was so big they must have been eating it for a week!

 

Harvest time on the Finca

We arrived at the beginning of April, which is the end of the plum harvest. It’s more tricky that we had thought, and there are different ways to harvest plums from trees. You can harvest once, twice or even three times from each tree, taking different amounts each time. You can pick the plums from the trees, you can shake the tree and pick them all from the ground, you can put a huge teller under the tree and shake the tree causing all the plums to be collected in the teller(bit like a huge nappy, I think you can get the picture). We were there for the last harvest from the trees.

Just after dawn, heading to pick plumbs.

Just after dawn, heading to pick plumbs.

Sarah collecting from the trees

Sarah collecting from the trees

Maria collecting what she could from the plumbs on the ground

Maria collecting what she could from the plumbs on the ground

Once we had the plums harvested, the next decision for a Finca is what to do with them. You can sell the fresh plums for whatever price is being offered at harvest time, or you can store your plums and sell them later in the year when the price hopefully goes up. To store them you have to dry them, which takes a bit of work, loads of sun, tons of plastic and a fair bit of grunt work. Deciding on which to do is a tricky problem, and it reminded me of the sort of decisions my dad had to make on the farm back home. Some things are the same the world over.

 

Annette collecting from the ground after shaking the tree

Annette collecting from the ground after shaking the tree

It did not take too long to collect a few boxes

It did not take too long to collect a few boxes

Plum drying racks

Plum drying racks

Once the plums were done, the grape harvest was ready, but this takes a large team of skilled and experienced pickers. Sarah and I made an attempt to pick some, but could not keep up with the local harvesters who actually run up the rows with the empty and the full baskets, and pick as fast as they can. This does affect their wages, as for each container they pick, they get a token. At the end of the week, your wages depends on the number of tokens.

Hauling 20kg of grapes to the trailer is not easy

Hauling 20kg of grapes to the trailer is not easy

20kg of grapes in the face is not funny.

20kg of grapes in the face is not funny.

Harvesting. - it's a family business.

Harvesting. – it’s a family business.

Some of the lines of grape vines can be long.

Some of the lines of grape vines can be long.

Rita kept an eye on things all day.

Rita kept an eye on things all day.

 

These 2 guys had a line beside each other and raced most of the day

These 2 guys had a line beside each other and raced most of the day

Maria and her mum

Maria and her mum

MERV9734

Sarah picking grapes on the Finca. She looks dangerous with that snips!!!

Sarah picking grapes. She looks dangerous with that snips!!!

Sarah and Annette carrying out the grapes

Sarah and Annette carrying out the grapes

Loading the truck

Loading the truck

The harvesting team

The harvesting team

The quickest guys got the most tokens, and therefore the most cash.

The quickest guys got the most tokens, and therefore the most cash.

We had a storm roll by while harvesting, luckily it did not slow us down.

We had a storm roll by while harvesting, luckily it did not slow us down.

The ramp you had to carry the grapes up to load the truck

The ramp you had to carry the grapes up to load the truck

Even the boss has to get a token.

Even the boss has to get a token.

Guess who got the job of issuing the tokens?

Guess who got the job of issuing the tokens?

the 2 racers

the 2 racers

Eye candy for the girls...

Eye candy for the girls…

Once the truck was full, it went to the Bodega. Some Bodegas make fine wine, some normal wine, and some grape juice and other grape products. The top end Bodegas grow many of their own grapes, but do buy some from local farmers, and a large Bodega could take the crops from hundreds of smaller farmers. Many of the trucks are old bangers that are taken out for a hard months work, ridden hard and put away wet. As everyone wants to harvest around the same time, there is a shortage of trucks and harvesters some days, so anything goes! In fairness, these old trucks generally get the job done, and have been working for over 50 years! Power brakes, power steering, decent lights and tipper bodies are all ideas that were not quite around back then. Unloading can be quite a task, but when you see 60-year-old guys forking out 5 tons plus in just over 30 minutes and not breaking a sweat, you just have to give it a go!

Emptying the lorry was not so easy as it was not a tipper.

Emptying the lorry was not so easy as it was not a tipper.

End of the harvest on the Finca

Tradition dictates that each farm has an “end of harvest Asado” as a way to thank everyone who worked on their harvest. This is quite a serous affair, and can dictate if your harvesters will come back next year! John and I were assigned to be the Asado guys, but luckily we got some help from the neighborhood Asado Meister, and he really knew his stuff! I had never seen beef cooked for a full hour on coals, and to come off perfect! our European style is to cook hot and quick, but this slow and calm approach was superb.

Asado starting off with the beef

Asado starting off with the beef

Asado Master Hosea

Asado Master Hosea

Asado almost ready with the asado vultures hovering with intent....

Asado almost ready with the asado vultures hovering with intent….

Timber oven with spuds and chicken.

Timber oven with spuds and chicken.

Timber oven from the outside

Timber oven from the outside

Party time

Party time

Annette is pretty handy with her garden and kitchen, so when  Sarah and Annette got busy in there one day, I was pretty pleased with the result!

Our re-stocked larder with goodies that Sarah and Annette made (and some kind donations by Annette)

Our re-stocked larder with goodies that Sarah and Annette made (and some kind donations by Annette)

 

Each evening we all did a few chores, lighting the fire, cooking dinner, feeding the dogs etc, and we eat and chatted until someone declared they were off to bed. We chatted about other travelers we knew in common, places we all had been and how they had changed over the years, places we could recommend to each other and solved a few of the world problems while we were at it. Sarah and I tried to find out the answer to our big question, what is it like to stop traveling? I am not sure if we know the answer yet, but we are sure that a Finca in Argentina is a pretty nice way to plant your roots!

 

How to get in touch with John and Annette

We really enjoyed our time on the Finca, and felt like we were “at home” for the first time in a long while. We hope to be back some day, and we don’t say that about many places! For anyone thinking of getting in touch with John and Annette, follow this link and contact them via the hubb.

Categories: Argentina | Tags: | 8 Comments

Mendoza Wineries by Tandem!

Parked up with Phil and Angie in their Ivecco

Parked up with Phil and Angie in their ivecco

We have crossed back into Argentina to meet with friends Phil and Angie whom we had previously spent some time with last year sampling beer, so  this time we decided to sample WINE at some Mendoza wineries. We arranged to meet whilst they were still in Peru and we were in Southern Chile, so it’s a bit like somebody in Scandinavia arranging to meet somebody in Greece for a drink , but never the less we managed it ,  still doing  everything we both wanted to en route. What a fantastic week we had together.

We spent the first couple of nights in a small little village called Potrerillos, about 60 kms from Mendoza , both trucks camped up by a man-made lake which had flooded some time ago, hence there were loads of dead trees in it, which were very magical in the morning and evening sun, a very quiet spot with just the four of us catching up on each others adventures over the past few months , a lot of talking indeed over the camp-fire in the evening.

Angie reflecting on the day in the morning light

Angie reflecting on the day in the morning light

bit of grass that caught my eye

bit of grass that caught my eye

letting the world drift by

letting the world drift by

Mendoza wineries

Mendoza Region is the heart of Argentina’s wine industry and is situated at the foot of the Andes. It is noted for a landscape dominated by plains covered with acres of lush vineyards. This area alone contributes to 70 per cent of Argentina’s wine production and the world-class Malbec is the region’s speciality, and we can vouch for that. Another signature wine is the dry white Torrontes, a dry and fruity wine, which is a cross between American and eastern Mediterranean grape, alongside others such as Syrah, Merlot and Chardonnay. The production of the wine is aided by the area’s altitude and climate, which is temperate and semi-arid offering plenty of sunlight and little rainfall .

Phil and Angie pretending they were in control

Phil and Angie pretending they were in control

So the fun began! We decided to do a tour just outside the city in Maipu , (as here the Malbec grapes are in abundance , bluish-black in colour and are very thin-skinned) and on bikes, or should I say, 2 bikes and one tandem ! YES, a TANDEM. We used Orange Bike , (www.orangebikes.com.ar )and we were met in the morning by the owners , both ever so jolly , given our bikes, no training course or helmets necessary and off we went on our merry way. Never having been on a tandem before , Merv and I decided we would be the guinea pigs and go first ,but over the course of the day we all swapped around. Mind you as the day continued it got easier , its amazing how good wine can have that effect , our only complaint was that the day wasn’t long enough as we didn’t get to do them all, so we went another day on a walking tour. A superb time was had by all of us, it really is a fun day out , or in our case , a fun 2 days sampling wine !

Phil Steering, Sarah pedaling. What a combo

Phil Steering, Sarah pedaling. What a combo

Reflecting on our day - Mendoza Wineries

Reflecting on our day – Mendoza Wineries

No pain no gain.

No pain no gain.

Inside the tasting room - Mendoza Wineries

Inside the tasting room

Proper sized barrels!

Proper sized barrels!

the old presses look very small now

the old presses look very small now

The end grain wood floor say on a bed of sand to make it soft enough to roll timber barrels without damaging them

The end grain wood floor sat on a bed of sand to make it soft enough to roll timber barrels without damaging them

Sarah finished tasting every wine they had in a record 4.5 hours

Sarah finished tasting every wine they had in a record 4.5 hours

No brollies, so you could only sit outside for so long before baking

No brollies, so you could only sit outside for so long before baking

Guess which bottle we wanted to bring with us...

Guess which bottle we wanted to bring with us…

Angie contemplating a pint of stout.

Angie contemplating a pint of stout.

Sarah may not like red wine, but red beer seems to go down ok.

Sarah may not like red wine, but red beer seems to go down ok.

Have a look at the video to see how we enjoyed the day !

Little Video of a days wine tour on Tandem bikes

Categories: Argentina | Tags: , | 5 Comments

Reflections, Volcanos and Views in Chile

We were traveling north along the Pan American Highway known as Ruta 5 in Chile. This road goes from South to North along most of the country. Roads that branch off Ruta 5 go to loads of interesting places, and we decided to make a side trip through Parc National Conguillio. This park is unusual in that it has a road that passes right through it, so you can enter in the South and Exit in the North. We really liked the small lakes with the reflections of the trees. The ranger at the entry gate insisted that we stay at only the ranger station, or the camp spot 20km into the park, but there were loads of places that would have made great wild camps. Our annual park pass that we got from the Conaf office in Coyhaique meant we did not have to pay the 3,500 peso entry fee, and as there was no one at the camp spot we did not have to pay for the camping. Super!

Cab view as we look around the park

Cab view as we look around the park

The Monkey trees are superb and stunning looking.

The Monkey trees are superb and stunning looking.

The trees make this little road feel a bit spooky

The trees make this little road feel a bit spooky

The reflections in the lakes are stunning

The reflections in the lakes are stunning

Old trees lying in the lake edge

Old trees lying in the lake edge

We continued up to the town of Curacautin, and onwards to Reserva Nacional Malalcahuello and then to Reserva Nacional Nalcas. We found this park unique due to its lack of trees, bushes or shrubs, in fact it has very little greenery at all. It does have its own volcano, Volcan Lonquimay (2,890 metres) which last erupted in 1988. It made a new crater on Christmas Day 1988, so this is now called “Crater Navidad”. This has left a lot of ash and dust in the park, and this is what makes it so unique looking. The ranger station was closed, but the barrier was open so we went on in. It was pretty quiet in the park, but a stunning drive. Off season is great, we had the whole park to ourselves!

Parked up all nice and safe near a Volcano

Parked up all nice and safe near a Volcano

Hmmm. Interesting Sign.

Hmmm. Interesting Sign.

The roads around the volcanos are stunning.

The roads around the volcanos are stunning.

View from the cab.

View from the cab.

Dead trees by a small lake

Dead trees by a small lake

It's easy to see where the lava flowed

It’s easy to see where the lava flowed

We parked overnight in this park, fabulous, and even the next morning no sign of any rangers!

We have left Chile (only for a short while) and are in the Mendoza area of Argentina, particularly known for its good wine, where we are meeting up with friends Phil and Angie for a week to travel with them and sample some wine together. Phil has threatened us that we will be doing a tandem bike tour to sample the vino! Watch this space !!!!

Categories: Chile | 1 Comment