Starting that Van Life!

Tobias & Tiffany Hallwood
Jan 24, 2020
3 min read

After a very early start (2 am), we were both exhausted as we walked off the plane in Punta Arenas. Exhaustion quickly gave way to giddy excitement as we met Danny, one of the owners of Condor Campers, the company we were renting the van and our home for the next 2 months.

Day 1

We spent the next hour or so learning about the van, getting recommendations about places to go, and chatting with Danny. From there we headed to the most southern Walmart in the world to stock up on supplies and make the van feel like "home"! The van is meant to be sturdy, basic and a good budget. It had everything we needed and we picked up a few luxury items. A few luxury items we bought were pillows, a french press, a large skillet, and a fleece blanket.

Our first night in the van was behind a truck stop just outside of town. The goal here was to do a trial run of sleeping and cooking to figure out if there was anything we were missing or wanted to add before we hit the road.

Day 2

After breakfast, we hit the road for Park Pinguino Rey, a King Penguin colony on the other side of the Strait of Magellan. A few hours into our drive we stopped for lunch and showers at a gas station. Feeling fresh and clean we hit the road again. After a few more hours of driving and a ferry ride, we reached a small refugio (basic building for bikers and cars to sleep in) just passed the King Penguin colony. We met a couple from The Netherlands who were staying in the refugio. They were bicycling from Santiago to Ushuaia and made us glad we had the comfort and ease of our van.

Day 3

After a cold and windy night that shook the van and rocked us to sleep we headed to Park Pinguino Rey where we learned about the research the park was doing. Thanks to Tiffany's keen eyes, we even spotted a baby penguin huddled under its parent!

From here we hit the road for Pali Aike National Park which straddles the Chile/Argentina border. Pali Aike is a rugged volcanic landscape with craters, caves and dried lava fields. It is also home to guanaco (similar to a llama), grey foxes, rhea (large flightless bird), and the Peregrine Falcon!

Day 4

After exploring the park we hit the road for El Calafate in Argentina. Today was going to be a long day in the van which also included a boarding crossing, which we were nervous about because we heard they take all of the fresh produce, meats, eggs, etc off of you. We stopped for lunch and cooked and ate as much as we could! Of course, after gorging ourselves they didn't even check what we had in the van! During lunch Tiffany managed to make a few friends!

We arrived in El Calafate late at night and found a spot in some sand dunes next to Lake Argentino to spend the night. In the process of finding a spot Tobias got the van stuck in the sand, which required some digging, a few stones, and some pushing but we eventually got the van free!

Day 5

We moved to an established campground to take advantage of the shower facilities, do some laundry, fill up with drinkable water, and explore the town. During the day we sampled some local microbrews and had a delicious steak and lamb dinner!

Day 6

Today we headed to Glacier Moreno, the 2nd largest glacier in South America. The height ranges between 131-230 ft (40-70 meters), it’s 3 miles wide (5km) and 19miles long (30km).