Cocora Valley is home to the tallest palm trees in the world and one of Colombia’s most popular outdoor destinations. Hiking the valley was one of our neatest experiences in South America, but it wasn’t without a little misadventure.
There are two places to see penguins in the wild near Punta Arenas, Chile. One is Magdalena Island, where small Magellanic penguins roam free. We decided to go to Magdalena Island because it’s close to Punta Arenas and the entire island is run over by these little penguins.
Puerto Williams is the southernmost city in the world, a small town and naval base of merely a few thousand people on Navarino Island at the southern tip of Chile.
We flew to Punta Arenas from Puerto Montt after visiting Chile’s lake district, picked up our rental car at the airport, and drove straight to Puerto Natales, our base for taking day trips to Torres del Paine.
We spent 10 days in the Galapagos in late September, split between two islands, Santa Cruz and Isabela. Santa Cruz is the most inhabited with 30,000 or more residents, whereas Isabela is only 3% inhabited, with just a few thousand residents.
Armenia is full of natural beauty. If you have more time after exploring Yerevan, we highly recommend taking some day trips to see these wonderful landscapes and churches not too far from the capital.
Andorra is a tiny mountainous nation bordering Spain and France, three hours by car from Barcelona. We took advantage of our Barcelona stay to rent a car and drive to Andorra for two nights at the end of November, which is the beginning of their winter.