South America
“Here we don’t see stars, we see galaxies” a cab driver once told me while maneuvering through the dark desert night toward San Pedro de Atacama. I’d just arrived from Patagonia and had never seen so many stars. After several minutes, we pulled over to the side of the road to simply stare at the sky. It was a classic Atacama moment: we were quite literally star-struck, a speck of humanity enveloped completely by the darkest and clearest skies in the world.
While many visit South America in search of bucket-list icons like Machu Picchu or carnival, moments like these lie far from the crowds—in the windswept steppes of Patagonia, the lush forests and volcanoes of Chile’s Lake District, and the surreal, wildlife-rich shores of the Galápagos Islands.
Traveling in South America is about leaning into unpredictability. Infrastructure can be rustic and weather unpredictable, a reflection of its deeply elemental landscapes. Spanish is widely spoken (except in Brazil), and while touristic comforts exist, many of the most rewarding experiences require a sense of adventure and a tolerance for the unknown. After all, this is a continent which encompasses both the world’s second largest mountain range – the Andes – and its driest desert: the Atacama. For travelers seeking the raw edges of the world, few places offer a more authentic sense of the pristine.
Destinations
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