Monthly Archives: April 2026

Ola folks!

Getting to Atacama – sweet. Staying the night in Atacama – neat! Next up – Atacama proper…

Our to-do list had a full nine items:

1) Rainbow Valley
2) petroglyphs at a place called Yerbas Buenas (which turned out meh)
3) Devil’s Throat Gorge (curiously, there’s a Devil’s Throat at Iguazu Falls – though it’s not a gorge but a waterfall)
4) Moon Valley
5) Death Valley
6) Lake Chaxa (with flamingos)
7) the stunning Miscanti and Miñiques lagoons
8) the El Tatio geyser field
9) stargazing through telescopes

Off we go!…

Read on…

Our South American road-trip early this year was a belter – as regular readers already know. As per, thousands of photos are still being sorted to be turned into (hopefully interesting) photo-based stories, with videos getting uploaded too. As usual, I’m sharing practical info along the way: the routes we took, where things are on the map, where we stayed, what the comfort levels were like – that kind of thing. And on today’s menu: where we stayed in Chile’s Atacama Desert in the town of San Pedro de Atacama (here)…

It was a hotel called Our Habitas. It belongs to a chain of stylish hotels in cool locations around the world (Latin America, the Middle East, Namibia…). But this isn’t an ad for the chain or this particular hotel. There are other solid options here too – including simpler and cheaper ones. We just happened to stay here, so that’s what I’ll be writing about. Let’s go!…

Read on…

Another long-held dream checked off the list – visiting the Atacama Desert in Chile’s far north (here). Feast your eyes! ->

Read on…

I’ve been sorting through photos for upcoming posts about our LatAm-2026 road trip. Next up: Chile’s high-altitude Atacama Desert. Spoiler (no, these can never be spoiled): the views are jaw-droppingly oh-my-grandiosely-gorgeous-gradients!…

And while I was sifting, sorting, and editing the pics of South American roads – an idea came to me…

Read on…

In my previous post I promised to show you some roads and the views to be had therefrom in Latin America, right? Today – that promise: fulfilled. Get ready for picturesque, vast arid landscapes, seemingly painted mountains, and ribbons of road winding through it all:

Not much to say here – I’ll let the photos do the talking:

Read on…

I was a little too hasty in my last post when I ended it with “that’s a wrap on Argentina“, for there were the traditional post-scriptum posts I’d forgotten about. All about Argentina’s roads – in the next post; in today’s – all a few words and pics about eats and sleeps in Argentina…

For the most part, things were as we expected. Down south in Patagonia we found plenty of comfortable little hotels and decent campsites. But when we got to the Jujuy Province, we landed in what felt, by local standards, like the lap of luxury!

Case in point: the Hotel Huacalera. A wonderful hotel! We saw online that it has a pool, but we weren’t really in the mood for that kind of relaxation. All we needed were showers and a good night’s sleep, and to get moving again the next morning. But hey, when a little extra comfort is on offer, why not? ->

Read on…

The colorful mountains, rocks, and canyons of Argentina’s Jujuy province have been explored, adored, and thoroughly photographed. Time to continue our South American adventure!…

And there are still plenty of must-sees, including: the Salinas Grandes salt flats:

These vast salt flats are seriously impressive.

Read on: Salt, salt, salt! And mirages…

When the temperature drops below -50°C, the world turns into something else. It doesn’t just freeze; it visually transforms. Everything gets wrapped up head to toe in hoarfrost and grows a thick layer of fluffy white crystals. It’s kind of like the inside of a freezer, only way more intense. Trees, road signs, poles and the wires on the poles are all coated in white hoarfrost:

This year that kind of a deep-deepest freeze in the Russian Far East only took place in December and January, while February turned out to be unseasonably warm. In fact, I’d say it was hot for February in Yakutia. If the thermometer shows -20°C at that time of year – yes, that’s hot! The thermometer only crept lower than -40°C a couple of times early in the morning, but it’d almost immediately warm up to -30°C or even higher. It got to the point where, for most of the trip, I wasn’t even wearing thermal ski pants – just jeans. I had some thermal leggings on underneath the jeans – but that was it. And I only wore my fur-lined boots once (when we spent the night in our cars on the ice of the Kolyma River to enjoy the northern lights and a total lunar eclipse).

At such higher-than-usual temperatures, all the white beauty melts away quickly, and the world turns gray and boring again. But at least a few times we got lucky and drove right into “proper” bleached scenery:

Read on…

Colors No. 1
Colors No. 2

In Argentina’s northern region of Jujuy there’s another multicolored spot that’s simply must-see: the Quebrada de las Señoritas valley. Here it is on Google Maps, and on Yandex Maps. The whole valley is made up of brightly colored rocks, and it also boasts… expressive cacti. But the main attraction for sure is an impossibly bright red canyon about half a kilometer long:

“Welcome to the Señoritas!” ->

There not much walking to be done here, though the altitude would suit hikes perfectly at just 2500 meters instead of the 4400 meters at the previous Jujuy-colors spot.

The cacti look like they’re… gesturing to the tourists wandering around. Or maybe they’re trying to warn them about something?…

The views: woah!

Here’s the entrance to the “main course” – the canyon:

Oh my gawdy-gorgeous! Mind-blowing! And we certainly didn’t expect something like it here…

The canyon winds this way and that, and with every turn a new scene emerges:

Then, suddenly, we see a ribbon strung across the canyon. What?! Our guide told us there’d been rain and landslides posing a risk to tourists. Or could it be a ruse of the guides – so they don’t have to take groups all the way to the end of the canyon?!…

// I was still reeling (and still am today if reminded!) that they close the Mountain of 14 Colors to visitors at 6pm and don’t let you enjoy the sunset. WHY? It makes no sense! Could it be that they’re just too lazy?!..

On the way back, we heard excited shouts from a nearby tour group. They noticed that one of my travel companions had a telephoto lens on his camera, and started pointing excitedly at the mountains. Their gestures were accompanied by cries of “Viscacha! Viscacha!” So said travel companion zoomed in and…you guessed it: Viscacha! ->

In closing, a few colorful shots from my ever-present travel companion, DZ ->

Hi-res photos from LatAm-2026 are here.

…*But were afraid to ask

Being somehow drawn to the deep-frozen (sometimes down to -60°C!) North in winter, obsessed with brutal Siberian winter roads, having to put up with equally brutal overnight stays, and thousands of kilometers of rough roads tracks… – let’s be honest, it’s a mental anomaly. Most people would only venture into such a world against their will. Suggest a winter trip to Oymyakon instead of, say, the Maldives, and any normal person would twirl their index finger around one of their temples and roll their eyes. At the other extreme – there are some folks who can’t get enough of such extremely frigid locations like the Arctic or Antarctic. I’m not quite that far gone, but every couple of years I do try and tackle a new winter driving route. I simply mad for it!…

Up north in the winter, it’s a completely surreal world of whiteness!

The scenery in places is simply stunning:

You zone out watching these views roll by, driving as if hypnotized – for hundreds and hundreds of kilometers…

Read on…