World Tour: Part 1 - South America

If you haven’t heard about it yet, we are starting a 1+ year World tour through the terroirs of South America, South-East Asia & Europe, and we’ll share this lifetime experience with you!

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As we sat down at the terminal in Paris Charles-de-Gaulle airport, listening to the announcements in French, English or Japanese, we started to realise that the trip had started. With a big smile on our faces, the euphoria was rising and our stomach were like upside down.

This is it. Here we are. No way back. For the first part of our World tour, we’ll travel through South America, looking for artisan food producers and winemakers to share their passion and learn from their knowledge.

First Stop: Brazil

The trip should take us to Rio de Janeiro first, where we’ll meet up with a Brazilian friend of ours that we met in Dublin (it’s a small world). We’ll be staying for about a week there, in Copacabana, visiting the colourful & musical city of Rio de Janeiro. After that, on the long bank holiday weekend starting 7th September, we’ll travel by bus and boat to the small island of Ilha Grande, South-West of Rio. The place looks like a little paradise, and with the long weekend of celebrations, we’re guaranteed to find great outdoor activities and lovely people to meet.

On the 10th September, we’ll get back to the mainland and make our way to the South of Brazil, where we’d love to go and meet winemakers from this fast-growing area. Between the villages of Caxias do Sul & Bento Goncalves, not too far away from the Vale dos Vinhedos, we’re hoping to meet the pioneers of the Brazilian wine sector. Known for their great sparkling and some beautiful reds too, we should have lots of lovely wines to share with you!

Second Destination: Argentina

We’ll enter Argentina in the North, near the Iguazu Falls, where we should spend a few days lost in the woods, breathing the fresh air of this gem of a place! Being the largest waterfall system in the world, the views will be incredible and we should have plenty of great pictures for you!

From there, we’re going to the City! We’ll fly directly to Buenos Aires where we’ll stay for 10 days, from the 20th to the 30th September. Birthplace of the seductive Tango dance, alleged capital of the best beef in the World, this Historical city is a jaw-dropping mix of European history and modern Argentine architecture.

We couldn’t go to Argentina without going to its core wine region, the Mendoza. Located on the Western part of the country, along the Andes Mountains, it is the main wine-producing area there. We’ll go there from Buenos Aires and stay there until the 8th October. We should visit a couple of fantastic wineries there, with great history and incredible old vines. With an altitude of 1000 meters above sea level, key to the natural freshness of their wines, we should have amazing pics for you!

Third Place: Chile

After the Mendoza, we’ll cross the Andes Mountains, leading us to Chile. This very long & narrow country is home to stunning winemakers and great food culture. So’ should take us to beautiful olive groves, to experience the different aromas coming from this exciting terroir, while Max will explore the wine aspect of Chile. Since the country is huge, we’ll probably focus on Central Chile around Santiago.

There, we’ll go to the artistic town of Valparaiso, with its never-ending paintings in the streets. One of our friends will join us on his holidays to fly over the Atacama Desert into our next destination: Bolivia.

Fourth Country: Bolivia

We’ll land in the highest capital in the World: La Paz, located at 3 640m above sea level. The best way to get there should be slow and gradual, in order to prepare ourselves to the high altitude, but we didn’t have enough time to do so, so hopefully we’ll be alright. From La Paz, we’ll take a bus into the shiny Salt Flats of Uyuni, on the 26th October. We’ll spend the night there, before going back to La Paz and embark on a journey through the Lake Titicaca and the Isla del Sol sitting on its middle.

Located on the border with Peru, it will take us to the town of Cusco.

Fifth Country: Peru

In Peru, we’ll go trekking to the Machu Picchu through the old Jungle, following what is known as the Inca trail. This should take us 4 days, from the 3rd to the 6th November.

After that, we’ll probably go and visit Lima, the capital.

Part Six: The Unknown

At that stage, we should have about 3 weeks to make our way back to Rio de Janeiro for a flight back to Europe on the 1st December (Max’s birthday!). We don’t know yet what places we’ll go to, but that’s probably the most exciting part of a road trip!