The Andes, South America
This involves a part of the Andes which can’t be crossed by highway alone – you need to go by a series of buses and boats. Yet crossing the Andes at 42° below (the equator) is an easy exercise. The Thursday-night flight from London should get you to the Chilean capital, Santiago, in time for lunch and then a flight south to Puerto Montt – from where you head straight to the lakeside town of Puerto Varas. From here, the distance of the trip is just over 80 miles as the condor flies. Cruce de Lagos, ‘crossing the lakes’, is well-organised. You buy a ticket all the way through to the Argentinian mountain resort of Bariloche and everything links like clockwork. The mountains are impossibly steep, scarred with wild rivers marching off in an endless corrugation towards the misty horizon. The road climbs steeply before you leave Chile and scale a bumpy no-man’s land across to the Argentinian arrivals post. In 1952, a young man called Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara came this way with a Norton 500 motorbike and his friend Alberto. His journey was later turned into The Motorcycle Diaries. And as the planet’s most impressive lake-and-mountain scenery unravels, the memorable line from the film may haunt you: ‘Before you change the world, let the world change you.’ It is not every Saturday you traverse a continental divide, so celebrate with the local wine. The only place to stay at the Argentinian end of the Cruce de Lagos is the vast Llao Llao, a palace towering over the lake. Next day, snooze all the way back home for a 7.15am arrival.
Hours from London: 23
Travel modes: Flight, bus, boat and taxi
Number of nights away: Three
A double room at the Llao Llao starts from $230 (£115) per night. Call +54 11 5776 or visit llaollao.com. BA flies to São Paulo from London Heathrow and LanChile the Alliance partner flies from São Paulo to Santiago, visit ba.com. To offset the carbon emissions for your flight, visit climatecare.org/britishairways/calculators.
