We are big fans of South America. We were in Argentina (Buenos Aires and Mendoza) in 2008, Chile (Santiago, Atacama Desert and Valparaiso) in 2013 and Colombia (Bogota, Medellin, the Coffee Triangle and Cartagena) last year. While in Chile I got the idea that one day I wanted to travel to Patagonia – the southern tip of both Chile and Argentina – and that’s where we’re headed.

But first, we’ll visit Rapa Nui, better known as Easter Island, as named by the Dutch explorer who came upon the island on Easter Sunday in 1722. It was remote and hard to reach then and is still the most remote inhabited island in the world. It’s best known for the mysterious moai (stone sculptures) scattered across the island. There are still many mysteries surrounding the moai and the Rapa Nui people, and we look forward to exploring this mysterious place. We won’t mind that the temperature will be in the 70’s.

Then it’s off to Buenos Aires to start our tour with Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT). We opted to use OAT again for this portion of the trip because there is A LOT of traveling. We’ll be in both Chilean and Argentinian Patagonia and also cruising around Cape Horn. OAT is very good at managing the details of a complicated itinerary, so I’m happy to leave it to them.

We end with some R&R in Uruguay. Why Uruguay, you ask? Mostly because it’s a 2.5-hour ferry ride from Buenos Aires, so why not? It tends to be overlooked, but Montevideo, the capital and Uruguay’s largest city, has a lot to offer – one of the world’s longest beach promenades at almost 17 miles, the longest carnival lasting 40 days, highly regarded wineries, and more. So it won’t be 100% R&R, but we do plan to enjoy the sun before we head back to the northeast winter.