Gypsy Soul Mates ...

We are an Australian couple who love exploring the world to discover new countries, experience unique cultures and capture awesome images of our adventures together.  We believe that life should be lived, experienced and enjoyed and want to seize every moment of fun, travel and adventure we can!

For years Justin and I have dreamt of exploring the vast and wild continent of South America, so with Justin's long service leave up his sleeve, we decided to take a career break and travel to South America for 7 months.  Check out the details of Our South American Adventure below.  

As part of Gypsy Soul Images, we started Gypsy Soul Mates travel blog as a way of sharing our travels, photos and experiences in South America with family and friends.  Hopefully we can also entertain and inspire others to live their travel dreams along the way. 

Kim ...

My passion for travel and photography began 20 years ago with my first overseas adventure and it will always inspire my Gypsy Soul.  I instantly fell in love with the travellers nomadic life and spent the next 12 years working and travelling abroad, exploring 47 countries along the way.  I am endlessly captivated by unique cultures, customs and all the special characters you meet along the way and aim to capture the spirit of a place and celebrate the diversity of its people through my travel photography and writing.  

Justin ...

My thirst for travel started soon after meeting Kim when we moved to London.  From there, we took every opportunity to explore the UK, Europe and North Africa.  Since then we've travelled to Bali and Vietnam, as well as plenty of our own backyard in Australia.  At home, I enjoy bodyboarding, am a keen golfer and like to dabble in electronic music production.

Our South American Adventure ...

From the Caribbean coast in colonial Cartagena, our travels will take us through the colourful pueblos and coffee fincas of Colombia to Ecuador, where natural beauty abounds and we have our first taste of the indigenous culture of the Andes.  

Justin hopes to get barrelled by the longest left hand wave in the world at the Chicama beach break in northern Peru, before we head deep into the Amazon jungle from Iquitos to explore it’s incredible biodiversity. 

Continuing on, we discover the rich Inca history of Peru, joining the Inca trail express to Machu Picchu for what is sure to be one of the biggest highlights of our journey!  Our travels through Bolivia, see us descend from the lofty heights of Lake Titicaca to the arid altiplano of Uyuni Salt Flats, and across the vast Atacama Desert into Chile.   

Crossing into Argentina, we will traverse the colourful Andean valleys and vineyards around Salta before flying to Buenos Aires.  We're going to make a home in the hip BA neighbourhood of Palermo Soho for a month over Christmas and New Year so we can take a break from travelling, live as a local, practice our Spanish, and soak up the culture in style! 

January - March 2016

The next part of our South American adventure begins in Santiago, Chile and we are looking forward to taking in the colourful street art of Valparaiso and a surfing sidetrip to Pichelmu before flying to Puerto Montt.   Stunning scenery awaits us in the  picturesque Lakes District of southern Chile and Argentina, with dazzling glacial lakes, emerald forests, massive mountains and (recently erupting!) volcano's. 
 
We have plenty of opportunity to soak in the breathtaking mountain vistas when trekking around El Chalten and in the pristine Patagonian wilderness of the Torres del Paine National Park. For years this wild, remote region has captured my imagination and (weather permitting) this will be another major highlight of the trip for us. 
 
From Patagonia we return north to Iguassu Falls and chase an endless summer on the ideal islands of southern Brazil.  Finally, we get a chance to samba up a storm at Copacabana beach, Rio de Janeiro before heading back home at the end of March 2016.