Wayne Bernhardson first traveled to Chile in 1979 during the Pinochet dictatorship, wrote his master’s thesis on llama and alpaca herding in the Norte Grande’s Parque Nacional Lauca, and has returned repeatedly to broaden and deepen his knowledge and appreciation of the country. He has driven well over 100,000 kilometers through every Chilean region and Pacific island possession, and he has also visited Chile’s Antarctic bases in the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula.

Wayne earned his PhD in geography at the University of California, Berkeley, but abandoned academia for a perpetual Latin American road trip that many university faculty envy. He is also the author of Moon Handbooks to Argentina, Buenos Aires, and Patagonia. In addition, Wayne has written for magazines and newspapers including Trips, the San Francisco Chronicle, the American Geographical Society's Focus, Business Traveler, Dupont Registry Tampa Bay, Postcards, National Geographic Traveler, Latin Trade, and Travel Holiday. He often gives slide lectures on destinations he covers in his books.

When not in South America (he owns an apartment in Buenos Aires), Wayne resides in Oakland, California, with his wife María Laura Massolo, their daughter Clio Bernhardson-Massolo, and their Alaskan malamute, Malbec (named for Argentina’s signature red wine). He can be reached directly by email at southerncone [at] mac [dot] com or through southernconetravel.com.