Clare Woodsford

Ben and Clare

Ben and Clare's South American blog



Travel Blog Posts


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Ben and Clare
December 2nd 2009

Rio de Janeiro: The End! As so often on this trip when moving on, it was with mixed feelings that we crossed the border into Brazil. We had had an absolutely fantastic 5 or 6 weeks travelling around Argentina and had seen so many amazing sights that we were sad to leave. Plus, of course, there was the excellent wine and delicious food! However, we were also excited to finally be heading to the legendary city of Rio de Janeiro with it's fantastic setting, fun-packed beaches, samba music and caipirinhas! The bus journey from the Argentine border to Rio ended up being a mammoth 30 hour bus ride but we didn't mind as we had sun, sun, sun to look forward to when we did eventually arrive in Rio. Or at least, that's what we thought. ... read more



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Ben and Clare
November 30th 2009

After our brief but enjoyable romp through Uruguay, we returned to Buenos Aires for the third and, sadly, final time! With Christmas approaching, we took the chance to hit the lovely boutiquey shops in San Telmo and also went to the Saturday market in Palermo. Luckily, our return coincided with a visit from the band The Killers and so we treated ourselves to a couple of tickets and went to see them play an excellent outdoor concert, along with around 20,000 Argentinians! The next day, we took our final night bus in Argentina and so made sure we did it in style on a cama suite bus - around 2 hours into the journey and after a few bottles of free wine and some champagne, we were quite tipsy and drifted off to sleep! After 18 ... read more



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Ben and Clare
November 23rd 2009

Uruguay: Colonia, Montevideo, Punta del Diablo and the Friendliest People in the World? So...after Patagonia, we were back in Buenos Aires - our favourite city of the trip! We weren't here for long this time, though, as we had decided to head into Uruguay for a week or so. However, whilst in BA we did take the chance to visit the hospital as Ben's thumb was still playing up from his fall in Colombia 4 months ago! The doctor was a little surprised that we hadn't had it checked out yet and sent us off to the hospital to have x-rays taken. Things are a little different here than in the UK - after blundering around the hospital trying to work out where we needed to go, Ben had two x-rays taken. We were confused when ... read more



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Ben and Clare
November 14th 2009

El Calafate & El Chalten: Trekking on Ice El Calafate is the small town from where everyone makes thir excursion to the Perito Moreno glacier - one of the few still advancing in the World. We had a great day visiting the glacier - seeing, and often just hearing, huge chunks of ice crashing into the lake. In the afternoon we spent two hours trekking on the ice, which was a beautiful experience, and ended with a whiskey on the rocks - the rocks being ice cut from the glacier itself! There isn't a great deal more to see or do in El Calafate and so we headed for El Chalten, an even smaller town a few hours away that is a mecca for hiking, as it is surrounded by Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. We headed ... read more



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Ben and Clare
November 10th 2009

Ushuaia: It's The End Of The World As We Know It! The distances in the south of Argentina are massive and so we decided to treat ourselves to a few internal flights in order to avoid 20 hour bus rides and make the most of the time we still have! From Trelew, near Puerto Madyrn, we flew down to a town called Ushuaia, which is famous as the most southerly town on Earth and is known as El Fin Del Mundo - The End of The World. It's a ruggedly beautiful place, although we wouldn't have known that as we flew in and couldn't even see the runway! It was bitterly cold and snowed much of the time we were there, which was a major contrast to being in the searing heat of Mendoza just a ... read more



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Ben and Clare
November 5th 2009

Puerto Madryn: Whale Watching and Welsh Cake! We're still days behind with the blog and so here's another quick one to help us catch-up! Our next stop was Puerto Madryn, which is where the legendary Welsh settlers arrived in Patagonia to start a new life away from their English overlords! It's a laid-back seaside town from where trips to Peninsula Valdes leave to see penguins, elephant seals and whales. We were shattered when we arrived as the overnight bus didn't serve food until 11pm and then showed The Fast and Furious until around 1am - this was annoying, but made even worse by the fact that the TV screen near us was broken and so we couldn't even watch the film, instead we were just kept awake by the noise of screeching tyres and Vin Diesel! ... read more



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Ben and Clare
October 31st 2009

Bariloche: Chocolate and Lakes The next few blogs are going to be quite brief as we are miles behind and might not ever catch-up if we don't keep them short! After the oppressive heat of Mendoza, we were really excited about travelling down to Bariloche - a small town on Nahuel Huapi that is surrounded by mountains and a mecca for skiing in the winter and walking in the summer. We would be arriving in their spring and so expected fairly warm weather, whereas in reality it was very cold and there had even been a big dump of snow the week before. Seeing the surrounding mountains covered in snow made it even more painful that we had missed the ski season, as did the news that they had actually tried to re-open the chairlifts, due ... read more



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Ben and Clare
October 28th 2009

Mendoza: Wine Tasting in Extreme Heat! Our next stop was Mendoza - the wine capital of Argentina from where the famous Argentinian Malbec is sent all over the World. The town has a stunning setting, surrounded by huge mountains and is a popular spot for skiing in the right season. The main reason backpackers pour into Mendoza is to take part in one of the semi-legendary wine tours, which involve hiring a bike and cycling between the numerous vineyards, the olive place, and chocolate factory tasting anything and everything! The day we chose for our ride ended up being incredibly hot with the temperature hitting 40 degrees and making for some pretty tough cycling conditions! We visited a number of wineries, sampled loads of wine, and can now consider ourselves experts on Argentinian reds - sadly ... read more



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Ben and Clare
October 19th 2009

Buenos Aires: A Fantastic City! It's hard to know where to start with Buenos Aires (BA), which is just a fantastic city! It's by far the most European city we have been to thus far in South America with architecture that wouldn't look out of place in London or Paris. The majority of people here are of Spanish or Italian descent and so for once we didn't stand out too much walking around, and were even mistaken for Argentines a couple of times! Of course, the second Ben put his shorts on that ended as no-one here seems to wear them, even when it's hot! The other thing that takes some getting used to are the dining habits - restaurants are deserted until around 10 or 11pm, and are then packed until after 1am! Clubs, as ... read more



Salta: Hello Argentina!

Published: November 5th 2009South America » Argentina » Salta » Salta
Ben and Clare icon
Ben and Clare
October 16th 2009

Salta: Hello Argentina! After the shock of the prices in Chile, which seemed especially high after a few weeks in Bolivia, we were even more excited about crossing the border into Argentina - the land of tango, football, wine, and amazing steaks, as well as glaciers and lots more! However, of those, meat was foremost in our minds as Argentina was to be the place where Ben's travelling weightloss was to be reversed! Not only are there just three buses across the border from San Pedro, but those three buses also travel during the day, which meant we would lose a whole day on the road. Thankfully, the bus showed lots of films including 17 Again with Zac Effron, whose fan club Clare has joined - oh dear! For non-Effron fans, the views from the bus ... read more






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