We continued onward to San Martin de los Andes (plainly San Martin from here onwards). We were slowly making our way towards Buenos Aires, to meet LM´s dad and Karen. We had ample time, so we took it. San Martin de los Andes is a smaller version of Bariloche and is much more tranquil. The village is also built on the shore of a big and beautiful lake; houses are made of stone and wood and the streets are lined with many trees which makes for a charming village. The plumb trees make for messy pavements, though. At the bus station [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Bariloche on the 12th of February after a long, grueling bus journey. Bariloche is a beautiful village on the shore of Lake Nahuel Huapi in the lakes district of Argentina. The lake is huge, has a deep blue colour and has an average surface temperature of 7 degrees Celsius and still people are snorkeling! Apparently, this area of Argentina reminds people of Switzerland. We would not know as we have not been in Switzerland, yet. What we do know is that Bariloche and the surrounding countryside is beautiful, with many lakes surrounded by tree-clad mountains. Bariloche has more [View Full Entry]

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After the "W" hike in the Torres del Paine National Park we returned to Puerto Natales and stayed there for 1 night. The following day we departed for the long drive to El Chalten in Argentina. El Chalten is a small village in a pretty valley within the Los Glaciares National Park, at the base of the famous Cerro Fitz Roy (3.375 m) and Cerro Torre (3.128 m) mountains. El Chalten exists purely as a result of tourism: climbers from around the world come here to climb the famous Cerro Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre as they are apparently two of [View Full Entry]

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Torres Del Paine We first tried to organise our Torres trip from El Calafate in Argentina, but this was unsuccessful. After being ripped off by a nasty woman at a gear rental shop (long story, do not use "El Barraco" rental), we took the bus to Puerto Natales in Chile to organise our trip from there. We stayed in an extremely cheap room, at Hospedaje Olguita, basically a woman's (Olguita's) house with a couple of rooms. She was very friendly, but the bathrooms were not the cleanest we have seen. We rented some camping equipment (tents, cooking equipment, floor mats and [View Full Entry]

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El Calafate El Calafate is a small village (population 6,000) in Patagonia. Its economy is almost solely driven by tourism, as it lies on the borders of the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the second largest park in Argentina. An aside, this park contains a giant ice cap in the Andes range that feeds 47 large glaciers. This is the largest ice cap outside of Antarctica and Greenland and is the world's third largest reserve of fresh water. El Calafate´s streets are lined with many trees and wooden buildings, making it quite a quaint place. There [View Full Entry]

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Ushuaia We left Punta Arenas by bus on the 20th of January. Part of the journey took us over the Strait of Magellan where we saw many beautiful Commerson's Dolphins playing in the water and swimming along the ferry. See the video posted for the dolphins swimming along the ferry. Ushuaia is the southernmost city in the world (haven´t we heard that before?). Puerto Williams, in Chile, is farther south. Puerto Williams, however, is a rural town of some 2000 residents, mostly temporary military personnel and is not consid [View Full Entry]

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Punta Arenas As our goal was to get down south as fast as possible, we flew down to Punta Arenas from Santiago. We had glimpses of the Chilean lakes district and many snow-capped volcanoes along the way. According to Wikipedia, Punta Arenas is located on the Brunswick Peninsula and is the southernmost city of its size in the world. (Ushuaia, Argentina, also makes this claim and is further south, but has only half the population of Punta Arenas). Punta Arenas was a weird place for us. Let us explain: After Peru, northern Chile and Santiago/Valparaiso, it was a completely new e [View Full Entry]

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After the hike in Colca Canyon, it was time to say good-bye to Darran (after travelling with him for two months) as he was on his way to Bolivia. The two of us and Linsey then set off to Arica in Chile. From Arequipa we took a bus through the Atacama Desert to Tacna, a Peruvian town close to the Chilean border. The Atacama Desert is a virtually rainless plateau and is the driest desert in the world. Tacna is situated in the middle of nowhere and it is unimaginable why anyone would want to settle in such a dry, remote [View Full Entry]

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Colca Canyon After being very lazy in Cusco over the Christmas and New Year period, we decided to head to Arequipa and Colca Canyon for some hiking. The four of us (us, Darran and Linsey) booked bus tickets for the evening of the 3rd of January. LM developed some stomach trouble through the day and we decided not to leave that evening. We said good-bye to Linsey and Darran and went for a quick dinner. Returning from dinner we found them at the hostel, they had missed the bus! The universe did not want us to take that bus... We arrived [View Full Entry]

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Cusco, again Just to catch up from our last entry: From Iquitos we flew to Lima (on the way we hit an air pocket which was no joke), spent 3 days there and then bussed to Cusco. Since we have been in Cusco in August last year at the beginning of our trip, this is a very short entry detailing our activities over the Christmas period. We arrived absolutely exhausted in Cusco after a 22 hour bus drive from Lima (Darran left a day before us). We met up with Linsey, Darran and the two Irish, Aoibheaan and Simon, at Casa [View Full Entry]

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