Iguacu Falls involves around 1.5 million litres of water dropping over an assortment of cliffs that spread for 2kms. In other words its a very wet place. On arrival yesterday Anna and I walked to view the Brazillian side of the falls, right opposite our hotel. The force and noise of the water is something else. Today we took a car to Argentina with a young driver reminiscent of Ayrton Senna. In our view the falls are best from the Argentine side. Looks more viewpoints and closer to the water generally. All the falls are accompanied by butterflies of every variety [View Full Entry]

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Rio is indeed "the marvellous city" as it is known in its local lingo, Portugese. We thought we were having trouble coping with Spanish, but soon found it much easier than Portugese. While there are some words in common there are so many differences we can´t comprehend how they understand each other so well. We are very well situated, just one block from the Ipanema beach. On our first full day we took a private tour with Marcel. We were very lucky to have wonderful (hot) clear weather to enjoy the breathtaking views from Corcoavo (the mountain with Christ's statue on [View Full Entry]

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We enjoyed a half day tour of Santiago yesterday. Interesting sights and an impressive city. From a central viewpoint on the city's tallest hill you can view miles of tall, modern apartment buildings. Not sure if living here would be great though! Long hours and considerable public transport issues despite its excellent Metro (underground) system. Today we visited Aquitania winery in the Maipo valley. A small boutique winery that exports cabernet, camenere and chardonnay products to Europe and the USA. Along with our travelling companions Bronte and Graham (who we met on the ship) we th [View Full Entry]

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After another day at sea we arrived in Puerto Montt, a coastal city (capital of Chile's Lakes region) of about 150,000. We took a day tour to an interesting museum about the many German settlers that arrived in the mid 19th century, then took a fairly boring tour of a smallgoods factory much like the ones in Australia! Then some wine and meats by Lake Llanaquihue, the third largest lake in South America. We enjoyed our last day at sea before disembarking in Valparaiso this morning. This city of 350,000 is home to Chile's main port and navy and is very [View Full Entry]

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We proceeded to the Faulklands Islands after a day´s sailing. These islands were well worth visiting, although most unfortunately Anna was still in poor health so I proceeded by tender boat to the island alone. Stanley is a quaint little English style town. Some say there was four seasons in one day when we were there, but I would suggest more like four shades of Winter - sleet, snow, rain and always wind. Around 4c I think. I visited two war memorials, for the Brits-Argentine conflict (1982) and the little known Brits-German conflict of WWI. The Faulklands are a bleak land [View Full Entry]

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After Montevideo we set sail for Puerto Madryn (PM). Saw an Aussie singer, Michael Fisher-King from Sydney on board. Never heard of him but apparently he´s won too many awards to mention. Anna has not been well during the day at sea. She has picked up a bacterial infection associated with her asthma. She is getting well looked after by the ship´s doctor and is slowly coming good. So I spent a day at port at PM alone. PM is on the edge of Patagonia. Wasn´t sure what to expect of Patagonia but certainly not this - desert like country, low [View Full Entry]

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After a long flight via Sydney, Auckland and Santiago we arrived in Buenos Aires, only 1 hour late. BA is a very impressive city. We did a half day tour with Monica and four Aussies, and are looking forward to returning here for 6 days at the end of our trip. Interesting architecture and lovely parks. We had steak on Saturday night and it well and truly lived up to its our expectations. We both agreed it was the best we had ever tasted and the Tbones from Coles on return will be pretty ordinary by comparison. We had to have [View Full Entry]

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