Easter Island, no its not home to giant chocolate eggs! We arrived here 2 days ago on this remote spec of land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. When we say spec of land we mean an island of 3700 people that is 11kn wide and 23km long with its nearest neighbour Chile, being 3600km away. The first thing that hit us after disembarking the plane, was the friendliness of everyone (guess this comes with only having a handful of flights that visit per week) along with the sea air and 1000´s of twinkling stars shining down on us. We [View Full Entry]

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The wine tour was a very educational and fun day and although we had a perfect blue sky once more we were oblivious to it from the depths of the underground cellars. It was a mixed group of Americans, Israelis, French, Dutch and 1 Argentinean. So much to the amusement of the local Argentinean he spent the day listening to broken English speaking guides in his own country. We visited 4 wineries with a huge contrast between the old family run wineries with their cellars and old french oak barrels and the ultramodern stainless steel vats with artificial temperature controlled processes. [View Full Entry]

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You could sure finally feel the heat in the sun again as we woke and stepped off the bus into the perfect blue sky of Mendoza. Looking at a map its hard to imagine how far we have travelled over the last few weeks. But with Winter approaching it is nice to be chasing the sun and heading towards the northern hemisphere. Mendoza is the wine capital of Argentina with approx 60% of the countrys wine produced here. So with a quick trip to the Airline office to bring our flight to Easter Island forward we promptly booked onto a wine [View Full Entry]

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With a sharp started we jumped on a local bus out to the small ski village of Catedral on the outskirts of Bariloche. We had decided on a rather challenging hike from the Lonely Planet guide book "Trekking in Patagonia " which provides great maps, times distances and descriptions of hikes. So from previous experiences using this guide book in southern Patagonia we adjusted the times and decided that given the sunny day and feeling rather active we would attempt to pack a decent two day hike into the day. Catedral Ski village felt like a ghost town as we arrived [View Full Entry]

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We learnt another lesson on our second overnight bus and that is that its better to be warm and cramped than spacious and cold. So with the heating broken in cama (sleeper class) and Matts failed attempt to complain to the driver (Leanne could only hear "Frio, Frio") we decided to attempt the unimaginable and sneak up stairs into second class where we were able to find a couple of nice warm seats and finally got some sleep. We arrived in Bariloche which is the heart of the Lakes District of Argentina. What a wonderful site after such a long journey. [View Full Entry]

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Well after a few solid days of walking it was nice to take the hiking boots off and slip on some comfortable traveling shoes. This is metaphorically speaking given the fact our hiking shoes are our dancing shoes which are our restaurant shoes which are our running shoes and you guessed it, are also our traveling shoes (don´t feel too sorry for us as we do have a pair of sandals each also). We are half way through our mammoth bus journey and after a day and overnight bus we are at the small port town of Comodoro Rivadavia. We arrived [View Full Entry]

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So where have we been? Well if you ask our feet they sure know as we have put them through some severe pain over the last 2 days. The weather here has been amazing and feel really lucky for this time of year as the season is almost at an end with most of the village closed down already. Theres a smorgasbord of trails to choose from all leaving directly from town (thats a town on Patagonian scale). On our first day here Leanne was woken by Matt from her nice cosy sleep with no sign of daylight. Leanne thought Matt [View Full Entry]

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We beat the sun up this morning by a long shot. El Calafate is a remote and safe feeling town and from our Hostel it was an relaxing walk even in the dark. This was aided by Leannes ability to pick up a procession of not less than half a dozen stray dogs to usher us safely to the bus terminal. The 5hr drive here was amazing to say the least. We had perfect blue sky and views of the snow capped Andes. You can see why this is called Los Glaciares National park as we saw several galciers in the [View Full Entry]

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The vast Patagonian planes seem to be monotonous without holding a lot, yet no matter how long you stare at them they seem to have the strange ability to hold your attention. After several days of travelling the dead straight roads of Patagonia we knew there must be change on the horizon and oh how we were right! In the distance we could see a small distraction which as we approached grew into the towering Andes which was to be our next destination. We are staying in a small town named El Calafate nestled by a lake at the foot hold [View Full Entry]

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So off we set on our day trip with a quick skittle around town to pick up others from the various hostels. At the final pick up our tour guide came back from buzzing the bell at the hostel looking very frustrated. Apparently the last couple were still in bed. After waiting a good 10 minutes and seeing a few frustrated passengers, suddenly the doors swung open and we both looked at each other and burst into laughter as 2 scarecrows approached the bus rubbing their eyes with hair in all directions. Yes they were laid back Kiwis. The trip was [View Full Entry]

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