Soooo much has been happening in the last week. I headed back from Valparaiso and in the bus terminal decided to check my emails and do a bit of surfing as you do when I found a ticket to Easter island for a bargain price. I then spent the rest of the afternoon backing up photos etc and sorting myself out for an early morning flight. It was a perfect week and has been named the ´holiday from the holiday´. At the airport I bumped into 5 other travelers and we used out collective power to get a bargain price for [View Full Entry]

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So have been spending th least couple of days in the Vs - Valdivia, Valparaiso and Vina del Mar. Valdivia is in the south and a mere seven hours from Castro. I headed over in the hopes of finer weather and civilization (ie something more than a 5 street place). I got both which was lucky but not really much else. Valdivia is a little town in the south, large in comparison with the rest of the places. It is situated near the lakes and volcanoes but quite frankly I have seen enough lakes to last me a life time by [View Full Entry]

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Puerto Montt is one of those pass through places. Got there early morning after a fairly quiet night on the ferry which I survived by curling up in two seats space and sleeping. Despite the once again cold and threatening to rain weather I decided to go to the island of Chiloe and stay south. I passed out for most of the journey and woke up in Castro, the ´capital´ of Chiloe. Capital in quotes as it has a main street with shops on as opposed to everywhere else in the island which really is small…. I decided that no matter [View Full Entry]

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I had to use the title. I have been freezing! It has all been a little crazy over the last week or so. Arrived in Coihayque and it poured down with rain the whole time I was there which was a huge shame. The town is nestled in the mountains and everywhere you look there is a mountain peak to admire. The tourist office was not where the guide book said and I spent the morning freezing in internet cafes or wandering around trying to find the tourist office or someone who could explain how the buses worked. Eventually I struck [View Full Entry]

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So for the last couple of days I have been entertaining myself at border crossings! I left El Calafate and the glacier as soon as possible and took the long way round bus back across to the east side of Argentina to get another bus heading back west and a couple of hundred Kms away from El Calafate. This is when you start realising that traveling this far south is not always as straight forward as it would seem looking at maps. There is a lack of roads and bus companies - especially at the end of the season.... I got [View Full Entry]

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So Ushuaia just did not quite happen. I was assured I had a reserva from Rio Gallegos to Ushuaia which I found hard to believe so I was hardly surprised when I got to Rio Gallegos and was told I was not on the passenger list. The trip from Puerto Madryn to Rio Gallegos was entertainment itself. I was at the very front of the bus with 3 Argentines. First of all we played musical chairs so I could get the one seat where the audio was working so I could hear the English and watch the film. It was some [View Full Entry]

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Ok so I wanted to see the penguins in Puerto Madryn and penguins I saw!!!! I arrived in PM after a very uncomfortable night on a ‘semi cama’ bus which was DEFINETLY not semi cama (which essentially means a leg rest). So I staggered to the hostel and fell into bed for a couple of hours. Trekked off to inspect PM which is a sleepy little town situated in a bay. The first thing which caught my attention was the weather. There was I dressed in jeans and jumper as I had been in Bariloche and I was sweltering! I had [View Full Entry]

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And so to Bariloche. After 19 hours and one bus breakdown I arrived in the city by the lake. The first thing that hits you about Bariloche is the style of the houses which is very chalet esque and you feel as if you are in Heidi land or something.... Oh ho and one thing that I had heard about Bariloche is the fantastic chocolate they sell here. I felt it my duty to try it for all of you back home and I can tell you - it is divine. Rich and sumptuous and lots of it, everywhere you go [View Full Entry]

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Another 15 hour bus trip and we found ourselves in Mendoza. The first thing that you wake up to the overnight trip from BA is a view of the Andes - not bad eh? As soon as we had ourselves installed we were off to the tourist board to find out about wine trips. Since Ginny had just 1 ½ days time for her was short and sweet. We were told that we could go to the Bodegas (wineries) with a local bus which was much cheaper and would allow us to see three bodegas on the bus route - whereas [View Full Entry]

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BA is absolutely fabulous. I just don’t have enough adjectives in my vocab to explain to you all how great it is. Though not comparable everyone says it is between BA and Rio as to which is the best city in SA. If it was not for my love affair with Rio then BA would probably be at the top of my list too... well lets see where it is at the end of this trip! We arrived on the Buquebus (I love the word!) from Colonia. A very organized efficient service which got us in to the new port area [View Full Entry]

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