George the Greek

One thing that I wasn't ready for about Argentina was it's size. It's big. Really big. Although we'd planned the trip reasonably well, we're not the speediest travellers by a long way and as such were running out of time in a big way. Em being by far the more organised of the two of us had devised a way of seeing as much as possible given the vast distances involved and our very limited time to cram everything in. First stop was El Calafate, jumping off point for visits to the Perito Moreno glaciar. One very cold morning therefore we found ourselves on a bus from Puerto Natales to El Calafate, and still hurting from the 11 day trek we'd finished the day before. The bus journey was uneventful except that it was on mostly ... read more

As it turned out, we couldn't go to the Torres del Paine park on time, as although our new stove had doubtless been delivered (Chile's postal system is very efficient) it was locked in the post office which was closed for Easter.... ahh.... hadn't thought of that! Not to be deterred, we instead hired ourselves some wheels (a very pimpy Grand Cherokee jeep!) and headed south into Argentina to visit the southernmost city in the world, and very nearly the furthest south you can get before getting to Antarctica, Ushuia. The roads in Patagonia are long, there's very little traffic and the scenery is breathtaking in it's bleakness. Roads stretch on for hundreds upon hundreds of kilometres through barren land where only cattle live - it's some of the best grazing land in the world apparently. ... read more

After nearly 6 weeks in Bolivia we were in our final destination before heading to Chile. Bolivia is right up there with Peru in the great experiences department as far as we are concerned, but it had one more up it's sleeve: the huge salt flats of Uyuni. We arrived from Potosi on what could only be described as a cosy bus, no insignificant thing as the journey takes pretty much all day. After hastily checking into our hostel of choice, the vastly overpriced Magia de Uyuni, Em and I literally dumped our bags and headed out of town. The sun was setting on the local train graveyard, and with it was fleeting an opportunity to take some interesting photos.... We made it, although you can be the judge of whether we succeeded! A wander around ... read more

We've been on the road now for about 3 months, more or less, and the whole time we've been up in the mountains (except for the Galapagos excursion, which was something of a holiday within a holiday). Many moons ago my good friend Pete had also travelled these parts, and the one recommendation that I remembered was that we should go to Rurrenabaque, or Rurre as it's more often called. Having spent so much time up in the clouds we were looking forward to getting down to jungle level, and seeing some of the teeming wildlife that we'd heard and read much about. The journey there was, well, different. We'd biked down from La Paz to Coroico and from there caught a bus bound for Rurre. It was claimed that this bus had toilets and fully ... read more

Cuzco had been great, and we'd really enjoyed visiting the ancient sites of the Incas, but after over a week in the most touristy part of Peru we were happy to get out. We'd decided to take the train to Puno on the basis that... erm..... well, it wasn't a bus. The view was supposed to be quite spectacular, but I must confess that the main reason I wanted to go on the train was that I was bored of busses. The format of the train was such that we were sat opposite a nice American couple, Jeff and Darcy, who we spent hours chatting to on our way there. The train took no less than 4 hours more than the bus (!!) but fortunately the views were as stunning as we'd been promised, justifying the ... read more