South America
a trip by Gerry & Ruth
From: February 19th 2014
Until: May 9th 2014
Travel has become a key part of our retirement and South America has long been a talisman due to its diverse cultures, history, rugged geography and flora and fauna. As this will be our longest trip to date we have decided to maintain a blog to keep family and friends informed of our preparations and as a record of our experiences and maybe inspire your own adventures.
Our trip is planned for 82 days starting 19 Feb and comprises of two separate organised trips. We have decided on organised trips due to our complete lack of Spanish language skills. After landing in Buenos Aires with 3 days for sightseeing, trip 1 is 18 days in Patagonia with 5 internal flights to help avoid some of the vast distances between overnight stops.
While still late summer early autumn we expect it to be quite cold with maximums around 10 degrees and lower minimums. While travelling very light we think we have planned for enough suitable clothing. One of my highlights will be to view that iconic morning shot of the sun hitting the Andes peaks in the Torres del Paine national park while the rest of the mountains are in shadow and snow.
Our 2nd trip is much less organised, more basic and likely to be a much younger demographic so should be interesting and dynamic. We are probably the only one doing the whole trip as most of the others will only be doing sections of the trip . The trip is 55 days over 5 countries down the west coast. While we will have a guide he will only be assisting in getting us from place to place and advising on what activities are available. It will be up to us to then organise these activities. Like many people our highlight will be the 4 day hike along the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu and to get to the Sun gate at dawn for that iconic view of the lost city in the mist below.
Trip Length: 11 weeks
Blog Entries: 57
Photos: 218
Words: 22732
Blog Entries
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