The bus ride to La Serena was packed with movies and entertainment for me as Sarah slept. We passed through a few wind farms (Vestas machines). Zookeeper, in spanish but with english subtitles. Muppets in english. It was great. But then they threw on this Bimbo Fico guy, a comedian who is shown on a number of buses. Sometimes people like him, other times no. I do not understand anything he says. He looks a bit creepy though and his style is very different than comedians I see on TV. He is decked out in this white suit with a white top hat. He look like an evil circus guy from a movie. Anyway, we arrived in La Serena with 2 hours before dark, so we set off quickly to find a hostal. And finally, there ... read more

To this point I think we have done a pretty good job logging our activites on the blog. That being said, there are stories and things we think of after the blog was posted that we´d like to remember. We (ok, mostly Sarah) is keeping a journal, but my handwriting is horrendous and I´d rather type it out if I can. So, sporatically we will be going back to blogs previously written and adding/updating things. For example, I´m going to put a new section at the bottom of each blog with Post Post Additions and also, if Sarah or I want to add anything to posts the other person has done we are going to note that as well. So, just as a heads up. If you are interested in seeing those updates I think it ... read more

We arrived in El Bolson around noon Wednesday (March 14th) to clear skies and beautiful temperatures (I´d guess high 70´s to low 80´s). By this point, we´ve established a routine. Try to get information from the bus terminal. If information isn´t available there, find out where the tourist information office is and head there. The information we typically look for is: 1) Where are the campsites and which are the cheapest (or hostels, but lately we´ve just been camping), 2) What are some of the recommended things to do around town or nearby - we typically know what we want to do, but it is always good to get more input, 3) How do we get to the next town we want to go to - sometimes the bus terminals aren´t easy to come back to, ... read more

While El Chalten was the smallest town on our trip so far (population 600ish - 2 years ago anyway), Esquel has been the town we had the smallest information on leading up to arrival. We found a map and walked towards the campsite from our book only to find it closed. Our backpacks are rather heavy and uncomfortable to be walking around everywhere, especially with upset stomachs. Disappointedly we walked back to an information building and got information on another campsite and of course it was only a few blocks from where we just were. The campground has turned out great. It is up on a hill overlooking the town and comes well equipped with showers and bathrooms. And other than the barking dogs it is quiet. This is the first place we have been where ... read more

Friday the 9th. Departing El Calafate and onwards to El Chalten aka The Trekking Capital of Argentina. A tiny town with something like 600 residents but many more tourists filling the streets, hostels and restuarants. We found ourselves a cozy campsite down by a big, braided river and headed off to get in on the trekking trend. The trailhead to Lago Capri was close the the campsite and we wound up narrow trail for about 2 hours. The whole time Matt was compulsively looking for a Condor as he had heard that they lived near rock outcroppings and that they existed in Argentina. This wasn´t enough info to convice me so I spent more time looking for catapillers and watching kayakers in the river below. Then we came upon two hikers stopped in the middle of ... read more