On 31 October 2009 the highlight of my trip to South America began. The much anticipated Parque Nacional Torres Del Paine was just a short plane and bus ride away. And after all the hassle of trying to book Sky Airline tickets, the airline came up trumps. Due to a brief stop over in Puerto Montt on the way from Santiago to Punta Arenas we were fed twice within the space of 2 hours and were even given extra leg room seats without asking, it was a life of luxury after all my bad nights on buses. The only down side [View Full Entry]

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Once again I found myself on a sleepless overnight bus journey. This time it was an 11 hour trip from Pucon to Santiago. The bus arrived at around 7.30am and by the time I had found myself to the metro it was rush hour. The rush hour here made the Jubilee line morning rush look empty. Every train that came in was so full absolutely no one could get on. After sitting on the platform for an hour I finally managed to barge my way on, much to the horror of the short local people. I think my backpack caught quite [View Full Entry]

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The bus journey from Bariloche in Argentina to Pucon in Chile has to be one of the most beautiful trips in the world. For 2 hours wecruised around mountain roads going through lush forests, passing crystal clear blue lakes, past sheer granite mountains and finally through the snow covered mountain pass across the border. The small towns that lay on the Argentinian side of the border were just idyllic. They were all based around the amazing lakes, almost entirely made of log cabins in the forests and large birds of prey circled overhead. They were stunning. I cant quite say the [View Full Entry]

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The bus ride from Puerto Madryn to Bariloche was a total disaster. The bus was fully booked as it was a national holiday on Monday and everyone was on the move for a long weekend. The bus had the worst leg room I have encountered, the toilet had been trashed by someone and it was 17 hours of hell. I couldn´t sleep, my legs hurt and they didn´t even feed us, just throw us a shitty sandwich at night and a biscuit in the morning. Needless to say I will not be travelling with Mar Y Valle again. The only highlight [View Full Entry]

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Its 4.50am, the silence is broken, the alarm going off signals it´s time to leave. Time to leave the paradise of Punta Del Diablo. Time to leave the friends I had made there. Time to leave SKye. Saying goodbye has never been a strong point of mine, but being half asleep still somehow made it less painful. SO I walked with Daniel in the pitch black to the bus stop to catch the 5.5 am bus. The wind is blowing a gale, typically the bus is late. Could have had 15 more minutes in bed. It doesn´t matter, I´m on my [View Full Entry]

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Its 3.30 am, we have just been dropped off by the bus, we are standing in the dark, the cold. We stand outside a police station, on the main street, its not a street, its a sand track. Where are we? Where do we go? Will our hostel guy come pick us up in his truck? He does. He arrives in the smallest van you have ever seen. Our bags take up the entire back of the van, we struggle to fit on the row of seats. The man sets off, he speaks no English, the hostel guy gives him directions. [View Full Entry]

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The long and winding road to Rosario didnt quite lead us to what we were promised. Our first bus arrived over an hour late. Im actually convinced that the bus left without us and they had to put a replacement one in service to take us. We were the only two people on the bus, the bus was cold, dark and had no onboard entertainment. It was a miserable 7 hours or so. And just as we had resigned ourselves to not being fed and were half asleep, we were kicked off the bus and on to another one, despite being [View Full Entry]

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After a delightful overnight bus journey of 19 hours, which amazingly wasn´t too bad at all, we arrived in Puerto Iguazu in the middle of a tropical storm at around 9am. Coming from the glitz and glamour of Buenos Aires this place is like a shanty town. Its really small, the buildings are very simple, the roads aren´t complete and there´s really not much to do apart from the national park. After checking into our hostel we took a walk to a point on the river where the borders of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet. It was kind of cool to [View Full Entry]

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On saturday the 12 September it was time to leave Peru and Cusco for the bright lights of Buenos Aires in Argentina. My last night out in Peru was really good, the remaining trek members went to a really nice restaurant for some final pisco sours and good grub. the food looked and tasted fantastic. was a nice way to finsh off a magical week. getting to Argentina was never going to be easy, and it all started off on the wrong foot. i got a taxi to cusco airport just to find i didn´t have enough money to pay, so [View Full Entry]

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I really don´t know where to start with this blog, i have had such an amazing 5 days. But lets start at the beginning. On saturday we all met up at the tour company´s office for a briefing of our trek. upon arrival we had to hand our passports over so they could make a copy. here comes the problem, my inca trail permit was booked under my old passport number and they told me i may not be let on the trail. thankfully, after asking me to go and lie to the police so i could obtain a police document [View Full Entry]

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