Jessie

Back in Queenstown briefly before heading over to Christchurch for my flight tomorrow. Rachel and I have done some more stunning treks and the area around here and the fjords really warrants weeks of trekking! We really enjoyed doing part of the Routeburn trek and the night on Milford Sound was awesome (in the original sense of the word!). Stayed at a private hostel yesterday where the owner took us out on his yacht so we could go swimming in the lake. So, we've now swum at the most Northerly and Southerly points we've visited in New Zealand (Russell in the Bay of Islands and Manapouri in Fiordland). I've posted some pictures on my last entry too, if you fancy taking a look at those. Next stop - Sydney!... read more

Hope you all enjoyed the New Year celebrations wherever you were. We´d planned to celebrate in Valparaíso but when we arrived yesterday afternoon it was so hectic that we decided to retreat into the foothills of the Andes cordillera! There was no accommodation available in Valparaíso anyway, so people were camping, jam-packed like sardines, along the side of the motorway! Glad we gave it a miss because we´ve ended up in a village hotel with views of the peaks in the Cerro La Campana national park and guess what we were woken by on the first of January 2006? An earthquake!!! Only measured 3 on the Richter scale and, to a slumbering Jessie, felt like undulating massage pads in the mattress but it was enough to wake us! Apparently it´s quite unusual to be able to ... read more

It´s been a long time since I´ve had access to a computer because Nick and I flew from Santiago straight down to Punta Arenas, so that we could visit the Torres del Paine national park. It really was so stunning that I kept saying "This is so beautiful" over and over again! It had everything - HUGE glaciers, turquoise lakes, and beautiful mountains, including the eponymous ´Torres´(towers). I´m afraid that I´ve hardly got any photos on my digi camera but at least you get a vague idea of it. You´ll have to wait to see the rest when they´re printed from Nick´s SLR. We camped in the park for 4 days, in forests and alongside the lakes and glaciars. It´s truly an unforgettable place. Enough of my spouting, just go there if you can! We´re now ... read more

Have just returned from a two-day tour to a couple of UNESCO National parks north of Mendoza. The hostel I´m staying at in San Juan organised it for me through a local tour company but since there aren´t very many tourists around here at the moment, there were only three of us on the trip. The other two were a lovely Belgian Flemish couple but the driver was quite unpleasant, which put a slight dampener on things but we tended to laugh at him rather than getting annoyed and still had a good time anyway. The first park is famous for being a mine of early dinosaur fossils and the students working there were excellent at explaining the whole process. We cycled around the second park today, which was such a nice relief after hours in ... read more

Have been in Cordoba for about a week now and it´s been great just to base myself in one place with a little exploration of the surrounding Sierras. Cordoba itself is a funky town with a young, stundenty vibe, since it has the oldest University in Argentina. The hostel I moved to is in the heart of the student district and I´ve got to know a really nice group of people, nearly all of whom are travelling on their own and, just like me, have ended up chilling out in Cordoba, not wanting to move on! I wouldn´t say it´s the most amazing landscape at all but after all the non-stop travelling I´d done for the first month, it´s been nice to stay in one place and get to know some people. My most interesting visit ... read more