On Thursday I was lucky to catch my flight to Ushuaia, as my alarms didn´t go off. Hurried to the airport to learn that the flight was delayed an hour. Sometimes I forget that Argentina is still in South America. We arrived in Ushuaia to a 8C beautiful day, with great views of the mountains surrounding the city. Quite a relief after spending so long in a tropical climate. After finding my hostel I headed towards Glacier Martial. Despite a couple of detours (unintentional, but still with great views and beautiful nature) I found the glacier. Although it is described as [View Full Entry]

---

---

Don´t remember exactly where I left off... On Tuesday I was originally planning to go to Uruguay for the day. Apparently Colonia is really nice and pretty easy to get to. But when I awoke to a thunderstorm I realized that it really wasn´t worth it just to get the stamp in my passport. Kind of a lazy day. At night, however, I made it out to a more local milango tango show, with a substantially cheaper entrance fee and an eclectic mix of seemingly professional dancers and couples who clearly had learned an hour ago. It had a great environment, [View Full Entry]

---

---

I´m splitting Buenos Aires up because I´ve done a lot in the last few days, and also because its raining and I have nowhere to be for a few hours. As I mentioned, I arrived on Saturday via an awesome bus ride that erased all my memories of the buses in Bolivia (although we did get in a few hours late, can´t ask for too much). I visited Boca (the poorest barrio in Buenos Aires, which is all relative... after spending time in other South American cities I thought that Boca was rather nice) and saw el Estadio de Club Boca [View Full Entry]

---

---

Not only have I not posted anything for a week, the days are starting to run together, but I´ll give it a go. After my escapades in Paraguay/Brazil, I finally made it to Puerto Iguazu, in the northeast corner of Argentina. I was immediately how struck by how expensive everything was, but I guess that was inevitable after spending three weeks in Bolivia. And you really get what you pay for, as the infrastructure in Argentina is leaps and bounds ahead of anywhere I´ve traveled in South America to date. I woke up early on Thursday, 12/10/09 to visit Parque Nacional [View Full Entry]

---

---

On Sunday evening I began the infamous trans-Chaco route from Santa Cruz, which was reported as "30+" hours in my Lonely Planet -- and listed as an activity in the highlight section -- but I was encouraged by reports that the road had been improved since then. Furthermore, I was promised an 18-hour trip, with AC, full cama (bed) and TV/movies. Of course, all of that was a lie. At 2am we awoke to the passengers of another bus -- which had left on Saturday but gotten stuck because of the rain -- flooding onto the bus. While I felt fortunate [View Full Entry]

---

---

One of the reasons I stuck around in Samaipata and Santa Cruz was that I kept hearing how awesome the Santa Cruz Oktoberfest was going to be (and inevitably delaying going to more expensive countries like Argentina and Chile). Santa Cruz is the largest city in Bolivia at around 1.5 million people, although it´s so spread out you wouldn´t know it. Also, it has more of a Brazilian feel (and climate, at 500m ASL) than the rest of Bolivia -- not sure how accurate this is, but I´ve been told that Santa Cruz tried to seceede from the rest of Bolivia, [View Full Entry]

---

---

(Noticing a trend in decreasing creativity in blog entry titles, and text in general) The nature around the town of Samaipata either makes you want to grab a machette and explore the jungle/forest, or rent a hammock and enjoy an afternoon siesta. Having spent the last three weeks rushing around Bolivia, I finally decided to relax a bit and enjoy the tranquilidad that the Santa Cruz atmosphere has to offer. Looking for a chance to stretch my legs (I didn´t feel like I´d gotten any exercise while in Bolivia) I arrived in Samaipata on Monday morning and immediately rushed to El [View Full Entry]

---

---

This past weekend, Bolivia took the opportunity to celebrate Halloween, All Saints Day and All Souls Day. Needless to say, everything was closed -- including a lot of transportation. Meaning I was stuck in Sucre, the judicial capital of Bolivia. I came to Sucre hoping to do some trekking in the surrounding valleys, but found that unlike the more touristy areas, the price is based on the number of people. And all the travelers I met in Sucre seemed to be more inclined to partying than hiking. On Saturday I took the "Dino Bus" up to the Crustaceous Park, which contains [View Full Entry]

---

---

Still a bit drowsy from the overnight bus from La Paz, I arrived in Uyuni on Wed 28/10, still undecided on whether to do a 1 or 3 day tour of the Salar de Uyuni, the world´s largest salt flat. Given my recent bus experiences I didn´t want to sit in a Jeep for 3 days (they let you out for 20 minutes at a time) so I chose to do a 2 day tour of the Salar and a couple of the lagunas. The Salar was absolutely beautiful, although I imagine it can get old very quickly. However, despite my [View Full Entry]

---

---

Last Friday, 23/10 I arrived in La Paz from Copacabana. I spent pretty much the entire day trying to obtain my Paraguayan Visa--which I recently found out was actually a planning mistake and now Im traveling to Paraguay because I feel that I HAVE to, given the expense. I took the 6:15 flight from La Paz to the jungle town of Rurrenabaque, which borders Parque Nacional Madidi. Even making the flight was very lucky, as there had been rain for several days prior, and flights cannot land in Rurre after rain because it is made of dirt. The flight in itself [View Full Entry]

---

---