JohnBroomhall

You can find my latest pictures at my Flickr Site I think my last blog left off in Santiago after the earthquake. Mariette and I had relocated to Concon on the coast. The remainder of Mariette´s stay was uncomfortable in the shadow of the earthquake, and in the frequent aftershocks that kept us on edge. By the second week after the quake, the aftershocks had diminished to one or two a day, but were still disconcerting when they happened. We were always wondering whether they would continue to grow in intensity as the original quake in Santiago had. It didn´t make for the best of vacations; we were unable to really relax with the thought of another strong quake hanging over us. Mariette flew home on March 17th, we caught a bus into Santiago, then a ... read more

Pictures that accompany this story can be found at my Argentina Flickr Site , and the Carrera Austral Flickr Site It´s been a month since I´ve blogged, I need to get busy. I´m sitting in Buenos Aires as I write this. I think my trip north has, perhaps, been a little less purposeful. In my mind, I may be thinking that I have already accomplished my goal in getting to Ushuaia, and so I am now feeling somewhat directionless. Even though I have a pretty full agenda: meeting Mariette in Santiago, Megan and Andrew in Peru, and visiting my friends again in Ecuador. The feeling I had going south: the anticipation, the adventure, perhaps, is not as acute. That said, I have seen some incredibly beautiful scenery on my way north! It took me a ... read more

(The end of the world, a new beginning) You can view the pictures that go along with this story at my Flickr site I arrived in Ushaia on December 19, about 3 weeks ago as I write this. Ushuaia bills itself as the “Ciudad mas Austral del Mundo” and “El Fin del Mundo” (most southerly city, and the end of the world). In reality, it is really not that far south. It is a minor bit of hyperbole that plays well to the tourists that now are the primary focus of the economy in this city that once supported the whaling industry and transoceanic shipping before the Panama Canal. Today most tourists come here on Cruise ships on their way somewhere else, as a starting point for Antarctic tours, and many like me, to see the ... read more

You can find pictures of most of the things and places mentioned here at my Flickr site I crossed the border into Peru on November 2. The border crossing was both chaotic and smooth. Peru and Ecuador have wisely left the border formalities back from the actual border itself to allow the people who live on the border free access to both sides. The town of Huaquillas spans both sides of the border (known as Aguas Verdes on the Puruvian side). The border itself is a dry river, perhaps 100 metres wide, spanned by a 2-lane bridge. The approach road to the bridge is all but impossible to drive as it is covered by vendors of all manner of goods, with tents set up right on the road. What is not obliterated by the tents is ... read more

Just a reminder that the accompanying pictures can be found at my Flickr site. Well, getting my bike shipped with the group didn´t quite work out as planned; it actually worked out better without them. By the time I got to talk to the group leaders, they had finished their shipping paperwork and didn´t want to do me as well. Couldn´t blame them. The first thing the next morning, I went to the cargo terminals at the Tocuman airport, and talked to Girag directly about shipping my bike. Within an hour, I had left their office by cab with my bike to be shipped to Bogota the first thing the next morning. In fact, it went on the same flight as the other bikes. I took the cab back to the airport passenger terminal and bought ... read more