We arrived by the little train in Tachna, a 1930's type railway station that has been turned into a museum. It has old trains, equipment, photos and stamps of trains. At the railway station we had our passports stamped again. We had been told the bus stop was just down the road from the train, don't catch a taxi, just walk. Well it is ages away. The bus station is a most unusual place. Full of indigenous people who had been to Tachna to buy good for their stalls or shops. They unpacked all their shopping and put it in big bags. The most unusual thing I saw was a man who unpacked all his light bulbs and put them into a bag and folded all the light bulb boxes and tied them with string. How ... read more

Another overnight bus journey that was 15 1/2 hours of bliss in a Cama Saloon - these are seats that lie down flat and are like big lazy boy chairs. We arrived in this little town called San Pedro de Atacama without a hostel booking, the first time we had gone cold into a town. What a different little town to what we are used to. This is the first time we felt we had arrived in a different culture. All houses were adobe, with adobe or grass on the roof. Red dusty roads, that were not made for 2 way vehicle traffic, you could imagine donkeys and horses being driven down these roads, but we didn't see any. The evidence was there though. Lots of people rode bikes and when two vehicles met there was ... read more

After returning to Santiago from Valpariso we took another overnight trip to Mendoza, so that we could see the Andes close up. We travelled by bus over the Andes across the most amazing road. The road up was muliple switchbacks with the bus passing trucks and all seemed very freaky. Think of the Devil's elbow times a hundred. The trip took about 7 hours, about 2 of them being at the boarder crossing. It was different to the crossings to Urshuia, both boarder places were in the same building. Go here get a stamp. go there get a stamp, then stand here with your bags and some bags were checked. We stayed at the same hostel as when we were in Mendoza before. They were having an assado barbecue that night. So we had a Argentinian ... read more

Paul enjoyed his Volcano climb in Pucon, saw molten lava, and the volcano booming and throwing up lava. The climb took about 6 hours, with lots of laughing on the way up, coming down only took about 1 and a half hours. We slid down huge snow chutes, and felt like we were bobsledding. He got quite wet and cold but had a good day. I had a trip over, getting the biggest bruise ever on my knee cap. I wanted to see the Monkey Puzzle tree forest so went on a bus to the park, only to be told it was a 6 hour hike and I had to be back to catch the bus to Santiago that night. I didn't have time to walk to the trees but I saw a hummingbird and a ... read more

Paul is out climbing a volcano, so I have the day to myself and can catch up with mail, blogs etc. We've done heaps since the last up date, so here is the last couple of weeks. We came south for some cold weather and never got it until our last day is Ushuia, it snowed overnight and got quite cold. We thought we had carried our cold weather clothes all this way and wouldn't need to use them. After shaking off the mothballs into the warm clothes, we again had to pack. We are much better at it now, we can usually get it done in less than 1/2 an hour. Paul is most impressed with our Kathmandu packs. He said there is tremendous strain on all the stitching and clips and that they have ... read more