From Mendoza, we took the Andesmar (first class...we made sure this time!) bus to Salta. It was a much better bus experience. We even played Andesmar Bingo. The beds fully reclined and we were not only given dinner this time, but vino too. It wasn't bad at all. We arrived in Salta around 1 o'clock on Sunday. It was fairly quiet in town. We found our way to a lovely hostel that Dave had booked online called creatively enough, "Hostel in Salta". Where it lacked in imaginative names, it made up for in cleanliness and friendliness, both attributes next to godliness [View Full Entry]

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Yep it was crazy and we got some better pictures this time as we rode a bigger bus back to Mendoza. Not too eventful but I figured we would add some pictures of the road and the next day we were hanging around in Mendoza again - it sort of felt like home. We arrived back into town and decided to stay at the City Hotel again as it was a nice place and a great deal. All of the employees were great!!!! We had the afternoon to accomplish a few missions: get a hair cut (Dave), buy a silly bus [View Full Entry]

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Valparaiso The next day we again tried unsuccessfully to connect with our couch-surfing connection and decided to go it on our own to the neighboring port city and former capital (or main seat of the government) of Valparaiso. We quickly figured out the metro and we soon walking around the colorful, unique city. Much like the FUN-icular in Santiago...there are many what they call "Ascensors" running up and down the hills of the city. The entire city is squished into the hills that rise out of the sea. We rode a few and explored around. We were interested by (and a [View Full Entry]

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**Updated Feb 15th - NEW PHOTOS!!** Here I will post odd or random things that we come across. You often see things that are just not quite what you would expect to see in everyday life back home. Most times we do not get the chance to get a photo of them, but sometimes we do and often they are quite interesting or down right crazy. I will keep adding some as we see and photograph them. [View Full Entry]

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KJ´s going to try to recount any and all interesting happenings on this wee leg of the journey. Viña del Mar When we decided to go to Santiago, it seemed a natural side trip to check out Viña del Mar and Valparaiso. We also had some response via the couch-surfing website and hoped to surf our first night with a local. So, we got a bus from Santiago. Buses go something like every 15 minutes from the capital to Viña, so we had no problem getting one. We waited something like 6 minutes. We were told, however, that getting a return [View Full Entry]

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Dave's Take on Santiago We decided awhile back that we would mostly shy away from Chile because of its budget busting abilities (this is definitely good for Chile though - as their economy is prospering) , but being so close we could not stay completely away. We opted for the mini bus option from Mendoza to Santiago, which is supposed to shave an hour or so off the travel time and the price was identical to the larger buses. An early AM departure at the now familiar Mendoza bus station to catch our CHI-AR mini bus. It was running a little [View Full Entry]

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**This one´s from Dave...with KJ chimin´in here and there, as she does** Mendoza...Tierra del Vino In Chile, you seem to have pockets full of change all the time...we were always getting back lots of change (coins). But in Mendoza, forget about it! Getting a hold of the stuff that jingles in your pocket is a real trick sometimes as we found out in the suburbs when we were trying to find coins for the bus. It is all automated and accepts only coins and the driver carries no change at all, we had two experiences with that!!!! We´ve also received change [View Full Entry]

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Villa la Angostura So, after leaving El Bolson in the late afternoon, we drove back to Bariloche and then continued north to see the Siete Lagos (Seven Lakes) and the small towns of Villa la Angostura and San Martin de los Andes. We arrived in Villa La Angostura in the evening and while still planning to camp somewhere along the road, we decided to pull into town to buy some cold beer for later. When we got out of the wee car in front of a small grocery store, we instantly knew something must be going on in town, as there [View Full Entry]

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This entry was a collaborative effort from us both...enjoy. San Carlos de Bariloche We arrived early at the El Calafate Airport just to find that our plane was delayed by four hours. That was twice as long as the flight itself would take. While we were waiting (drinking Quilmes Bock, eating raviolis and doing crossword puzzles) we met a guy from Alaska. Dave looked over at notice the Valdez sticker on his boots and asked if he was from there. He said he guides heli-skiers in the winter up there, and that he had been down here trying to climb Fitz [View Full Entry]

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(Dave´s turn) So after we left Torres del Paine, we headed to El Calafate a some what of a frontier town at the end of the road. It is all very busy and bustling with the new tourist trade. The town is growing rapidly and expanding greatly. We arrived late at night and found the Walmart of hostels to stay in, nice since it was almost midnight and we had no prior arrangements. The hostel had 168 beds and felt much like a college dorm rather than a hostel, but it had much needed showers and we were ready to sleep. [View Full Entry]

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