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by Markio, order by Date newest first.

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Parque Balmaceda Fountain
Parque Balmaceda Fountain
On one of my wanderings through the city's parks I came across this massive fountain just as the Sun was beginning to go down.
Am on the verge of dragging myself away from Chile's capital Santiago, where I have been staying for the last two weeks. (Although this could all change as I am heading out for St Paddy's day tonight with a couple of Irish mates, and am booked on a bus tomorrow morning. They suggested starting drinking late - midday rather than the usual 9 a.m. I hope they're joking, but I fear they may not be!!) As I've alluded to in the title, Santiago has been an absolutely great place to stay, but I can't really put my finger on why that [View Full Entry]

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Published: March 17th 2006 | 185 Views | [diary=47056]

Day at the Races - Club Hipico
Palacio Del La Moneda
Valparaiso Street

Liquid Hot Magma!!!
Liquid Hot Magma!!!
This is what we had climbed so far to see, and the Volcano duly performed for us!!! An unforgettable experience.
Pucon is the first taste of good weather I've had in a long time. but donning a pair of shorts was not the entire reason for travelling here: the plan was to climb the 2847 metre Volcan Villarica - an active Volcano on the town's doorstep. The ascent can only be done with an accredited guide, so we signed up with one in town and we were fully kitted up with boots, gaitors, waterproofs and best-of-all an ice axe!!! As I said to Chris, my motivation for doing even the most menial of tasks would be huge if only I was [View Full Entry]

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Published: March 4th 2006 | 180 Views | [diary=44468]

Long Way Up!!
The Climb
Me and my ice-axe

Circle of Death
Circle of Death
The drinking game that saw an early exit for myself. Chris, and his disco dancing trousers, were the last ones standing!!
As the title suggests Chris and I have recently disembarked from a 4-day journey north along Chile´s Pacific coast. It was something I´d been looking forward to for a long time, as the cruise was a big expense for someone on my budget, and I had never been on a boat for such a long period of time, so this would be a new experience for me. The weather, however, was the usual chilly, blowy combination we've got used to - with a fair bit of cloudy and drizzly thrown in for good measure!! I'd like to be able to say [View Full Entry]

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Published: March 2nd 2006 | 212 Views | [diary=43898]

Typical Patagonian Weather
View From the Boat

Mirador Ferrier (Ferrier Viewpoint)
Mirador Ferrier (Ferrier Viewpoint)
One of my favourite moments of the trek. Having the deserted Mirador Ferrier to myself and taking in this incredible view of the national park. The Cuernos Del Paine are in the background shrouded ... [more]
Have returned safely from spending two weeks trekking round the beautiful and rugged Torres Del Paine national park in the far south of Chile. I thought I´d put down a few general ramblings about my time, both in the park and Patagonia generally, and let you know a few of the highlights rather than go for a blow-by-blow account of what I got up to. Should get some pictures from the trek online in a couple of weeks time so the descriptions will hopefully make more sense then!! Firstly, Chile has been, well chilly. I guess the clue should have been [View Full Entry]

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Published: February 21st 2006 | 181 Views | [diary=42071]

First Glimpse of the Torres
Us and our (less than) faithful tent!!
Hielo Sur (Southern Ice Field)

Day 5 - Laguna Capri
Day 5 - Laguna Capri
On the walk out the weather was nice enough for a refreshing dip of the toes in the freezing cold waters of Laguna Capri
James and I are back safe and sound from our second major attempt at trekking in Patagonia. Again it was very succesful and we got to enjoy some top views along the way. The terrain was easier than last time with much less climbing to be done, but the notoriously fickle Patagonian weather made sure that the trek was never easy, with lashings of wind and rain to keep us on our toes!! A quick summary and some piccies follows: Day 1 - I hadn´t been feeling all that well in the run up to this trek so I found the [View Full Entry]

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999 Words | 2 Comment(s) | 7 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: January 30th 2006 | 197 Views | [diary=38443]

Day 1 - Cerro Torre and Glaciar Torre
Day 2 - Glaciar Torre
Day 2 - Monte Fitz Roy

Me and the Perito Moreno Glacier
Me and the Perito Moreno Glacier
Exactly what it says on the tin!!!
The main (only) reason for visiting El Calafate is to take a trip to the incredible Perito Moreno Glaciar. Unfortunately, the glacier is located 75km away from the town and no public transport runs out to it!! Therefore you need to book on a quite expensive tour, or use your wits to get there. Fortunately, as James and I don´t have much in either of those two departments, we found secret third option C, which was to bump into some Israeli guys that I had met in Buenos Aires and for them to have 2 free spaces in the car that [View Full Entry]

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364 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 4 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: January 23rd 2006 | 160 Views | [diary=37216]

Perito Moreno from distance
Perito Moreno Glacier
Ice Towers

Day 1 - Laguna Tonchek
Day 1 - Laguna Tonchek
The Lake we reached on the first day where the biting winds made us scurry to safety in the forest!!
Hi guys, Here´s what James and I got up to... Day 1 - The first day saw about 8 seasons in one day, ranging from sunshine, to sleet, a bit of rain, snow, the odd blizzard, some bitter, bitter wind and a rainbow for good measure!! We reached the end of the day´s walking, a place called Refugio Frey, located on a very scenic, but pretty much unsheltered glacial lake. The biting wind and snow storm that greeted us soon meant that me and James were scurrying half an hour back down the trail to a forest camping site that was [View Full Entry]

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Published: January 21st 2006 | 125 Views | [diary=36737]

Day 1 - Mummified
Day 2 - Sunbathing
Day 2 - Climbing to the Cancha de Futbol

Yep it seems my ability to sit still, read, listen to music and watch some of an incredibly bad romantic comic starring Paul Nichols (yep, that guy who was on Eastenders once and covered his bedroom in tin foil or something!!) reached new levels as i´ve just stepped off an 18 hour bus journey feeling almost refreshed!! Currently we're in Bariloche, which is the aforementioned 18 hour bus ride South-West of the capital Buenos Aires, near to the Chilean border in an area called the Lake District. The area is beautiful: Bariloche is situated on a vividly blue lake and surrounded [View Full Entry]

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570 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 2 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: January 10th 2006 | 123 Views | [diary=34914]

The Lake District scenery

BA's giant mechanical flower thing!!
BA's giant mechanical flower thing!!
Exactly what it says on the tin!!
From Montevideo we headed to Buenos Aires for New Year, where we met up with a friend Chico who we’d met at Iguaçu Falls. The people of Buenos Aires seem akin to vampires, eating at midnight, heading out at about 3a.m and then partying till way past breakfast. The climate in Buenos Aires was fantastic, beautiful blue skies and baking hot Sun. We had about a week to enjoy the city and got to explore quite a lot of it, mainly on James’ magical mystery tours which were always good fun. One such wandering took us the area of La [View Full Entry]

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Published: January 5th 2006 | 54 Views | [diary=164668]

La Boca football stadium
Obelisk in Central BA
Buenos Aires waterfront

Iguacu Falls Panorama
Iguacu Falls Panorama
The view from the Brazilian side.
Post Rio we have stopped off at the Iguacu falls, which have been a real highlight of my travels. We visited both the Brazilian and Argentinean sides, and found the Argentinean side to be just amazing. They had constructed trails and walkways which allowed you to get really close to the vast amounts of water pouring over the falls. The main cascade is, (appropriately), called the "Devil´s Throat" and is suitably awe-inspiring given the name. We were standing less than 10 metres away from a massive horseshoe of thundering water. The highlight of the day was probably when we decided [View Full Entry]

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544 Words | 2 Comment(s) | 6 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: February 26th 2007 | 52 Views | [diary=133095]

Rainbow over Iguacu
Naughty teenagers...
Golf Kart Hooning



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