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]

---

---

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]

---

---

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]

---

---

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]

---

---

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]

---

---

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]

---

---

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]

---

---

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]

---

---

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]

---

---

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]

---

---