We crossed from Chile to Peru via a very small train and made our way to the city of Arequipa. Arequipa has a fascinating museum that holds the frozen body of 'Juanita, the ice princess' who was sacrificed to the Inca mountain gods 500 years ago. After the museum we spent the rest of the day exploring a old convent, Monasterio de Sant Catalina, founded in 1580. The huge area of twisting streets, hidden courtyards and cosy nun cells allowed Tracy to get arty with her camera. The next day we headed out into the Peruvian countryside to the 100km long [View Full Entry]

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After spending a few days relaxing in small villages within Chile's Elqui valley, we made our way up to San Pedro de Atacama. This small town in the middle of the Atacama desert is home to a huge tourist industry taking people into the surrounding area. Hitting the ground running, we booked onto a cheap tour out into an area renowned for looking like the moon and called... Moon Valley. While the scenery was stunning the tour was rubbish, so we booked onto a walking expedition of the same area the next day, which allowed us to get into the landscape. [View Full Entry]

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We by-passed Santiago on our way up through Chile and went to straight to Valparaiso. This charming city is spread over hills that back onto a harbour and the houses on the hillside are painted blues and yellows. The colorful houses are complemented by masses of graffiti which covers every available surface. For three days we wandered the streets and walked up and down the hills. When the walking became to much we would take one of the many ascensores (old wooden elevators) that dotted the city. Whist wandering we found a tattered cafe that served us a huge plate of [View Full Entry]

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We went to Pucon with the express intention of climbing to the top of the towns volcano. However as our bus neared Pucon, the snow capped summit of Volcano Villarrica came into view and it became clear that getting to the top would not be easy. Tracy spent much of our first day in Pucon procrastinating over whether to attempt to climb Villarrica Volcano. However once she saw pictures of people who had succeeded she decided to go for it. Tracy would come to regret that decision in less than 24 hours. That evening we tried on our mountaineering boots, jackets [View Full Entry]

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We left Argentina for Chile on a bus that crossed over the Andes in brilliant winter sunshine. As we got closer to the Chilean border grey clouds covered the sky and a light ran began to fall. The first place we visited in Chile was a small town called Puerto Varas, which stands on a lake with a couple of volcanoes on the far-shore. Unfortunately low cloud and mist covered the volcanoes. They remain covered for our entire stay. Donning our wet weather gear we explored the town and it's old German houses and church. We took a day trip to [View Full Entry]

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Bariloche and the surrounding area in Argentina's south west is nick named the lake district. The reason for this was evident as our bus pulled into town by the side of a huge lake, backed by low mountains. After checking into a lovely hostel where everything was made of pine and we seemed to be the only people staying, we wondered around town and hired a car for the next three days. Just out of town was a ski lift which took us up to a view point over looking the towns lake. To end the day we picked up the [View Full Entry]

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In an effort to make up time we had skipped Argentina's San Juan region, only to realize that it contained a National Park we really wanted to visit. So we traveled 400km back north to the town of San Agustin de Valle Fertil. San Agustin de Valle Fertil is a small town surrounded by scrub land that acts as a gateway to the Ischigualsto National Park. We know it was going to be small when we boarded the bus because the parcels being loaded had only someone's name and the town's name, no street names were needed. We arrived in the [View Full Entry]

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Leaving Uruguay was lot harder than we expected, simply because it was Easter holidays and all the buses were booked up. We ended up going to a student town in the middle of Argentina called Cordaba. Tracy had read about a town nearby called Cappilla del Monte that is famous for UFO sightings. Some say that the under town's hill, Cerro Uritorco, is a subterranean city where the future regeneration of the human race will take place. We climbed the hill but saw no UFO and the only strange people were the ones trying to sell us books on aliens. Good [View Full Entry]

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Hmmm yeah, not much I can say about Uruguay, but I'll try. We got the ferry from Buenos Aires to Colonia del Sacramento, a nice little town full of cobbled streets and spent the day wondering around. We sat and watched the sunset, which was applauded when the sun disappeared under the horizon!? The next day we moved on to Montevideo, Uruguay's capital, and spent another day just wondering around. The cities mix of ugly office blocks, crumbling old buildings and sunny, palm tree lined streets was nice but not enough to keep us their any longer. So we got an [View Full Entry]

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Buenos Aires came as a busy and vibrant change to the small towns and villages we had become used to. After settling into our hostel and meeting up with an old friend of Tracy's, we spent our first night in the city feasting on huge beef steaks. The next morning Tracy woke up to find she had been eaten alive by bedbugs. Pulling back the sheets uncovered loads of them, fat with Tracy's blood, running from the light. We gathered 30 or so up and showed them to the hostel staff who arranged a new, private room for us and washed [View Full Entry]

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