Chile´s Atacama desert (the world´s driest desert) is a 24 hour bus journey north from Santiago but worth every minute of travel. Initially we were only going to stay in San Pedro de Atacama (the main village in the desert) for a few days but ended up staying over a week. This is the kind of place that Barry and I love - a nice town with good places to eat and facilities but a mere few kilometres from amazing sights. We took our first days in San Pedro relatively easy as we wanted to acclimatise to its 2,400 metres altitude [View Full Entry]

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When my parents found out that Barry and I were going away travelling for a year, they quickly came to the conclusion that they would have to come out and visit half way through. So, after our return from Easter Island we met up with my Mum and Dad at the very nice Hotel Vegas in Santiago. The next 2 weeks were taken up with Barry and I acting as tour guides and we visited some great places. Of course my parents were generous as always and so we were able to eat lovely meals and stay in hotels better than [View Full Entry]

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We had booked our flights to Easter Island before coming out to South America 6 months ago. However, we only really had a chance to think about the things we were going to see as we sat on our 5 hour flight from Santiago looking down at the endless sea below us. It is fair to say that Easter Island exceeded my expectations - I knew it was going to be good, I just didn´t realise it would be this good. Stuck in the Pacific Ocean, thousands of kilometres from the nearest inhabited islands (the Pitcairns) and even further from mainland [View Full Entry]

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After travelling for weeks through relatively rural Chile we found ourselves in Santiago for a few nights. It was quite a culture shock to be in the capital city. We took full advantage of big city delights - cheap internet, going to the cinema and riding the subway! Soon though we were back in another national park (we just can´t get enough of these places) - La Campana, between Santiago and Valparaiso. We were at the park to climb Cerro La Campana (1,980 m), famous as having been climbed by Charles Darwin when he visited in 1834. On our first day [View Full Entry]

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We crossed back into Chile from Argentina and went straight to the town of Villarrica to relax for a few days before moving on. This was a good place to rest as it was so hot there was nothing else we could do - 36 degrees celsius, ouch! But soon we had itchy feet and were on the move again. In a very roundabout way (via the town of Chillan to pick up our Chevy hire car) we made it to the areas slightly north of Villarrica, which according to our guidebook comprise part of Chile´s "Central Valley". First stop was [View Full Entry]

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After a month in Chile we were yearning for some Argentinian steak and so decided to take a quick (turned into a week-long) trip across the border back into Argentina. We crossed from Pucon, Chile to San Martin, Argentina and spent 6 days enjoying the highlights of the area. Our original plan had been to climb Volcan Lanin, but unfortunately recent events (which seem to have included a crevasse opening in a glacier near the summit and someone getting lost on the hike) mean that it is not possible to ascend without a guide. We looked into the prices of the [View Full Entry]

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We moved north from Chiloe, hoping to get some warmer weather, but unfortunately our first few days did not bring much sunshine. We went to Puyuhue National Park, home to various volcanoes including Volcan Puyuhue and Volcan Casablanca. Because of the weather we were restricted in where we could go, but we still enjoyed some hikes and particularly enjoyed visiting a sub-crater of Volcan Casablanca. This was the first time we had walked inside a volcanic crater and despite the fact that it had erupted a long time ago and was now covered in moss and grass it was still a [View Full Entry]

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So, we left Puerto Natales in Chilean Patagonia on a 3 day/4 night Navimag ferry which took us north through the Chilean "fjords" eventually arriving at Puerto Montt. The ferry trip was fun: we spent most evenings playing cards and drinking pisco sours with Pete, our Australian friend from Antarctica (if you see what I mean). The daytimes were spent reading, standing out on deck and complaining about the quality of the food! This was no luxury cruise, but definitely a more enjoyable experience than taking a plane. The days passed by quickly and we arrived early on a monday morning [View Full Entry]

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After returning from Antarctica we were completely exhausted, and so took a few days to just relax in Ushuaia. Our time there was spent mostly eating, sleeping and getting ready for Christmas. A couple of days into our stay Josh and Melanie (who we had previously met in Buenos Aires and Montevideo) turned up in our hostel and we decided to spend Christmas together. We ended up having a great Christmas Day (my first ever away from Wales!) which was significantly helped by Melanie´s (French) knowledge of cooking. Tasty chicken, plenty of other bits of pieces, wine and champagne - delicious. [View Full Entry]

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There are two ways to get to Antarctica, by sea or by air. The former is expensive, the latter extortionate! We booked our "expedition cruise" to Antarctica months before coming to South America. We hadn´t really had a chance to give it much thought until we arrived in Ushuaia, suddenly realising we needed to hire parka jackets, print booking confirmations, get some U.S. dollars, etc. However, once we boarded the good ship Lyubov Orlova we were engrossed in our voyage and had a fantastic trip to an amazing place. It is going to be very difficult to write this blog without [View Full Entry]

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