Fri 30th Nov: 'Had a good coach journey on Wednesday night from Pucon and arrived spot on at 7:30 yesterday morning in Santiago. The hostel was only ten minutes from the centre of the city. I couldn't check in until after 9:30, so had breakfast, a shower and freshened up while I waited. As they didn't have a room available until later on in the day, I left my luggage there and walked to the centre of the city, found the tourist information centre, and visited some of the main sights: the Governor's Palace, Santiago City Cathedral and the National Museum. [View Full Entry]

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Wed. 28th Nov· Monday was a travelling day; an early start to the coach station for 8.30 for the long journey into Chile. The border crossings took time. However the mountain scenery of the Andes en route was stunning. As we were travelling I could see the snow by the roadside, though we had not long come from spring time temperatures. The transformation when we crossed into Chile was dramatic, the landscape changed from scrubland to lush and verdent grassland; there was also a lot of evidence of a better economy: more luxurious houses and newer cars on the roads. Apart [View Full Entry]

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Sun 25th Nov: Although I was the only person in my room when I booked in, it was nearly full by 11:00 and was totally full when I woke the next morning. I heard that a few came at 4:00 this morning. No breakfast is provided at this hostel (another thing I found out this morning), so I bought some food plus enough for a meal tonight. ´Got a bus out to the train/bus terminal and looked into transport prices to Chile. I decided eventually to go to Pucon by coach; it is in the Lake District in Chile. It´s a [View Full Entry]

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Sat 24th Nov: After a nice meal, at Lade´s (the airline company) expense, I returned to the airport and checked in. I joined the rest of travelling group in the depsarture lounge and waited there for three hours with no information forthcoming, so a few of us went back to the check-in desk to find out what was happening. It was then we found out that the ´plane was only going as far as Rio Gallegos last night; we were to be put up in a hotel and travel on today. Chaos reigned among some of the passengers as they had [View Full Entry]

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Fri 23rd Nov: As a footnote to my recent entries, I have had difficulty putting some of the photos on the blog. The internret connections in Patagonia are not very good and volatile. Consequently many of the photos of the Perito Moreno and around that time did not upload. I didn´t get to the chocolate factory on Wednesday as I ran out of time. I got a shuttle to the airport only to join a queue for over an hour with a group of unhappy travellers waiting to check-in. We´re told that the departure is delayed an hour and a half [View Full Entry]

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Wed 21st Nov: On Monday afternoon as I was making my way to the coach station I took a wrong turning and got attacked by an alsation dog who sunk his teeth into my leg. The dog belonged to the adjacent restaurant so I went in there to get some help. The manager was initially unsympathetic saying I shouldn´t have gone down that route. However I complained that there were no signs, and the dog should be enclosed; the restaurant was nearly full and by now many were looking at the scene, so I pulled up my trousers and showed my [View Full Entry]

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Mon 19th Nov: Saturday morning was domestic and planning time for the days ahead. I got a bike from the hostel and tried some of the airline companies for flights from Calefate to Ushuiaia and eventually booked one. I´m planning to go direct from Ushuiaia to Bariloche, so when I got back to the hostel 'managed to reserve a cheap flight for 23rd. 'Did laundry, packed and checked out - got to the coach station with time to spare .... in fact a lot of time to spare as the coach was well over an hour late - no reason given [View Full Entry]

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Fri. 16th Nov: The El Gualicho Hostel in Puerto Madryn is quite good - clean and good value. I booked in for Friday night as well, since I plan to come back to Puerto Madryn to catch the coach down to Calefate in the southeast. Yesterday morning I made my way to the bus station and had some time to spare bofore getting it to Puerto Pyramides, so I looked into booking a ticket to Calefate for Saturday. It seems that there is no direct coach there so I needed to get ticket from two separate companies, one to Rio Gallegos [View Full Entry]

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Wed 14th Nov: It´s been three days since I´ve been on the blog, I´m having withdrawal symptoms! Monday was a quiet day..laundry and some supermarket shopping. I realised I hadn´t eaten any fruit for over a week so was in need of some. ´Had a walk down by the river bank and took the ferry across to Carmen de Patagones again; this time I found the tourist office open but they had nothing to offer other than what I´d seen previously. There is a catamaran trip along the Rio Negro but it doesn´t start until December. I just had a walk [View Full Entry]

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Sun 11th Nov: The rain did persist yesterday.. nearly all day, and the temperature dropped to 17C! It put a damp and dreary picture on everything. It didn´t help that nearly all the museums and places of interest were closed for the weekend. The tourist information centre was helpful with maps and a list of what´s on. I made my way back to the city centre but it was like a ´ghost town´as it was siesta time. Besides who would be walking the streets in the cold rain.. except mad dogs (plenty of those around) and travelling Irishmen! ´Got fed up [View Full Entry]

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