http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/billclayton/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from billclayton en-us Thu, 24 Dec 2009 13:06:24 +0000 Thu, 24 Dec 2009 13:06:24 +0000 This is the last entry in the blog describing the last 1600 Km of travel from the Moreno Glacier to Santiago Chile where the trip ended for me. this last section of the trip is mostly a long drive on narrow one lane roads through the spectacular national parks of Chile and Argentina in the Patagonian region.Highlights of this section are the Rio Futaleufu whitewater center specializing in riv http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Santiago-Region/Santiago/blog-381680.html So here we are driving on this one lane dirt road......through spectacular scenery......along Lake Buenos Aires which is a huge lake. The road is very narrow and at times hangs over long long drop offs to the lake below and ocassionally there are cars and trucks and busses coming the other way.Our driver decided to take the route because it is very scenic and he had never been this way before http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/blog-374886.html The Moreno Glacier El CalafateWe arrived in El Calafate a small but growing tourist oriented town near several glaciers. The glaciers are the main attraction and numerous companies offer glacier tours glacier treks boat trips up to the glacier and other similar packages. Occasionally I would see an American but mostly the tourists were South American or European and most seemed pretty af http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/El-Calafate/blog-372372.html We have stayed at this nice hostel in Ushuaia now for 3 nights and it is time to move on towards the Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. To do that we must first exit Argentina into Chile then exit Chile into Argentina then exit Argentina again back into Chile. This takes most of a day waiting at border crossings carrying all of our stuff into the crossing office to be xrayed throwing http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Magallanes/Torres-del-Paine/blog-371677.html The city of Ushuaia now has 5560000 residents depending on your source. It is growing very quickly and you can see the typical boomtown hodgepodge of new construction and older rundown houses and buildings still being used.Since Ushuaia is the jumping off place for Antartic cruises as well as boat trips in the Beagle Channel and is a backpacker trekker outdoors recreation destination the http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Tierra-del-Fuego/Ushuaia/blog-371311.html 3 days of drivingHeaded for Ushuaia Argentina the southmernmost city on the continent.At about noon we passed a sign giving the distance left as 2859 km or about 1787 miles. This will be a long 3 day drive with two bush camps tents no showers cooking our food.The countryside is flat. Absolutely flat. There are no hills or mountains on the horizon. Lots of cattle on natural grassland http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/blog-367696.html Exploring Buenos Aires the ldquoCity of Faded ElegancerdquoPS. On the last entry I attempted to enter a video of Igauzo Falls. Apparently this attempt failed so I am attempting to enter the video again on this entry. hope it works.As you walk through the streets of Buenos Aires it would be easy to sort of squint blur your vision and imagine that you are walking through any number of E http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/Buenos-Aires/blog-367682.html Iguazu Falls from Brazil and ArgentinaLeft Bonito at 700 a.m. on a long drive to the hostel at iguacu falls usually this is a two day drive with bush camping but they decided that if we did one day then we could have a day in Paraguayhellipone more stamp on the passportSo we will have two really long hot days of driving.Drive started out really hot then after lunch we drove into a to http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Paran-/Foz-do-Igua-u/Igua-u-National-Park/blog-366149.html Monday Jan 13.The town of Bonito is fairly surrounded by clear water rivers springs waterfalls and other similar tourist attractions catering to trekkers and ldquoeco tourists.rdquo Today we traveled about 50 miles South of Bonito to snorkel and swim in the Rio da Prata river. This attraction owned by a local ldquofarmerrdquo who owns about 3000 acres has a well developed facility c http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Mato-Grosso-do-Sul/Bonito/blog-363822.html Friday January 9 at Posada Santa Clara in the Pantanal730 a.m. horseback riding through the bush for 2 hours nice ridehot and dry. The Pantanal is very dry as the rainy season starts in December but there hasnrsquot been any rain yet in this area. The river is 4 meters or so below normal and the bush is really dry. After lunch we went for a motor boat ride on the river which is so lo http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/blog-363132.html January 6 2009 two days of ldquoBush campingrdquoIt seems so strange because it is hot and rainy here in Brazil and it is hard to imagine that this is January and not July. We are camped off the highway on a sandy road in the middle of the forestbush. We are on a two day journey to the Pantanal a huge wetlands area reputed to hold more species of wildlife than any other place in Brazil. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Pantanal/blog-363126.html Jan 4 the trip beginshellip.We left Rio bright and early and drove to Paraty a seaside resort maybe 100 or so miles from Rio. The roads were bad and the drive took 4 hours or so. We camped at a commercial campground with showers and a nice grassy area. It rained off and on for the 2 nights we were there.The next morning we took a tour boat out into the bay for snorkling lunch and sightse http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/blog-363117.html Travelblog No trip to Rio de Janeiro would be complete without a visit to the huge granite statue of Jesus on the top of Corcavado the hunchback. This 98 foot tall 100 ton statue overlooks Rio and is of course a major tourist attraction. You can take the 2100 foot climb on foot or take a bus or taxi or cog railway up most of the way and then shuttle vans take you within 200 steps and the http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Rio-de-Janeiro/Rio-de-Janeiro/blog-362789.html Hi all haven't had an internet connection since Rio and i am sorry to say I procrastinated in Rio so I am doing several entries today. Best Wishes... http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Mato-Grosso-do-Sul/Bonito/blog-362786.html New Years Eve in Riomdashthe biggest New Yearrsquos Celebration on the planetmdashand it seems to live up to that description.Copacabana Beach looks to be about 4 miles long in a semi circle flanked by big hotels facing the beach. The beach itself is fronted by a broad paved road and it is about 300 yards of soft flour like sand from the road to the water.By 6 p.m. on New Yearrsquos E http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Rio-de-Janeiro/Rio-de-Janeiro/Copacabana/blog-359299.html Hello all I'm sending this out so that you will all know it is coming...If you aren't interested in reading the blog then please delete your nameI'm sure not trying to burden you with a bunch of email you don't want to getHere it is in November 2008 and I'm getting ready for the next trip. Begins in Rio de Janeiro Brazil with New Years Eve celebration on Copacabana Beach.I will again be http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/blog-342031.html Hi everyoneJust a reminder if you don't already know that Dennis and I are doing a travel program at the Englewood Public Library on November 7 at 700 p.m. The program will be in the Community Room on the 2nd floor of City Hall and of course it is a free program sponsored by the Friends of The Englewood Public Library. If you need further info you can call me at 3037893230.hope to see you http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/blog-215910.html ok the trip has ended. And I have procrastinated sending this last entry The truck expedition ended when we got to Istanbul. Dennis and I had booked three more nights in Istanbul so we could assemble our luggage etc. and just enjoy the last few days without a lot of pressure to hurry up and pack catch the plane and so forth. This was good for us because we both bought some bulky carpets an http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-182124.html Boat trip nbspMiddle East raquonbspTurkey raquonbspSelcuk By billclaytonJuly 7th 2007Bill Clayton Our day trip cruise went around from cove to cove accompanied by other similar boats. None of the boats were very crowded and it was a nice hot day perfect for laying on the deck in the sun. Swimmers could jump off the boat take the slide down or climb into the water depending on their http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Sel-uk/blog-178277.html Apparently the ancient site of Troy is somewhat of an enigma. Thought by many to be a nonexistant city only a product of Homeric poetry it was finally rediscovered and excavated by German archeologist Heinrich Schliemann in the 1870's. subsequent activities have restored part of the walls etc. and now there is a giant replica of a hollow wooden horse for tourists to climb in and be photogr http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Gallipoli/blog-178287.html