It is quite a mission getting 29 people into a hotel. We stayed at the Hotel Espana near the Plaza de Armes. The truck had to park illegally and we had to get everything off in a big hurry, dodging cars and people on the way. Our luggage filled the foyer of the hotel when we were finished. We got a nice double bed in a big room. The hotel was definitely a little run down, but it was functional. Breaky was chaos, the couldn't bring out the food fast enough for our huge group. We spent Good Friday walking around. It was very quiet being a holiday and museums were closed. We found some markets open where we bought a few things and went up Cerro San Cristóbal. There is a tram type thing to ... read more

Pucon is a beautifully situated town. It is on a lake in the shadow of an active snow-capped volcano. Sometimes we can see it smoking. We stayed at a hostel. Luckily we got a room by ourselves. Most people had dorms. Our impression of the hostel was not that positive. The people running it appeared to be in it for the money and crammed in as many beds as possible. We also discovered that they were charging way too much for some tours. We had 2 full days there. We decided to go white water rafting. As Rae had never done it before, we thought it was a good opportunity. We got picked up at 11am, we were very well kitted up with wet suit, life jacket, helmet, shorts, shoes, and in we went. There ... read more

It only took us 5 hours from El Calafate. We were immediately impressed with the beauty of the place. The village is nestled amongst dramatic cliffs and snowy mountains. We went to the camping grounds intending to camp but they had 3 chalets available. We took one with 3 other people. It was beautiful inside. There was a kitchen, a bath, king size bed, and 3 singles. We were glad not to be pitching the tenting. In the evening, some of the group cooked a wonderful meal of sausages, potatoes and peas. And of course, lots of wine to keep us warm. Next day we took things a bit easy in the morning, had a nice long sleep in, and in the afternoon went horse riding. That was fun. It was for 3 hours, 4 of ... read more

On the evening of the 16th we meet all our new travelling companions. 29 of them. And we have to put up with them for 21 days until we reach Santiago. Mostly it is a great bunch. When we left Ushuaia we went travelled to Torres del Paine in Chile. On the way there we did some 'bush' camping. We stopped at 7:30 in the evening in the twilight, at an abandoned estancia (ranch). All of us pitched our tents in the buildings to shelter us from the dreadful wind. One group made a stir fry dinner while the rest of us looked at the stars. It was wonderful to see the Southern Cross again. We drank lots of wine to try and warm up. We were next to the ocean and there were 2 shipwrecks ... read more

We flew from Amsterdam to London with British Airways, then from London to Sao Paulo with TAM Air. The flight was approximately 12 hours. It was surprisingly a very good airline. We were given a little pack which included an eye mask, toothbrush, toothpaste and a comb. The food was very good but small portions. We had personal monitors to watch whatever films we wanted. We saw 'Night at the museum' (very good film, highly recommendable) and 'Flushed away' which was very amusing. Pieter was sitting next to 2 Brazilians who gave us lots of recommendations of places to go in Brazil. When arrived in Sao Paulo we exchanged a little bit of money to have some coffee. It was the best coffee we have had in a long time. Much better than anything that you ... read more