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. [View Full Entry]

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It was a 2 day drive from Pucon to Santiago, driving on the Pan-American Highway, so it was a gratefully a little less bumpy. We broke up the trip by camping at Salto del Laja, a lovely waterfall. From the campsite we could hear the water rushing. It was quite soothing. About 200 km away from Santiago we stopped at the Miguel Torres winery for a tour. The tour was a good but we couldn't hear the guide all the time. We did get to eat grapes off the vine. They had a few rows of all the different varieties for [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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It took 2 and a half days from El Chalten to Bariloche. Can't tell you how many kilometers but it was a long long way. We stayed at Perito Moreno and Esquel on the way. Perito Moreno is a small town, a bit run down but is quite charming all the same. We opted for a cabana upgrade again and shared with 2 others. It only cost US$3.20 for both of us. Next day we stayed at Esquel, at a hostel on a hill overlooking the town. There was another Dragoman truck there. They only had 6 people compared to [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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After a long drive in the truck (whose name is Cameron by the way - as in Diaz) we arrived at El Calafate. There is not too much to see along the way - big wide open spaces, low vegetation, mountains, lakes, a few animals - lots of llamas and geese and some rheas. When we arrived at El Calafate, we went straight to our hostel. It was clean and we shared with another couple from our group, Jo and Chris. In the evening 7 of us went out to a wonderful restaurant for dinner. We had big steaks and lots [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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For us it was a hassle to get here. Our plane should have left at 8:30 am from Buenos Aires. When we got to the airport, we were told that our plane would now leave at 4:30 pm instead. And apparently this is quite common. We weren't too bothered. We checked in our luggage and went back to town. Had lots of coffee and went to a couple of internet cafes. We arrived back at the airport at 2 pm, checked in and went for a walk. The airport is next to the ocean and people were fishing from a [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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