After 171 days in South America it's time to go home. We've had a fantastic time, seen and experienced some wonderful things, and met some interesting people along the way. We've been up mountains to altitudes over 5000m and down canyons more than 1000m deep. We've frozen in temperatures of -15c and sweated in the high 30s. We've been in deserts where it never rains and in rain forests where it hardly stops. We've been to cosmopolitan cities that have everything and isolated villages with facilities that can't even be called basic. We've seen people who live wonderful lives and those who live in hell. We've slept in hammocks, seats and beds on buses and boats and in hostels, hotels, tents, peoples houses and the great outdoors. We've traveled over 30,000km and had some perfect journeys ... read more

This is a cool town, very arty and bohemian. In the early 90s the city commissioned some artists to paint murals to create an outdoor museum. Time hasn't been very kind to them, they're not in very good condition nor as interesting as the regular graffiti and murals done more recently on other walls all over town, some of which are excellent. Just a few km's down the road, or a few stops on the train we took, is Vina del Mar an upmarket beach resort with lots of high rise apartment buildings, international hotels and expensive shops. It's OK for a few hours but not very interesting. The weekend we spent in Valpo was just the right amount of time before we head back up to Santiago for our flight home.... read more

Having given up on climbing Volcan Villarica we headed to Mendoza for some vineyards, wine and bife de chorizo. This meant another crossing of the Andes which true to form didn't disappoint. The weather was typical of the mountains - as we climbed higher the snow got heavier but the sun also sometimes came out, beautiful. Then once more we'd be in mist and cloud, all four seasons in a day, again. This is the land of the Monkey Puzzle tree, there are thousands of them in the parque nacional the road passes through. They really are strange. On the Argentinian side we had to stop in Junin de Los Andes to change bus which meant an overnight stay. Unless you're a trout fisherman there's not much there but it's a nice enough town for a ... read more

From Castro we took a bus directly to Peurto Varas, skipping Puerto Montt which is an unattractive place with little to see or do. Happily the weather was being kind to us again, when we arrived it was cold but clear and dry, we can live with that. Like all of the lakes and rivers in this part of the world the water here is beautifully clear and clean, but very cold - although amazingly we did see people paddling and even swimming one day !! they're a lot braver than me. The view across the lake to the perfect cone of Volcan Osorno is quite something as are the waterfalls at Petrohue which we went to on our second day. Although they're called waterfalls they're more like big rapids, but no less impressive for that. ... read more

Bariloche is beautiful, like Switzerland - lakes, snow capped mountains, chalets. And as an added bonus we found the best value hostel we've come across so far, less than US$9 per night including breakfast and dinner !!! The only downside was our roommates who had some annoyingly dirty habits, particularly in the bathroom. The crappy weather continued with strong winds, snow and rain - merde but hey ho nothing we can do about it. Most of the time we chilled - having hot chocolate in cafes, reading and generally lazing around. During one of the rain breaks we managed to get out and hike up the Cerro Campanario, it's a good climb not too tough but a good workout. The view from the top, when you can see it, is spectacular. That afternoon we carried on ... read more