kifandpeter

Bon Dia, Our flight left late but we arrived in Rio de Janeiro without any issues and were met by our transfer who waited through our delay to meet us. On the ride through town, we saw some interesting things. On the main overpass from the airport we saw a few cars pulled over to the side. We thought they had been in an accident but it turns out that they had simply stopped to go fishing. From the side of the busy overpass in from the airport. In rush hour. The road started to back up more after that so we took a circuitous route that took us past one of the univeristies in town and its engineering building, which ironically was a pile of rubble. Somebody must have failed their final. We continued through ... read more

Hola, We left Buenos Aires in the morning on board one of the Buquebus catamarans across La Plata to Montevideo. The boat went ridiculously quickly and it only took us 3 hors to get there. We arrived in Montevideo and then wandered from the port to our hostel in 30 degree sun, something that was not the smartest decision that we have made so far. We checked into El Viajero Ciudad Vieja and the room they had us in was a 6 bed dorm that was so small and so hot that it felt like a sauna. Fortunatly, there was space available in another dorm so we moved into it. After we got settled, we went for a wander around Montevideo. The city is somewhat like Buenos Aires in the sense that it has many historical ... read more

Hola, We arrived in the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires, where we would be spending over a week enjoying the everything the city had to offer. We took the metro to America del Sur Hostel, the same company as the one we stayed at in El Calafate, which is located in the San Telmo neighbourhood. The hostel is amazing and the area is beautiful, consisting of many low rise buildings that had a very European feel to them. We wandered around the Antiques Market in Plaza Dorrengo for a bit and it was very interesting to see what kinds of stuff there was a market for. We also ran into Jeremy, who had taken the bus to Ushuaia with us. This was our third run-in with someone from earlier on in the trip. We met a ... read more

Ola, We flew out of Ushuaia and its 10 degrees, spent an uncomfortable night sleeping in the airport in Buenos Aires, and then landed in the sweltering 30 degree and humid heat of the northern Argentinian jungle. The purpose of this was because we were going to visit Iguazu Falls which is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful waterfalls in the world. We checked into our hostel in Puerto Iguazu and then took a bus to the Brazilian side of the falls as both Argentina and Brazil share them. The falls themselves are a series of many different cataracts of all sizes and one massive cataract that is known as "The Devil's Throat". The Brazilian side is good because it gives a person an overview of the falls. The falls are surrounded ... read more

Hola, As many of our readers know, Ushuaia was not the furthest southernly destination of our trip. That title would be reserved for Antarctica. We had organized a cruise (but we are using this term very loosely as one will learn later) before we had left Vancouver that would take us from Ushuaia to the South Shetland Islands and then to the Antarctic Peninsula. As part of this trip was a night at the Hotel Albatross. The hotel was 4 stars, and therefore our nicest accomodation of the trip by far so we made the most of it and hung out there for most of the day. The next day, we packed our bags and wandered around Ushuaia before getting on the bus which would take us to the ship. We started chatting to the couple ... read more

Hola, The journey from Puerto Natales to Ushuaia was quite interesting. We left Puerto Natales and met a bus coming north from Punta Arenas in an Estancia parking lot where we transferred vehicles. Then, we continued along the road towards Ushuaia. We starting parallelling the Straits of Magellan and we saw several shipwrecks along the shoreline as well as a red tide in parts. When we arrived at the ferry across the Straits, we were little blown away by the wind. It was whipping up large swells and blowing the sand on the beach everywhere! Then, the ferry had trouble getting to the shore and when it did, it was smaller than the Bowen Island Ferry. Seriously, we have to get on that little rowboat to get acorss the mighty Straits of Magellan? Really, that rowboat ... read more

Hola, We left El Calafate on a bus to Puerto Natales that was supposed to take five hours. Argentinian immigration decided to let two busses go in front of us because the had less people in them and Chilean immigration originally did not give Peter and entry stamp, then thay gave him an entry AND exit stamp, then they crossed out the exit stamp. As a result, the bus took 7 hours to arrive. The saving grace was that "princess" was not on the bus. Did we tell you about princess? We don't think so. Here's the story about princess. PRINCESS Ahhh princess... the kind of traveler you do not want to have to deal with on a long journey. However, with the luck bestowed upon us, we encountered such creature, obviously completely out of her ... read more

Hola, We left El Chalten, albeit with some regret, and bussed passed Estancia Helsingfors (obviously some Swedes have made it to Patagonia) and we arrived in El Calafate. El Calafate is a rather boring town, but the hostel we are at, America del Sur, has a good view of the town and the lake that it is on. Also, the main street is quite pretty and it has a very nice log cabin village where people can buy souvenirs. The town itself is on Lago Argentino. The lake looks a bit like an octopus on its side. The name "El Calafate" comes from a berry which, if eaten, guarantees a person's return to Patagonia. The berry comes from the Spanish word "calafatear" which means to waterproof. Sailors used to use the wood of the plant the ... read more

Hola, We are sure you are wondering why we would bother putting ourselves through two excruciatingly long bus rides when we truly hate bus journeys as they are bone-jarringly uncomfortable. It was not for pleasure, believe us. We did it beacause it was the fastest and easiest way, believe it or not, to get to the southern Patagonian village of El Chalten. El Chalten is Argentina's newest town, founded in 1980, and it is located near the southwest corner of the country. It is a town of merely 600 souls, but it backs on to the Hielo Continental Sur, which is the largest ice field in the world outside the polar regions. It also has some of the most spectactular mountain peaks in the world as well as some of the best hiking around so it ... read more

Hola, We began our epic journey into Patagonia in Bariloche. It would take us nearly two days to get to our destination El Chalten. First off, a little bit about Patagonia. It is primarily flat grasslands, with some rolling hills. The point we want to get across is that is a massive exapnse of land where there is very little of anything. It occupies most of the southern portion of Argentina. Take a look on a map, it is huge!!! We boarded the bus in Bariloche and it stopped three times during the day. We visited small "towns", the word "towns" being used very liberally. These places consisted of little more than a couple of streets, three houses, a gas station and 6 dogs. Other than the employees of the gas station, we think the dogs ... read more