Sept 29, 2009 Now experts on the Santiago International Airport, we quickly obtained some more Chilean Pesos and found the cheap Centropuerto bus that goes downtown near the hotels/hostels. We decided to look around for a place to stay different from our previous hostel. The cheap price and proximity to the bus station drew us back to our original hostel. Because it was late, we were exhausted, we were ravished, and there wasn’t much open, we ate chicken at Burger King! We definitely prefer the local cheap chicken places. Afterwards we enjoyed some street vendor bread with car [View Full Entry]

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So with some hesitation we decided to book another all day high mountain pass bus tour... I refused to book it with the hostel and went to a travel agent recommended by an Australian couple we met at the spa. It turned out to be a great choice. Most of the bus was Argentinians but many of them spoke English. There were some surly Germans in the back but they mostly kept to themselves. It was another early departure and we were heading into the foothills of the mountains as the sun rose over the valley. The Andes are absolutely breathtaking. [View Full Entry]

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Getting a bit citied out so we escape into the Andes for two days of trekking. Meet up with a couple of doctors from London, our guide Roderick and his trusty dog Mork (named after our alien friend, yep it seems Mork & Mindy made it as far as South America). Day 1 we summit to what must be the windiest place on earth, only about 1km vertical rise but enough to get the heart pumping when you start at 2500m. Then retire to a refuge in the mountains for red wine by the fire and poker by candlelight. Waking on [View Full Entry]

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After a very hard week at school a few of us decided to get out of the city and take a tour to the mountains. Mendoza is situated right by the Andes (you can see them surrounding the city) so bright and early on Saturday we were picked up by Denis the tour guide in his van and headed off. Despite spending the next 7 hours in a van we saw some amazing views and it was well worth the trip. First on our trip was a beautiful lake where we watched the sun rise ( I wish I could remember [View Full Entry]

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Parque Provincial Aconcagua - ... ueber gewonnene Erfahrungen beim (Hoehen)Bergsteigen am Cerro Aconcagua Tag 1 - Heute ist Samstag, der 21.02.2009 Ich befinde mich auf dem Weg zum Busbahnhof. Mit der Fahrt von Mendoza nach Puente del Inca beginnt das bisher groesste Abenteuer dieser Reise und meiner noch nahezu jungfraeulichen Bergsteigerlaufbahn. Ohne bisher selbst die 4.000er Grenze ueberschritten zu haben, liegt vor mir nun, zumindest theoretisch, die Besteigung des 6.962 m hohen Cerro Aconcagua. Ca. 180 km westlich von Mendoza liegt unweit der chilenischen Grenze an der Ruta Naci [View Full Entry]

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Cerro Aconcagua is the highest mountain in South America at nearly 22,000 feet and is the largest outside of the Himalayes (thanks for the correction Juan!). Although both John and I are ¨technically¨mountaineers... we thought it would be best just to hike to base camp on this trip. On Sunday we took a bus from Mendoza to Uspalleta which is a small town 100 km (approx 1 hr) from Aconcagua Provincial Park . Two and half hours later, after stopping in the middle of nowhere a dozen times, we found that we were the only ones left on the bus. What [View Full Entry]

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I got picked up around about 7.30 am and we picked some more people from another hostel. We began out journey on the Ruta 40 (nothing special, just the suburbs of Mendoza) then we joined the Ruta 7 towards Chile. Our first stop, for a comfort break, was Uspallata, a village famed for Seven Years in Tibet movie and this was the village and the surrounding areas where the movie was made. We drove further into Alta Montaña stopping at some lakes after Uspallata then onto Fortin Puchueta. This colonial bridge has some significant history as the bridge was crossed by [View Full Entry]

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So on the third day in Mendoza, I was finally prepared to go into the snow. I was all bundled up and ready to go. The shuttle picked me up at 8am, and I woke up fairly early to try and get a shuttle out. Everyone on my shuttle spoke Spanish, and my guide barely spoke any english. So what did that leave me? Well, spending a lot of time not talking, and then trying to speak Spanish when I could. I talked to two of the ladies. One from Mendoza (the tour guide) and one from Tigre, near Buenos Aires, [View Full Entry]

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Buenos Aires We arrived in Buenos Aires feeling like middle-aged housewives of a morning, following our champagne and Valium-fuelled bus ride from Iguazu Falls. Jimmy, Dylan and I were staying at the renowned party hostel- ´The Milhouse´, in downtown B.A., which turned out to be a trap for all the young Pommie and Aussie backpackers who never seemed to leave the bar. We found that out on our first night, but luckily for us, a friend (Pablo) of a friend from back home was a local and keen to show us around. First things first though- we were in the land [View Full Entry]

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Hei igjen alle sammen! Sorry guys: I'm not gonna write this in english. But it's a diary from the "expedition" to Cerro Aconcagua. I reached the summit by the way. But I think it's a lot of history in all the pictures so you can enjoy them. If you are wondering about something, just e-mail me and I will write to you! Da har jeg kommet meg trygt ned fra fjellet og befinner meg for tiden i Santiago. Jeg vil komme naermere tilbake til Santiago senere og konsentrere meg om Aconcagua her og naa. En del av bildene jeg har tatt [View Full Entry]

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