Endlich Eis und Schnee! Quer ueber den Pacific und 10 Stunden (4 Bier und 6 Glaeser Wein und zwei Schlaftabletten) spaeter hiess es endlich Suedamerika hier sind wir.....genauer gesagt landeten wir in Santiago de Chile....aber nachdem wir bereits von kundigen Quellen wussten, dass es sich nicht lohnt in Santiago zu bleiben hiess es fuer uns direkt vom Flughafen weiter in das mit dem Bus ca. 3 stuendig entfernte Valparaiso (Kunstlerstadt mit unmengen an Wandmalereien an halb verfallenen Haeusern)...direkt am Meer. Herberge und ein super gemuetliches Cafe wurden kurzerhand ausgeku [View Full Entry]

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I think towards the start of our South American blog I made a comment about how cities here feel the same as cities anywhere else in Canada, America or Australia... and that there was not much of a so called third world or developing country feel about it. (Both those descriptions are strange ones though, which I am never entirely comfortable using). I was talking mainly of Chile, and particularly Santiago. But even then, we did not really spend too much time in Santiago outside the central few blocks where our hostel was. Also, so far most of the towns we [View Full Entry]

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Puerto Natales Day 5 we boarded the bus from El Calafate to Puerto Natales, a rather pleasant 4 hour drive on a comfy bus with reclining seats. Apart from the fast steady climb to a great height through the Andes that set my ears wildly popping the landscape was fascinating. Barron plains of Connemara style scenary teaming with birdlife to the more chilly flatlands of snow....each landscape changing as we twisted and turned around the mountain roads. And, we saw..... the famous ´roadrunner' only of course this was a real bird of the Osterich family called a Nandu that the cartoon [View Full Entry]

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Hola chicas y chicos, Na de ijskapexpeditie trokken we zuidwaarts naar Tierra Del Fuego ("Vuurland", naar de talrijke vuurhaarden die de oorspronkelijke indianen stookten). Deze eilandengroep scheidt zich van het Zuidamerikaanse vasteland via de Straat van Magellanes en vormt het meest mysterieuze deel van heel Patagonia. Hier duikt de Andes de zee in en komen de Atlantische en Pacifische Oceaan samen in de stormachtige Drake Passage, een kleine 1000 km verwijderd van Antartica. Vuurland is gevormd door ruige, ondergedompelde bergketens en wilde fjorden in het westen en droge, gele steppe i [View Full Entry]

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En Ushuaia, o en Tierra de Fuego o como a muchos mas les gusta decir "Estoy en el fin del mundo". Cuantas veces abre pensado en llegar aqui?, si lo pienso bien quizas mi obsesion con visitar este extremo del mundo con este nombre tan atrayente fue posiblemente el punto de origen de toda esta aventura. El viaje hasta aqui ha sido a traves de la Patagonia Argentina, todo un sueño cumplido. Estoy casi en el final de mi viaje y ya muy satisfecha de lo que he visto y recorrido, de la gente que he conocido y de lo que [View Full Entry]

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I am so behind again.....it always happens after a spell of being good about keeping up to date...so here we go again. Punta Arenas is in the very southern tip of Chile. We crossed from Argentina to there to fly back to Santiago & avoid the very long bus trip back up north. So on a rainy Sunday evening we pulled into what looked like a very drab city. Thankfully there was a lady there looking for business. She had a car so we were sold! It turned out quite well because we were the only people staying in her house, [View Full Entry]

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We safely arrived in Chile (Santiago). We spend there 2 days and decided to head south to see Lake District and part of Patagonia. We signed up for similar bus tour like we had in New Zealand. This time only for a week. It was much smaler bus with about 8 amazing individuals...but about them I will write later. One of the most interesting thing we had ambitious to sign up for, was to climb Villarica Volcano (2847m). I need to add here that this is an active volcano. We haven't seen a volcano as it was very cloudy and we [View Full Entry]

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We travelled north and across the border back into Chile to Punta Arenas, where on the way we visited an out of the way penguin colony. It was a fantastic location as it was in the middle of nowhere, and just our tour group and the penguins. We got there late afternoon and the penguins were just wandering up the beach to return to their nests on the main land, so we got to see them waddle up, and some of them would walk out in front of us really close... they didn´t seem too bothered about us being there! We [View Full Entry]

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Why hello there. A quick run down of the last few weeks... After flying from Buenos Aires to El Calafate to meet Caberra friends Penny and Tim, we hired a car and drove out to Los Glaciares National Park for sunrise over the famous Perito Moreno Glacier. Well actually it wasn’t that we were uber keen to see the sunrise, just that we were told you could avoid park fees if you got there before the park gates opened (FYI- it didn't work, they got us on the way out). Anyway, the glacier was just spectacular and super active... for a [View Full Entry]

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Rin again - After an interesting bus trip (and long) through the Argentinian Andean Steppes, the Andes finally began to come into view as we approached Puerto Natales in Chile - our base before heading off into the Torres del Paine National Park. We couldn't believe that from the bus we were already able to see some glaciers on the mountains in the distance! nick - For those of you that dont know much about this Park, it is generally seen as the mekka of southern pategonian treking. Modern refugios (shelters) scattered around the most popular sendora (trails) of the parks [View Full Entry]

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