Journey To The End Of The World & Up To Rio

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Before our 3 week group tour of Chile and Argentina we spent some time in Arica and the capital Santiago. We really enjoyed the winery tour of Concha y Toro and the lovely beach at Viña del Mar. You will be pleased to know that we continued to sample the local wines on a regular basis!

Despite Andrew needing emergency dental treatment to remove a wisdom tooth which then got infected, we headed off to tour Patagonia, a beautiful area of snow capped mountains, vast clear lakes and glaciers.

Our favourite town was San Carlos de Bariloche which had the added bonus of chocolate shops and St Bernard dogs! We had our photos with 1 month old puppies that were adorable (and thankfully they didn't wee on us). After a strenuous walk in the national park we got a chair lift up to take in the views which were breathtaking, requiring a huge slab of moist blackforest gateau to compliment the natural vista!

A highlight was glacier hiking on the Viedma glacier from El Chalten. We had really good weather to appreciate the magnificent ice fields and our efforts were rewarded at the end with a few glasses of Baileys with ice freshly cut from the glacier itself! We spent a more sedate day at the enormous Perito Merino glacier, watching for huge chunks of ice crashing into the water.

A trip to Torres del Paine involved an 18km return trip to a mirador of the 3 tower peaks followed by 3 nights camping in the cold Patagonian weather! To keep warm we huddled in our sleeping bags wearing our thermals drinking red wine (well you have to make the most of a situation)!

We braved the winds to visit the cute magellan penguins and their chicks at Otway sound before heading on to Ushuaia, the most southernly town in the world and celebrated our arrival there with some champagne! When it snowed we would escape to Tante Sara for fantastic strawberry tarts and coffee (deserved after putting up with camping).

Buenos Aires welcomed us with sunshine and warm weather where we enjoyed mesmerising displays of Tango (we didnt ruin it by trying ourselves) and visiting the bizarre Recoleta cemetry, with graves and tombs the size of churches! However, the most famous grave there, Eva Perron (Evita) isn´t that grand at all.

We visited Iguazu falls from both the Argentinian and Brazilian sides. They are amazing, absolutely enormous with thunderous spray from the various falls and as there were high river levels they were particularly in full flow.

Now in Brazil we flew to Sao Paulo and made our way to the port of Santos to start our mini-cruise. However it did involve having to spend the night in a very ropey hotel the night before (we had a window but no glass in it, and it looked out onto a car park)! The luxury of the cruise ship more than made up for it despite being continuously mistaken for being crew. The chambermaid even knocked on our cabin door and assumed Andrew was Larry from the USA working in guest entertainment! We were able to eat loads and didnt have to do any dancing as payment.

We enjoyed our time in Rio de Janeiro, visiting Sugar Loaf Mountain and Christ the Redeemer, despite David shattering the ceiling fan in our room and some guy trying to steal money from Andrews pocket! Our favourite time of the day was in the early evening sitting relaxing on Copacabana beach drinking a beer watching the volleyball players. How very cultural!

Our time in South America is up, now off to Central America, where the journey continues....

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Photos

Iguazu falls
View from the Brazilian side, thunderous.

St Bernard dogs
Adorable and cuddly in Bariloche, Argentina.

Views over Bariloche Argentina
So breathtakingly beautiful we just had to eat cake!

Glacier hiking, Viedma glacier
After all that hard work a glass of Bailey's was deserved.

Perito Moreno glacier
Just in case we hadnt seen enough glaciers!

Torres del Paine Chile
View of the three towers after a strenuous hike.

Tango in Buenos Aires
Passionate and romantic!

Rio de Janeiro
The spectacular view from Christ The Redeemer.

Comments

[Peter Downer]

Envy
Hi Andrew, Good to read of your latest exploits and the excellent descriptions of the places you visited. Hope your tooth is OK now. Deep Envy, Peter Downer

[claire reed]

Hello my lovelies
What a fabulous read and I cannot believe you will be returning to UK shortly. albeit a whistle stop. It is good to hear you have been able to enjoy the finer things in life including the view on Copacabana beach, apart from the dodgy hotel room in Sao Paulo........ What can I say about the UK. No doubt you have heard that production came to a halt due to the snow. Only in the UK can snow cause such mayhem and how fickle is society when now 4 x 4s are the best invention and a must on the driveway when before the snow they were the devil in disguise................... I am starting to tackle the dreaded Diploma that has to be taken by 2012 to keep my license, luckily St James's Place have received authorisation to invigilate an internal exam from the FSA leaving me with only one external exam to do. The qualification is at first year degree level and it is similar to learning a new languange. David, you were very shrewd making your money when younger and now in retirement........ You will be pleased to know that we have two holidays planned. One back to the lake district although am toptally shicked over the price hike since last year and Las Vegas for Wayne's 40th. I have a client who works for BA and she has offered me her 'friends and family rates' which is amazing. BA have started flying direct to Vegas, Maldives and Sharm El Sheikh. Anyway off home now. Looking forward to hopefully seeing you on your brief return, if only for an hour. Lots of hugs and kisses. Cx

[GillyGx]

OMG I'm bursting ...
... with jealousy! Darrell says stop being naughty and making us jealous over Patagonia! It's a must for us, but it needs time as you and Andrew are proving with your trip. We'd like to do the Falklands and Antarctica at the same time you see. Your trip sounds incredible. I can't wait to hear more about it when we see you in UK. And you camped! We're off to Tasmania on Saturday ... trek is longer than I thought - 8 days! We have to be flown on a private plane into the middle of nowhere with everything we need on our backs and then hike back into civilisation!! You and Andrew would LOVE it!!! Not! Anyway ... be out of touch for a while. Can't wait to see you boys and we can share all our travel stories. Take good care of yourselves and have a safe flight home. See you in March. Love Gilly xxx

[Claire]

Happy New Year!! C x x