If there’s anything I miss about America, it’s the promptness of the airlines. I know we all say it’s bad, but we know nothing. I have now flown Aerolíneas Argentinas for 5 legs, and only 2 have been on time: the 2 international ones, to and from Chile. Everything domestic has been delayed. The worst part was today, our departure from Buenos Aires was delayed until 3:15 from the original 1:20 departure, after our flight from Santiago to BA was perfectly on time. Normally, I wouldn’t care about a 2 hour delay. That’s nothing. But there were 3 things irking me. this is not the airlines fault, but we had a horrendous server at the Hard Rock Cafe in the airport, and it was kind of annoying. We shouldn’t have to wait half an hour and ... read more

Today was cold, rainy, and wet all day. It was one of the coolest days I’ve had on this trip. I say this for two reasons. First, Santiago has been in a drought for 7 years. Rain is rare, so any bit helps. Second was what we did. After sleeping in and being lazy again, we got up and headed to the market downtown. We were expecting it to be like the one in Recoleta in Buenos Aires, with local artisanal goods, but it actually was mostly clothing and shoes from knock-offs. There were a few funny things, like a “Toronto, USA” shirt, or a Yankees shirt that said “MY” instead. Then there was also the 3-week-old puppy we met that I’m still not convinced wasn’t a toy. It was absolutely adorable. We left from there ... read more

Adiós, Buenos Aires! I actually had quite a busy day today. I woke up at about 8:00 to go on one last run around the parks of Buenos Aires. Breakfast at 9:30, and then I showered and headed out. First I had to hit my old host mom's house, as she is kindly storing my big suitcase for the next week. I saw her briefly, then I headed over to the place where we've been changing money. Since the blue dollar is now above 15, we're paying for our hotel in Iguazú in cash to save more than 33%. So we needed some money to do that! At 11:15, we headed out to a famous steakhouse here called Siga la Vaca, which had unlimited meat and salad, and, for us, wine. Although the group was leaving ... read more

Today was our last non-travel day on the dialogue. How quickly it went! I can't believe it's over, and yet I still have a full month of traveling left before me! We had two options for activities today. For those of us that wanted to spend about $150-175 and trek on Perito Moreno, which we drove by yesterday, they could do that and leave at about 11. The majority did this. For those of us (of which there 7, including me) that did not want to do that, we got to go help with the local dog shelter's adoption day. Which basically meant holding and playing with puppies and talking with locals who came to look at them. It was possibly the best afternoon I've ever had. 9 puppies, all wanting cuddles? Yes please. Before getting ... read more

Sorry for the long hiatus! Many things to tell you, so be ready for an influx of blog posts. First of all, the main reason for the hiatus was how much in the middle of nowhere we were. Southern Patagonia is pure tundra and mountains, so getting services can be difficult. There's no suburbs of cities; there's the city and then nothing for a while and then the city. When the internet cut out on this day, it was out for the entire city for at least 15 hours. Anyway, on to the backfill of blog posts: Today was quite an incredible day. Although we had to get up at 6:30, we had a delicious and filling breakfast buffet waiting for us, and a bus that left at 7:30. We were taken to Puerta Bandera, a ... read more