Chris and Liz

Our Final Thought
And so our journey has come to an end. Four months of travelling around Latin America and to say the least we were truly blessed in this journey! Even though we may not have had any epiphanies during our travels we were afforded many new experiences. We grew both individually and together, met some great people along the way, shared some wonderful cultural experiences and most importantly we strengthened our relationship with each other! This opportunity has opened doors, broadened our cultural knowledge and provided us with many new perspectives; in particular those for which we as Canadians need to be thankful for. This has been an unforgettable journey for us and our family and friends have made it much more memorable. We thank you all for your support, prayers, warm wishes and blog comments along the way... you gave us our motivation and drive. We hope to share with you all of our pictures and memorable moments very soon.
Many thanks and love,
Chris and Liz

Total Distance: 0 miles / 0 kmMouse: 0,0

Latin America Tracker

Toronto, Canada to San Jose, Costa Rica;COSTA RICA: San Jose to San Pedro to Manuel Antonio National Park(return) to San Pedro to Monteverde to La Fortuna to San Luis to San Pedro to Panama City, Panama.PANAMA: Panama City to Isla Tabogo, Panama (return) to Miraflores Locks to Panama City, Panama to Lima, Peru.PERU: Lima to Cuzco to Lima to Sao Paulo, Brazil.BRAZIL: Sao Paulo to Rio de Janeiro to Florianopolis to Manaus to Salvador to Foz do Iguazu (Brazil) to Puerto Iguazu, Argentina.ARGENTINA: Puerto Iguazu to Buenos Aires to El Calafate to El Chalten to El Calafate to Ushuaia City to Buenos Aires to Cordoba to Mendoza to Santiago de Chile.Chile: CHILE: Santiago to Valparaiso, Valparaiso to Santiago. VENEZUELA: Santiago to Caracas. CURACAO: Caracas to Willemstead. CANADA

Caracas, Curaçao, Canada!

South America » Venezuela » Capital » Caracas » Altamira March 3rd 2012

On the way up to Cerro Avila

Chris and Liz

Caracas Saying goodbye to the Southern hemisphere, we left for Santiago airport at 5:30 am on February 24th and we finally boarded a plane that left on time! This will definitely be our last early morning flight. After one stop and two movies (Due Date and Just Go With It) we arrived earlier than schedueld in Caracas, Venezuela and breezed through customs and luggage claim. However after that we had quite the experience, to say we were bombarded by the locals is an understatement. They were expediting their taxi services to the city as well as their "cambio", which is the money exchange. In Caracas there is a black market for money exchange and some people can fetch up to a maximum of double the bank rate, needless to say we made use of "no, gracias" ... read more

Santiago, Viñas & Valparaiso

South America » Chile » Santiago Region » Santiago February 22nd 2012

View from Cerro San Cristobal

Chris and Liz

Santiago So, after a romantic valentine's day spent aboard a bus (see previous post), we made it safely into Santiago and settled into our hostel Rio Amazonas, a very cute and welcoming family-run hostel near Plaza Italia. We found the closest mini-market to buy a quick 'dinner' (meat and cheese, our staple) and some cheap Chilean wine. (A discovery: it is definitely cheaper to buy Chilean wine in Chile than it is to buy Argentinian wine in Argentina). Santiago is a big city with lots of pollution and smog. It is surrounded by the beautiful Andes but unfortunately they are difficult to see through the haze. That said, there is lots to see and do here so we set out to explore a little bit. On our first full day we headed to the nearby Bellavista ... read more

Mendoza: Food and Wine Lovers' Paradise!

South America » Argentina » Mendoza » Mendoza February 19th 2012

Veggies!

Chris and Liz

Finca Ogawa We arrived in Mendoza early Monday morning (Feb 6th) after yet another overnight bus ride. The buses in Argentina are comfortable and generally quite good, however they are usually quite delayed! We were met by one of our hosts at the bus station and brought to a car rental agency. After signing away and loading our things into the small white chevrolet classic we were soon travelling south on the famous Route 40 toward Tunuyan and our accommodations at Finca Ogawa, in the Uco Valley region. When we arrived we immediately felt we were in heaven at this very peaceful and secluded vineyard/farm located about 8km outside of the main town. We very quickly met our neighbours, fellow Canadians and to boot, from Etobicoke! We chatted with them for a bit and were then ... read more

Argentina: From East to West

South America » Argentina » Mendoza » Mendoza February 3rd 2012

La Boca

Chris and Liz

Buenos Aires Tuesday morning (January 31st), after arriving extremely late the night before from Ushuaia, we were exhausted and slept in a bit, but not enough. We needed to get up early and deal with our previously-booked flight home. So we headed to the LAN office in Buenos Aires and changed our flight path and future plans for returning home. From Santiago to Venezuala to Curacao and finally to Canada... our return back to Toronto is now firmly scheduled for March 3, 2012. Nailing down a finite end to our trip was both a very happy and sad moment! The rest of the day we relaxed, napped and planned our next couple days in the city. On Wednesday we headed to La Boca and San Telmo. We got on the local bus #29 and got off ... read more

The End of the World

South America » Argentina » Tierra del Fuego » Ushuaia January 29th 2012

Fin del Mundo

Chris and Liz

How fitting that in 2012, we should find ourselves in a place known as "the end of the world". Of course the world is not coming to an end, rather we are visiting the southernmost city on Earth, Ushuaia. (There are 2 other cities vying for this title, but since this is the one we are in, it wins). This stop marks an extreme of our journey, the farthest we will be away from home on the entire trip. It was also a highlight of our travels... we think you'll understand why! We arrived on Friday (January 27) and settled into our accommodations at Aves del Sur, a lovely family-owned B&B with separate cabanas - ours had a nice living area, kitchenette, view of the mountains, and the coziest, most comfortable duvets we've slept in so ... read more

Argentina: from North to South

South America » Argentina » Buenos Aires » Buenos Aires January 19th 2012

Iguazu Falls

Chris and Liz

You might want to read this entry in stages... it may be our longest post yet, but if you can hang in there, it will not disappoint! Iguazu Falls So after a very simple border crossing (they are so laid back here - what a nice change from the Canada/US border!) we were out of Foz do Iguacu and headed to Puerto Iguazu, the small Argentinian town from which to visit the falls on that side. We settled into our hostel (Garden Stone - super cute and laid back place) where we enjoyed a simple dinner in the relaxing garden and pool area before heading to bed.. one day at the falls down, one to go! Monday morning (January 16) we caught the local bus to Iguazu National Park and once inside, we took the train ... read more

Brazil Part 2: Manaus, Salvador, Foz do Iguaçu

South America » Brazil » Paraná » Foz do Iguaçu » Iguaçu National Park January 13th 2012

The Amazon!

Chris and Liz

Manaus & The Amazon ... So our journey through Brazil continued as we said goodbye to the beaches and relaxation and entered the Amazon! We landed about 30 minutes late in Manuas and were immediately hit by the humidity, the temperature read 32 but with the humidity we later found it out is was 43 degrees celcius! We checked into our hotel and got ourselves settled and headed out for lunch. We stumbled upon a small lanchette called Sr. Libanese and of course this had to happen! The owner was very helpful (with Liz's allergy) and chatted with us for a while in Spanish (he did not speak English). Later a few of his buddies came around and all we could think about was comparisons to the Zohan... great start to the Amazon! The next day ... read more

Brazil Part 1: from Concrete Jungle to Amazon Rainforest

South America » Brazil » Amazonas » Manaus January 9th 2012

Paulista Ave.

Chris and Liz

We have been having so much fun exploring big and beautiful Brazil that we have been neglecting the blog... so, it's catch-up time! A day-by-day would be way too long so we hope you enjoy our city-by-city summary of our Brazillian adventure thus far. Sao Paulo We arrived by air from Lima on December 21st, and as we were mainly concerned with planning our accommodations over Christmas and New Year's Eve, we spent most of our time here on the computer rather than touring around. That said, we did manage to visit Ibirapuera Park, which is one of the largest city parks in Latin America (sort of like what Central Park is to NYC). It was an extremely hot day (the beginning of summer in Brazil) so we enjoyed a leisurely stroll through the grounds trying ... read more

Happy New Year!

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro » Copacabana December 31st 2011

Cristo Redentor

Chris and Liz

Greetings from Brazil! We have much to catch up on but we will save that for a future post... this is just a short note to wish everyone a very Happy New Year! We spent this morning visiting the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer, which looks out over the whole city of Rio de Janeiro from the top of Morro do Corcovado. The statue (Cristo Redentor, in Portugese) is one of the New 7 Wonders of the World, and it is easy to see why. The statue is amazing and is rivaled only by the magnificent view that sweeps across all of Rio. After several rainy and/or cloudy days, we were blessed with glorious sunshine all morning, giving us the perfect conditions for our visit. Our outing to Corcovado took up the whole morning (it ... read more

Let the South America journey begin!

South America » Peru » Cusco December 22nd 2011

Sunday Parade

Chris and Liz

To say the least it was a long journey through Peru! We started with a red eye into Lima from Panama City and then tried to book an early morning flight online to Cusco... that didn't work (3 failed attempts) and so we eventually found the sales counter and discovered that it was possible to buy tickets literally two hours before the flight. Short one hour flight and we arrived safely into the small, quaint city of Cusco. The day/night took a lot out of us so we more or less rested on the first day, found a local and close Cusquena kitchen to eat at... quinoa soup and the traditional lomo saltado and of course, steaming hot coca tea! The next day we explored the city a bit. As it was Sunday not a lot ... read more

Joined	November 3rd 2011	Trips	1
Last Login	August 27th 2013	Followers	0
Status	BLOGGER	Follows	0
Blogs	21	Guestbook	37
Photos	151	Forum Posts	0