Patagonia!! It is the busy season now and this town was packed full of people. This town reminded me a lot of Banff. Mountains, lakes, lots of overpriced shopping, and numerous chocolatiers. There was also some strange fascination with Saint Bernard dogs. We rented a car and quickly escaped. The drive down to El Bolson was unbelievable. We stopped by a lake for a dinner of dark beer, fresh strawberries and calibrasi and cheese in a baguette. The mountains have a very sharp jagged appearance quite unique to Patagonia. Like shark teeth. That night we saw a little dirt road going down to one of the lakes and we decided to drive in to check it out. It was such a nice location that we decided to set up camp. We did make sure to camp ... read more

Oh how nice it was to come out of the third world poverty. From the second we left the Bolivian roads (aka tire tracks in the sand), we drove onto a beautiful asphalt highway. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve seen a real road, since I’ve seen asphalt?! And not only was it paved, but there were lines painted on it and even road signs! We were still in the middle of no-where but everything felt vastly different. Our bus driver was wearing a nicely pressed shirt instead of the filthy rags our Bolivian jeep driver wore, and he spoke clearly, and told us what we were seeing, instead of grunting annoyed answers. The people of Chile were so friendly. We made friends with so many people from old to young in the ... read more

For this eventful day we headed to Bolivia with our new Brazilian friend, Leiga, where she had heard there was going to be a ritual to welcome the New Year. Once across the Peruvian border into Bolivia, we went took a boat to Isla Del Sol: The Island of the Sun. This island is on Lake Titicaca, the highest lake in the world, and is an ancient Incan place of worship, with numerous temple ruins still remaining on the island. The island is very dramatic. It rises steeply out of the water and you can hike up and over the hills to the other end in about 4-5 hours. We did this hike on our second day and we were just blown away by the beauty of the landscape, with its inviting beaches, grassy hillsides, the ... read more

Since we are far from home and won’t be with our friends and family for Christmas, Dana and I wanted to do something different. I googled ‘Christmas in Cuzco’ and found this opportunity to volunteer in a small rural village 3 hours from Cuzco. All we had to do was bring presents for the kids and ourselves. I signed us up. On Christmas Eve we met with the company running the event and bought all the presents. Dana and I had 4 massive garbage bags full of dolls, trucks, balls, candy, etc. It was an experience in itself trying to buy these last minute presents with everyone else in the city doing the same thing. It took us an hour to fight our way 1 block through the crowds. At midnight the entire city exploded, literally. ... read more

Our 64 km adventure begins with a bright and early start at 4am. We drive to an Andean village near the trail head to eat a hearty breakfast and buy some coca leaves (“it´s not a drug it´s a stimulant!¨) insists our guide) and walking sticks with fancy Peruvian embroidered handles. After the passport control (I have a cool Inca trail stamp now!) we began our walk at 8:30 am. Normally there are only 500 people including porters allowed on the trail at any time, but somehow we lucked out and there were only 300 people booked for our day, so we had a bit of privacy. In order to get the best (and private) campsite we had to hike farther our first day than most groups. We did 16km and ascended 1000m to our campsite ... read more