After a really good nights’ sleep in a very clean and quiet hostel I headed down for breakfast where I met a lady from Montreal who was doing a similar trip to me but starting in Chile and finishing in Argentina. In the past she had spent 3 weeks in Peru on archaeological digs. She had just arrived so I gave her a list of places that I’d found in Argentina which were worth visiting. I also met a girl in my dorm and we chatted for ages after us both discovering that Chilean plugs are the same as European plugs but not worldwide plugs and I came to the rescue with my European adaptor when her New York plug wouldn't work. It’s amazing how these days when two peoples’s laptops are dying through lack of ... read more

The kind waiter who served us food and pepsi also took us through the laborious 2 hour custom process at the border. At one checkpoint we had to show our passports and hand over our visas whilst a sniffer dog sniffed around our legs. On the second checkpoint we had to all line up, put our bags on a table whilst a sniffer dog ran over them looking for drugs and food which may bring in pests or mosquitoes which could affect the country's agriculture and destabilize the Chilean ecosystem .Then we had to put all our hand luggage through a scanner, go through the scanner ourselves and then all the luggage in the hold of the coach had to be scanned one by one, then we were made to tip customs for them doing their ... read more

I got up at 6am after 3 hours sleep determined to pack, get to this beautiful park, buy my bus ticket to Santiago and get on it. But very quickly it became too hot to do anything, it’s 39 degrees today. In the last few days my friends and I would start walking to the city centre and after a few blocks we would stop walking, quit following our plans and come back to the hostel with sunburned faces. We just return to the wonderful hostel with air conditioning, we relax and chat. We all take siestas in the living room sometime in the day between 1pm and 6pm as everything is closed in Mendoza during those hours. This morning I drank a coffee in the main square and listened to the sounds in the background ... read more

Alta Montana tour The guide showed us various spots in the Andes and told us about various disasters and mysteries that had occurred in the mountains throughout history. I was intrigued and loved hearing the details and it left me with desire to see a lot of films and read a lot of books that I previously hadn’t known existed. Amongst the stories was one about a Uruguayan plane which crashed in the mountains and the survivors walked to the Chilean border to get help. We also heard about a plane crash involving a UK plane which in 1947 was carrying war veterans, pound sterling, documents regarding the war and gold. It came down due to bad weather. There were no survivors and years later all the bodies were found in perfect condition due to the ... read more

Mendoza is out in the desert, passes through the Andes and it is the Argentinian province closest to Santiago in Chile. It’s main business is oil extraction, it’s second biggest money maker is tourism and it’s third business is wine production. The city is pretty and pleasant with plenty of parks but in my opinion there’s not enough to see to warrant walking around in the dry heat when everything is closed between 2 and 6pm but it is a great hub for outdoor activities and is pretty great for tourists and one of the many holiday spots for portenos (those from Buenos Aires)... read more