Blogs from South America - page 5655

Flight: Quito to Baltra, TAME 191 (320) Hotel: Onboard the Xpedition, Cabin 502 Yet another early start this morning as our flight to the Galapagos departed at 7:30. All the cruise passengers were milling about in the lobby of the Marriott; we decided to beat the crowds and grabbed a taxi to the airport. The domestic terminal at Quito was pretty small, only a couple of gates. There was a Celebrity representative waiting at the airport already, after having our bags inspected by the agriculture station to make sure you don't bring in any fruits/vegetables, she took our bags and checked us in; they would take care of the bags on the other end and deliver them to our cabin. The flight was on TAME on a brand new A320, an all-economy configuration. Normally, TAME only ... read more

We decided to go to Córdoba because you could fly direct from there to Iguazú - and it was also in that general direction. Other reasons were: * We didn´t want to go back via Buenos Aires - seemed a bit silly for some reason * The bus journey was about 23 hours from Mendoza to Córdoba * The flight was only 300pesos, and if we went to Córdoba we would see an extra place too * Córdoba had a fierce reputation for being a better party city than BA and we didn´t get to party properly in BA So, the plan was laid after a bit of research and we arrived by bus to Córdoba early in the morning, and took a taxi to our pre-booked hostel. Unfortunately there had been some jiggery-pokery with the ... read more

01.01.05 Morgens um 05.30 Uhr stand ich auf, um mich fuer die heutige Tour parat zu machen. Wir mussten noch Einiges vorher per Telefon klaeren und fruehstuecken. Aber dann war alles paletti. Ab ging die Fahrt nach Pucón in die Reiseagentur, wo wir die noetigen Kleider erhielten - Jacke, Hose, Rucksack, Schuhe, Gamaschen und Eispickel. Danach etwa eine halbe Stunde den Huegel rauf fahren mit dem Minibus und dann war es soweit. Worauf habe ich mich da nur eingelassen. Vor mir war er, der immer noch aktive Vulkan, den wir besteigen wollten, ein langer Marsch also, denn der Sessellift, der uns etwa eine Stunde laufen erspart haette, war heute nicht in Betrieb. Zuerst ging alles ueber Geroell bergauf, etwa eine Stunde. Nach einer kurzen Pause ging es weiter durch den Schnee mit dem Eispickel in der ... read more

Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca Cusco (Cuzco, Peru) We had booked the tour to the Sacred Valley, Pisac and Ollantaytambo for the day. We had missed the main Pisac market on Saturday, but they still have smaller markets on other days of the week. The Sacred Valley is a very fertile valley along the Urubamba river that was the homeland of the Inca. Over 1000 varieties of maize were at one time grown in the valley. We visited the Pisac ruins, then stopped for a buffet lunch. When we arrived at Ollantaytambo, there was an Epiphany festival going on, with people dressed up as cariactures of the conquistadores. I had already seen the Olla ruins previously, and both my wife and I were feeling ruined out at that point , so we decided to stay in ... read more

We arrived in Mendoza after travelling all night from Buenos Aires. The local tourist information office referred us to a hostel called Lifehouse which had a pool. This was very welcome, Mendoza was baking! We chilled for the rest of that day and decided to do a wine tour the next day and a hike the day after (to get rid of some of the post-Christmas podge). Wine 1-01 After some admin stuff in the morning (sorting out buses, planes, accomodation for the next leg) we headed off on our tour of two bodegas (vineyards). The first bodega, Lopez was a factory bodega. When we arrived a huge lorry with a huge tank (not unlike a milk lorry!) was leaving filled with wine. The bodega had a small museum of machinery used in wine making, ... read more