Day 165 Fri 11/2 San Pedro de Atacama After the 23 hour bus ride, I arrived in SP. The small town in the desert is very picturesque. The main square is filled with offices of tour groups. Tourism is a really important part source of income and that can be seen in the restaurants and […]

I spent 5 days with friends (Rodolfo & Maria) in Santiago, spending time with them, catching up and relaxing. Walked around for a couple of days and the rest of the time was spent doing chores, eating, watching movies, football… Santiago is much smaller than Buenos Aires, and is extremely clean. I didnt find the […]

A friend (Rodolfo) in Santiago invited me to his friend’s (Martin) house in Tongoy, which is a small town with a couple of nice beaches on the coast, south of Coquimbo and La Serena. Martin’s parents are retired; they had spent a couple of years doing postgrad studies in the US years ago and spoke […]

Day 146 Sun 23/1 Border crossing, Valparaiso After various 20 hour bus rides, a 7 hour bus ride seem like a breeze. The only glitch was the 2-2.5 hour wait at the border to cross into Chile. The scenery was well worth the time spent in the bus as we drove along the Andes, gaining […]

Day 143 Thu 20/1 Mendoza Mendoza is much smaller than Cordoba and Buenos Aires. The buildings arent quite so interesting. They had an earthquake sometime in 1861 that did a lot of damage. They , probably because of the threat of earthquakes, have a lot of plazas. My favourite plazas were Plaza Independencia (the main […]

Day 139 Sun 16/1 Buenos Aires We arrived in Buenos Aires at 6:30 am! Since the ticket offices were open, I brought my ticket to Mendoza. As I left the bus station, some folks tried the pigeon shit trick to separate me from my bags. The scam works like this: Someone smears a paste that […]

Why do I travel? Ever since I took the decision to take some time off from work and hit the road with my trusted backpack, I have had many different reactions to the decision. Some think that it is a wonderful adventure, one they wish they could undertake. Some, like my father, dont quite understand it. […]

Day 103, Sat Dec 11 Cordoba It was a very comfortable 10 hour bus ride to Cordoba from Buenos Aires. My seat was next to a fairly big man, which did restrict my movements, but the seats were extremly comfortable and I slept most of the way. While Cordoba is the second largest city in […]

Day 134 Tues 12/1 Colonia del Sacramento After a day of rest, it is time to be on the road again. Colonia del Sacramento is a place most tourists head towardand it is recommended for its history as well. On the Rio de la Plata, it is a charming little town, but it is small […]

Day 131 Sat Jan 8 Montevideo The bus ride took 10 hours from Buenos Aires and wasnt too bad. The seats reclined well, but it seemed a bit cramped to me. Border crossing at 1am was quite a breeze, and the Uruguayan officials very friendly! Checked into the hostel around 07:30, had breakfast and headed […]

Day 98, Mon Dec 6 Bus to Buenos Aires The bus from Puerto Madryn was quite uncomfortable and I was happy to arrive in BA. It is great to be back in Buenos Aires. I felt as if I had returned to an encounter with a loved one! Had dinner and then went out to […]

Day 93, Wed Dec 1 El Chalten El Chalten is very small and has one ATM, which was out of cash for almost 3 quarters of the time I was in town! But most people come there to hike, to catch a glimpse of or to climb Cerro Torre or Fitz Roy. The sight of […]

Day 110 18/12/2010 (Sunday) to day 130 07/01/2011 (Friday) Argentina – Buenos Aires, San Martin de los Andes, Bariloche, El Calafate, Puerto Madryn I took a break from my long, tranquil trip with a short, hectic one. A friend decided to join me over Christmas and New Year´s. We ended up travelling mostly the route I took […]

Day 94, Thu Dec 2 El Chalten/ Rio Gallegos Almost all day on the bus. El Chalten to Puerto Madryn. El Chalten to El Calafate: 4 hours; El Calafate to Rio Gallegos: 6 hours; Rio Gallegos to Puerto Madryn: 21 hours. The one thing I remember from the busride from Gallegos to PMadryn is the […]

Day 108, Fri Dec 17 Cordoba/ Rosario Rosario is a lovely small town, north west of Buenos Aires, on the river Parana. It is famous for beautiful women, for being the town where the flag was conceived and for being the birthplace of Ernesto “Che” Guevara and a certain Lionel Messi. The weather forecast for […]

Day 92, Tue Nov 30 Puerto Natales/ Perito Moreno glacier/ El Calafate/ El Chalten A long day. A early start as we have breakfast at 06:30 and get on the van at 07:00. It is a bit of a squeeze. Among the other people, I remember with dread, an extremely ill-tempered duo from Austria. They […]

Day 91, Mon Nov 29 Puerto Natales The same spoilt girls whom I was able to ignore the night before, managed to wake me up early Monday morning around 5:30. They were back in the common area packing and chatterng away, without any regard for a person curled up on the sofa or for that […]

Photos of the trek . I offer the link at the beginning since I am no poet and will not be able to do justice to the scenery and the trek. I ran out of adjectives to describe the scenery by the second day of the hike! Backpack contents: A pair of trousers, a shirt and thermals, […]

Day 85, Tue Nov 23 Puerto Natales I liked Puerto Natales. It is a nice little town with some gorgeous views of fjords. It is also the starting point for most people who trek in the Torres del Paine national park . Most of the people either do what is called a “W”; the heartier souls do […]

Day 81 – 84 Navimag I get on the Navimag ferry from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales. 3 nights on a ferry was a new experience for me. One got to see fjords, a seal, a glacier, lots of rain and water and experience a 12 hour turbulent period in the open sea, Golfo de Penas, […]