El Chalten, a young mountain village in Patagoniadeclared “Argentine’s Trekking Capital” is a hikers paradise. We spent six nights there giving us plenty of time to enjoy the outdoor activities including breathtaking hikes, stunning views and beautiful waterfalls. Continue reading
We stopped in El Calafate for two reasons: it was on the way and to visit its famous and easily accessible Perito Moreno Glacier. We arrived in El Calafate after an 11 hour trip with two buses. We stopped at the border for almost two hours – the most inefficient system ever. Give your passports to the driver, wait 20 – 30 minutes, get passports back; think you’re good to continue – wrong. Wait in the bus for another 30 minutes. Then the driver tells everyone to get off the bus and bring all of their baggage (including checked bags). We then all piled into a small customs building and lined up behind an old x-ray machine which took nearly 5 minutes a bag – partially due to the ladies behind the counter squinting at a 10-year old monitor. Almost every bag was searched by hand; while at the same time there was no system to prove we even went through the x-rays. For example, we had left a carry-on bag on the bus my mistake – no one noticed. Some people walked through with their purses over their shoulder – some had to have them scanned. Oh, and the machine wasn’t even booted up when we walked in. Overall, we wondered why any of this was done when clearly none of it was effective – and all the cars that passed the border while we were inside didn’t even step foot out of their cars… Continue reading
After a lot of thought and discussion we have decided to bus from the southern tip of Argentina all the way to the northern Brazilian border making many stops along the way. This is roughly equivalent to busing from Vancouver to Toronto (over 4000 km). Our first stop was Punta Arenas, known for it’s proximity to Isla Magalena and it’s Magellanic Penguins. Continue reading
Ushuaia: the end of the world – “fin del mundo”. As my grandmother quickly pointed out, the world is round and therefore has no end. However, as the southern most city in the world, Ushuaia has been nicknamed “Fin del Mundo” or in English, the end of the world. And that is where we have gone to start our journey through Patagonia. Continue reading
We had thrown the idea around of hopping on the ferry from BsAs to Uruguay before heading south in Argentina but weren’t sure if it was worth the fee of the ferry. When we heard that you can get USD from the ATM’s there it solidified our decision to check it out. We voted on going to Colonia over Montevideo; a smaller town with a old-fashioned feel. We took the slow ferry over (3 hours) and arrived in the late afternoon. Uruguay also turns out to be the first country that is new to us both. Continue reading
After almost 24 hours of travelling – through Seattle, Huston and then finally arriving in Buenos Aires, the airport ground crew decided to go on strike. Luckily, it only lasted an hour and then our bags were coming on the carousel . A taxi from from the airport was ridiculously expensive, but after some debate we decided that public transit was near impossible (they only accept exact change, which is like gold in BsAs and the line up for the bank at the airport was around an hour. Continue reading
We were in Cancun for a week at an all inclusive resort for a friends wedding where Dan was one of the best men. We decided to extend our stay an additional week for two main reasons: one, we wanted to have time to visit Chichen Itza (listed as one of the “New7Wonders of the World” and secondly, it would give us a chance to see more time to explore the “real” Mexico – and really, why not spend an extra week in Mexico if you can! Continue reading
I first heard about flyboarding / hoverboarding about a year ago when I saw this video on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMaDhkNJA2g
So when I saw it for rent on the beach in front of our resort in Cancun, I had to try it. The first 10 minutes were pretty rough as I could barely get out of the water and balance, but once I got the hang of it, the instructor let me do underwater dives and even a couple backflips! Continue reading