Mar 18, 2007 - Chilly Chile

I arrived in Santiago, the Capital City of Chile from Lima - Peru. Here I only stayed one day as I made my way to the best surf spot in Chile in a town called Pichilemu. I arrived in the afternoon and quickly made my way down the beach to the not so inviting freezing waters, but with waves up to 2m on offer, I had to go in. Surprisingly, it wasn't as cold as expected, but it was still far colder then anything I had sampled back home in Australia. Hence the title of this entry; 'Chilly Chile' So here I was in a foreign land, surfing a wave...

Dec 8, 2006 - Ground Hog day

Ola !!! I am in Santiago de chile , Chile , south america i have crossed the international date line so only actually set off from tams house in welly 10 mins ago. Very odd. HAd the worst flight ever with LAN had a bulk head seat but was so squashed clearly plane designed for sawn off short south american types i was the tallest on the plane by about 5 inches. No american could ever sit down in economy glad i lost weight before i arrived in s. america or i would have had to be transported with the luggage. First impressions of chile its hot...

Sep 17, 2006 - Uspallata

Framed by the snowcapped Andes, Uspallata silver leaves and vineyards were used as the scenic backdrop for Brad Pitt's epic film Seven Years in Tibet. I went on some hikes in the surrounding hillsides and spent my evenings absentmindedly chewing on Argentine beef. My time was enveloped by an underlying sadness, awareness that this was the last time I would drink Argentine wine, the last time I would lay eyes on the Andes, the last bus ride I would take...at least for a while.

Feb 17, 2006 - Crossing the incredible Andes back into Argentina

Today we were to take one of the most spectacular rides of the tour. Leaving Vina del Mar, Chile we traveled east to the entrance of one of the highest mountain passes in the world at 12,000'. The final stretch of road to the top is known as the Caracoles, which in spanish means "conch". The road is reminiscent of the spirals of a conch shell when viewed from the top. This was a great ride through some of the highest mountains in the western hemisphere. We passed directly by Cerro Aconcagua, which at 28,834' is the highest mountain in the...

Jan 11, 2006 - Uspallata.. dernière étape au pied de la cordillère avant de rejoindre le Chili

Dernière alte dans une toute petite bourgade au pied de la cordillère des andes... au milieu des montagnes.... c 'est histoire de ne pas faire un trajet trop long pour rejoindre le chili. Cette route vaut vraiment la peine d'etre faite de jour.... l'ultime traversee de la cordillère des andes... c'est ici que la chaine montagneuse se termine ! Petit camping municipal pour passer la nuit et balade a velo le long de la chaine de montagne.... en plein cagnard !

Jul 31, 2005 - Los Penitentes - The Andes, Argentina

We got a cab at 6ish for our 7 o'clock coach departure. It took us 165km West from Mendoza along a long road into the great range of the Andes. Our altitude swiftly rose and we were soon surrounded by snowed topped peaks and steep ravines, and valleys all ranging from yellows, to ochres, to pinks and reds, and even black in the horizon. After three hours we reached our destination - Los Penitentes, a ski resort not far from Aconcagua the tallest mountain in the Andes and South America. Both the scenery and snowcover here is excellent. Our...

May 27, 2005 - Crossing the Andes

After scoring a bus to Chile we drove out to the barren foothills the Adnes to an impressive sights. The Andes stand like a snow covered wall to Chile, the contrast of colours is really striking. It took about 7 hours to get to Chile and about 5 of that was winding our way through the mountain pass. The views where amazing and although flying is about 6 hours faster, the bus was a far more exciting choice.

Mar 4, 2005 - Mendoza

We spent a few days in mendoza, which is a great city, but we missed the wine festival as when we arrived, after a 23 hour bus ride there were no places to stay. The bus ride took so long as we hit a cow which made the front of the bus cave in, this was about 1am. But the bus driver just kicked the window through (after standing around discussing it for half an hour) then we carried on our way. Anyway it was really nice when we got there and we went round lots of Bodegas (wineries) and got some free tasting.

Jul 4, 2004 - "High Mountains" (Puente del Inca, Aconcagua)

Absolutely spectacular trip. Left Mendoza going west to the Chilean border. First we reached the first part of mountains - the oldest. The peaks are therefore fairly smooth, green and not higher then about 2000m. We started to climb up and reached second stage of the mountains where the peaks where about 2000-3000m and there was much less vegetation. We did couple stops along the way and finally reached the third, youngest and highest part - 3000-5000m. We made a stop in Los Peninentes, a ski resort which was closed because there was no...