Reimposta ricerca
South AmericaSouth America
SatelliteModifica percorso

South America

settembre 2022 - marzo 2023
6 months backpacking South America for our honeymoon. Leggi altro
+3
  • 55impronte
  • 11paesi
  • 200giorni
  • 827fotografie
  • 34video
  • 54,1kchilometri
  • 35,3kchilometri
Segui Calendario Condividi Lista dei desideri
Data ascendente
  • ViaggiatoreSouth America
    1112111
    Giorno 70

    Uyuni Salt Flats

    14 novembre 2022, Bolivia ⋅ ☀️ 4 °C

    Uyuni was interesting to say the least! Gorgeous landscapes, (which of course we couldn't accurately capture on the camera) that seemed to change before our eyes during our 3 day 2 night tour from Uyuni in Bolivia to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile.

    We got a chance to take super super Instagram-y photos, visited a Flamingo reserve, spotted tons of wild Vicuña, saw mountain ranges, volcanoes, salt flats, desert proper, different coloured lakes, geysers, a train Cemetery, sat in natural hot springs under the crystal clear stars and even stayed in a Salt Hotel!

    Car problems were common for everyone on the tour. We got stuck with a flat on our first day, and we were FREEZING as the sunset but at least views were breathtaking!

    We were frustrated with our tour operator as the theme of over promise, under deliver continues, but it was a super cool way to cross a country border and this one we can confidently say was a once in a lifetime experience!    Leggi altro

    Guarda la traduzione
  • ViaggiatoreSouth America
    111
    Giorno 76

    San Pedro de Atacama

    20 novembre 2022, Chile ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C

    We weren't able to make the most of San Pedro and we are ok with that. It's been a busy 2 months of travel so far and we were both pretty run down, especially after the Uyuni tour. Anna was quite sick for our first couple days here so we used the time to rest up. We eventually rented a car for a couple days, but ended up having a hard time trying to see the sites we wanted to see.

    Things were closed, we went at the wrong time of day for a couple things, certain drives took way longer than we thought they would, it just kind of didn't work out.

    At the end of the day we are ok with that, lots of the area is very similar to the terrain coming through the salt flats, and it's actually quite expensive so at least we saved some money!

    We used the time to check in with each other, had some good talks, and still enjoyed our time in the small hippie desert town of San Pedro de Atacama.    Leggi altro

    Guarda la traduzione
  • ViaggiatoreSouth America
    1
    111
    Giorno 79

    Valparaíso

    23 novembre 2022, Chile ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Beautiful, vibrant, funky, enigmatic, Valparaíso has to be the most colourful city we've ever seen. Every single square inch of the entire town is covered in bright colors, and street art of all different kinds. It's colonial, with more than a touch of 'street', filled with interesting looking people of all kinds, colours and backgrounds.

    Friendly, welcoming, chill, what a place to explore on foot and admire.

    Anna was feeling better by the time we got here, we had a great time with a group of Irish guys we met at the airport, enjoyed way too much craft beer, had some really good burgers, and just chilled.

    We spent a half-day, a very grey day, in Viña del Mar which we thought was just ok, a modern resort town.

    We absolutely loved Valpo and would say it's a highlight of Chile!    Leggi altro

    Guarda la traduzione
  • ViaggiatoreSouth America
    1
    1121
    Giorno 82

    Santiago

    26 novembre 2022, Chile ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    Well, Santiago was never expected to be anything earth-shattering. It's huge city, mostly pretty normal. It offers lots of museums and giant hill in the city with some great views. We only had 2 days so we kept it really chill, spending most of our time in the apartment relaxing, and we visited San Cristobal Hill.

    What was supposed to be the highlight of our time in the area, and one of the highlights of the trip turned in to the lowest point either of us have had on any of our travels.

    We had planned to visit Easter Island, Santiago is the only city in the world that offers flights there.

    We were met with delays, incredibly rude airport staff, and ended up being denied our flight the morning we were supposed to leave.

    We are both very experienced travellers and are shocked and appalled at the treatment we received at the airport that day. We were told we'd need to take a PCR test before we could board our flight, which was news to us but not a major problem. We had 90 minutes to departure by the time we got to the desk and dealt with the agents, but she told us we only had 10 minutes to be back with our test before the closed the check in and that the test would take 20.

    Fair enough that we could have been earlier to the airport (we were the 2 hours early, as is the standard). We were back to the desk an hour before departure with all of our documents, baggage tags, permissions to the island, and negative tests and were told that we were too late and wouldn't be allowed on.

    As a last ditch we tried to go through security but they wouldn't accept my emailed boarding pass, the said we needed one from the desk.

    Everything had to go wrong for this to happen, and never in any of our travels have we had so much resistance from airport staff. They fought us at every turn, put absolutely ZERO effort in to helping us. At the end of the day it's our responsibility, but I'd say sometimes things happen, especially travelling for this long, and it would have been nice to get some help that morning.

    We were absolutely devastated of course. We fought for a refund to no avail, and decided to try to take company credit and flew to Argentina.

    We will make it there one day, unfortunately it wasn't in the cards for us this time. Hoping for better luck in Argentina!    Leggi altro

    Guarda la traduzione
  • ViaggiatoreSouth America
    1
    1111211
    Giorno 90

    Mendoza

    4 dicembre 2022, Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    What a wonderful, wonderful city. It's beautiful, full of mature trees, calm, the people are kind, it's how we imagined Argentina to look and feel.

    It's so cheap! They have a black (or blue) market to exchange American dollars that gives you 2 for 1 to the bank rate, so we had a great time enjoying that little perk. Great beer, cheap (even cheaper) wine, great food..what more do you want on a vacation!

    We were lucky enough to be here during the world cup and caught a couple of Argentina games. We celebrated in the streets after the games with the people. We never felt threatened, although I was worried about the colours I was wearing during their game against Poland! We were a little worried but instead of getting threatened or attacked someone gave me the literal jersey off their back for my Canada shirt! The beautiful game indeed...

    We thoroughly enjoyed our wine tour. We went to the Maipú region, one of three major wine producing regions regions around Mendoza, visited 2 vineyards/wineries, had an absolutely delicious asado for lunch, and tried 14 delicious wines at Trapiche and Zuccardi.

    It's been a great start to Argentina after some poor luck lately. We are definitely sad to be leaving here, but on to San Carlos de Bariloche and Patagonia next!    Leggi altro

    Guarda la traduzione
  • ViaggiatoreSouth America
    1
    1212
    Giorno 95

    San Carlos de Bariloche

    9 dicembre 2022, Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    "Perhaps one day, tired of circling the world, I'll return to Argentina and settle in the Andean lakes, if not indefinitely, then at least for a pause while I shift from one understanding of the world to another."

    - Ernesto 'Che' Guevara

    It's a place as beautiful as it is symbolic. For us, as we grow, as we grow together, as we process the events of the world and of our intimate, personal, lives over the last few years, for all the talking we've doing about going on our 'big trip', this is to us symbolizes the adventure and scale of it all.

    Patagonia is a place of legend, pure natural beauty, and freedom. It's the beginning of our journey to the (other) end of world. It's a place for reflection, for challenging ourselves, for taking ourselves as far as we can literally and figuratively go. It's the culmination of years of planning, the realization of the deepest dream, and it promises to be one of our greatest adventures together.

    San Carlos de Bariloche is our first stop in patagonia proper. We arrived here after 3 months of backpacking, after some unbelievable and unforgettable highlights, and somehow it feels like just the beginning.

    It's a city on the shore of gorgeous lake Nahuel Huapi. The most iconic town in Argentine lake country and an absolute must when travelling, by whatever means, through the area.

    We didn't have great weather here, but we did a couple small hikes to get our legs back under us, and we actually quite enjoyed seeing the lakes and the valleys with the more moody feeling the weather gave us.

    This is also where we collected our rental car, which we will have for three and a half weeks, we will have freedom, we can really explore this beautiful, special place in the world, and we can go, just the two of us, to the end of the world. Together.    Leggi altro

    Guarda la traduzione
  • ViaggiatoreSouth America
    Giorno 97

    El Bolsón

    11 dicembre 2022, Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Not a ton to write home about here. It's a chill little hippie town that reminds a bit of home. Gorgeous mountains and scenery, listened to some good rock at roll at a pub, hit a few spots out around the town, Anna got swarmed by murder chickens on our little picnic, normal Patagonia things.

    We wanted to do a longer hike but found out when we got there the trail was closed, c'est la vie!

    We went to a couple viewpoints, saw the Indian head rock formation, some waterfalls, and bought some natural honey from a nice witch in the woods. She gave us free samples of all her cheeses and a taste of a traditional drink made from all the local berries and fauna (still not sure if it was alcohol), not bad for a day in town! First stop on the roadie complete, on to Esquel!    Leggi altro

    Guarda la traduzione
  • ViaggiatoreSouth America
    1
    1111
    Giorno 99

    Esquel

    13 dicembre 2022, Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Just one day in Esquel also, about 2 hours south of El Bolsón.

    We weighed some options and instead of doing a paid tour we chose a hike up one of the mountains outside of town.

    It's 5k up a valley with almost a kilometer of vertical gain, and some gorgeous views of the town and the Andes in the distance.

    We went for the requisite post-hike beer to watch Argentina advance to the world cup finals!

    Big drive day tomorrow, about 8 hours to the Chilean side of Patagonia for a few days then back to Argentina.    Leggi altro

    Guarda la traduzione
  • ViaggiatoreSouth America
    Giorno 101

    Coyhaique

    15 dicembre 2022, Chile ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    Our drive here was super interesting...

    Heading south, we were directed by our GPS to turn right suddenly down a terrible dirt road through what appeared to be nothing but barren fields as far as the eye could see.

    We decided to trust it, potentially at our own peril, and ended up driving west through these fields on this, at times, BRUTAL, dirt road, crossed the border at a weird farm house in the middle of NOWHERE, and eventually ended up surrounded by these gorgeous Chilean hills and flowers.

    We were immediately struck by the change in landscapes crossing the border between Argentina and Chile. The hills came out of nowhere, these gorgeous purple and yellow flowers lined the hills, and the road ended up cresting the hill over gorgeous Coyhaique.

    Of course the pictures do no justice to the scale and grandeur of the valley in which Coyhaique lies.

    Gotta say though, we were had, once again, by Chile. We had one day and had planned to do a hike in the natural reserve nearby, only to find out on our arrival that entry tickets were required to be purchased ahead of time, and the park closed at 2pm, which wouldn't have left us enough time to complete the 18km we had planned. C'est la vie en Chile!

    Nonetheless, it's beautiful and we spent our time checking out a couple viewpoints near the town, and made sure we were well supplied for the next leg of our journey.    Leggi altro

    Guarda la traduzione
  • ViaggiatoreSouth America
    Giorno 103

    Puerto Rio Tranquilo

    17 dicembre 2022, Chile ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Puerto Rio Tranquilo is hands down one of the most beautiful places either of us has seen.

    It's UNREAL, the colour of the water, the scale of the mountains, the calmness, the freshness of the air. Amazing. It is, in a nutshell, the best of what Patagonia has to offer. Clean air, fresh, beautiful, cold, water. Astounding natural activities, friendly people, I mean come on!

    It's famous for the marble caves. They're accessible by kayak or by motor boat tour. We chose to kayak so we could get a little closer, and of course, why wouldn't you want to go out on this gorgeous lake for some exercise!

    They are breathtaking, incredibly unique, intricate, and detailed marble formations rising up out of the lake. We went early to beat the crowds, and in total, there were 4 of us, including our guide. The water was pristine and calm, the weather was absolutely gorgeous, and it's a hell of a way to start your day!

    We actually did this hike up behind the town on the same day as the kayaking tour only takes the morning.

    What VIEWS!

    It has inspired us to get better at landscape photography because my God is it something to behold. Vast, clean, colourful, and just absolutely gorgeous in every way. And this is coming from someone who lives in the Canadian Rockies!

    Anna made a Christmas pinecone with flowers she picked along the way up to help celebrate. This will be the first Christmas we've ever spent abroad, so the little things are really nice!

    What a phenomenally beautiful place. An absolute must for any journey through Patagonia.    Leggi altro

    Guarda la traduzione