Argentina

I’m back from my amazing trip to South America. Having had a few days to rest and catch up, I thought I’d share some reflections on how it went.

I spent most of today flying from the south of Chile to the Ecuadorian capital, Quito. I had a long layover in Chile’s capital, Santiago, so I hired a cooperative taxi driver to show me around the city before I had to embark on the multi-hour journey north to Ecuador.

I did the Andes Crossing today and it was absolutely beautiful. The Andes Crossing is a combination of bus and boat tours that lead across the Andes between San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina, and Puerto Varas, Chile.

Not much for photos today; it was mostly a day of relaxing and enjoying a much-needed shower after last night’s water system misadventure. I started my journey back north today. I’ll stay tonight in San Carlos de Bariloche, on the eastern edge of the Andes.

Today I took a tour west from El Calafate to Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, home to the Perito Moreno glacier.

This morning I strolled around La Recoleta Cemetery, near where we are staying. Our time in Buenos Aires was much too short, but such are the choices made in an ambitious trip such as this.

Looking across the river this morning, we could see on the horizon the skyscrapers of Buenos Aires. Such a difference from the sleepy historic town that is Colonia. We’ll be crossing over in a few hours …

Wow isn’t enough for this place. The name Iguazú (or, in Portuguese, Iguaçu) is adapted from an indigenous name meaning “big water.” That still isn’t enough to describe it. The important thing to understand when looking at each of the photos I’m showing here is that they each represent a small portion of the falls.

Today, we left Rio and took a short flight to the national parks that surround Iguazú Falls on the border between Argentina and Brazil.