Our Patagonian adventures did not begin on the most auspicious note.  On February 7, we flew from Puerto Montt to Punta Arenas, Chile, continuing our southward trek.  Our plan was to catch a bus from there to Puerto Natales, the…

When we started discussing the idea of taking this trip, one of many appealing prospects was the idea that we could travel slowly.  Rather than hopping in to a new place for a day to see the highlights and leaving…

Whew– we’re behind in posting after 11 wonderful but essentially wifi-free days in Patagonia.  We were sad to leave it (and Chile, and Aileen and Robbie…) but are delighted to be settled in Buenos Aires for a little while. Before…

Herewith, random but key statistics for our first month of frolic-and-detouring: Countries visited: 1 Beds slept in: 8 Long-distance bus rides: 7 Rental cars: 2 Flights: 3 Empanadas consumed: 15 Miles traveled (approx): 9,142 Favorite hotel (splurge): Posada Colchagua, Santa…

We left our cozy Valparaiso hostel on January 29 and picked up our first rental car of the trip, excited and slightly apprehensive about the 3-4 hour drive southeast to Santa Cruz in the Colchagua Valley, Chile’s main (red) winemaking…

Just a small sample of what we saw everywhere in the city. Click on any image to expand.    

We arrived in Valparaiso after a mere 26 hours of travel– 24 hours on a bus from San Pedro to Santiago (one disadvantage to our “avoid excess planning approach is that flights tend to be prohibitively expensive at the last…