RTW trips Blog on RealTravel

Salta journal: Salta, Mendoza and Santiago

Sun, 03 Jun 2007 19:16:48 GMT

We got the overnight train from Uyuni to the border and got the bus to Salta.After a 20 hour journey we eventually arrived in Salta, a really nice city. We went to the Sunday market and then went up on the cable car to get a great view of the city. That evening we went for a few local beers and watched the 'Boca' match, they won (as usual!).We wandered around the city the next day, a bit like Buenos Aires very European - certainly a big change from Bolivia!

We got our last overnight bus to Mendoza (the wine capital of Argentina) the next day. Keen to sample the local wine we undertook a ...

Uyuni journal: Salar de Uyuni

Sun, 03 Jun 2007 18:42:23 GMT

We got the train to Uyuni and were entertained by Spiderman 3 and Hitch in Spanish. We had picked up some spanish but not enough to follow a whole film yet unfortunately. The weather was fairly cold when we finally arrived there at 10.30pm and we crossed the road to our hostel which wasn't one of our better choices. Although we did have a gas heater in the room, it was a complete fire hazard.

The next morning we were up early to meet our four wheel drive (4WD) group and set off to the plains for three days. There were seven of us packed in which consisted of us, one swiss guy and four ...

Galapagos Islands journal: Quito and the Galapagos Islands

Fri, 18 May 2007 10:06:34 GMT

We arrived in Quito via Punta Arenas and Santiago (both Chile) after 2 days. We spent 1 night in Punta Arenas after getting the bus from Puerto Natales. The bus arrived in at 11.30pm and we made our way to the hostel we had booked. We were greeted by a very confused caretaker who spoke no English. His name was Manuel and he couldn't have been any nicer but this was a real Fawlty Towers moment! We managed to convince him we had a reservation through our pigeon Spanish and the help of the internet so he called the owner who was on holidays to sort it out. We were allowed stay and he even made us ...

Cusco journal: Cusco and the Inca trail

Mon, 14 May 2007 08:59:36 GMT

We eventually arrived in Cusco from Nazca after a bumpy overnight bus journey which makes sleep certainly difficult! Thankfully, as advised we had a few days to 'acclimatise' and get used to the altitude. Our hostel (as with most places around Cusco) was up some really steep steps which were great training for the Inca Trail. We spent the next few day getting ready for the trail and just wandering around Cusco which even boasted not one, but two Irish bars. We made a visit to one of these Irish bars (Paddy Flaherty’s) for the first time on our South American trip and we ended up staying longer ...

Lima journal: Guayaquil, Lima and Nazca

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 19:56:04 GMT

We arrived in Guayaquil after a short flight from the Galapagos Islands. This is the largest city in Ecuador and we found it far nicer and safer than Quito. We stayed in an area next to the University which was a real happening spot. Unfortunately every second building was either a photocopying shop or a take away and not a cheap student pub in sight. The next day we made our way down to the "Malecon" area which is a port area that has been redeveloped over the last few years.The area itself is nice and well patrolled by police but the water is absolutely filthy. The city itself seems to be ...

Torres del Paine National Park journal: Torres del Paine

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 16:25:00 GMT

We got the bus from El Calafate to Peurto Natales, another small quaint little town so we could make our way to Torres Del Paine National Park. After driving through a dirt track and crossing the Chilean border we made it in about 3.5 hours. We were greeted by enthusiastic hostel owners at the bus stop. After picking the most suitable one ie.cheapest we then organised the trip to Torres del Paine. We were collected from the hostel bright and early the next day and dropped off to the park a few hours later after 3 bus transfers and a Catamaran crossing.

Day 1 involved a 11km trek from our ...

El Calafate journal: El Calafate and Perito Moreno Glacier..

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 17:44:34 GMT

We flew from BA to El Calafate and were informed by our hostel that is was actually a public holiday in Argentina, when asked why we were told "they won some war or something...". Upon arrival at the airport we were greeted with the holiday rush alright,what seemed to be a school tour and parents were of course in our queue,just as well we were in good time.Our flight was via Ushuaia which is the most southern most city in the world. It was certainly an eventful landing, as we were admiring the views below we wondered if we were going straight for the water as the landing strip is literally ...

Buenos Aires journal: Buenos Aires

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 18:14:04 GMT

We arrived in Buenos Aires after a 20hr bus journey from Iguazu. Along the way we encountered the local army who proceeded to board the bus with their sniffer dog "Jorge" in tow.Jorge seemed to take a little too long checking out our hand luggage so we ended up being asked for our passports. We decided it best to oblige due to a gun being pointed in our general direction. After scrutinising our passports they moved on and decided everyone else in the bus required no such treatment!

Buenos Aires' weather was rainy when we finally got there but the temperatures were still in the mid 20's. ...

Puerto Iguazu journal: Puerto Iguazu and the Iguazu Falls

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 15:05:41 GMT

After leaving Rio we embarked on a 22 (More like 25!)hrs bus journey to Puerto Iguazu. We had intended to spend one day in Foz de Iguazu (Brazilian side) but it ended up being cheaper to go to the Argentinian side. We arrived in Puerto Iguazu and stayed in a decent hostel for the first night. We checked out this quaint town that night where there were more cats than people around. The next day we headed to our new hostel outside the town on the way to the Falls. It was called the Hostel Inn and it was more of a beach resort than a hostel. It was meant to be a Hotel but the owners ran out of ...

Rio de Janeiro journal: Arrival and journey begins

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 13:58:49 GMT

Finally our Journey began in Rio de Janeiro on March 19th and it was well worth it! I must say i had some reservations about Rio but they were quickly dispelled within a day. We had booked into a really nice area of Rio called Botafogo which we would recommend to anybody. The trip from the airport took us through some really interesting areas but when we arrived at our destination we had a really nice hostel. We were a bit tired after travelling for 24 hrs so the first day was a bit of a blur. Also it was 30 degrees and very humid. However we did get to venture to the Botanic Gardens to walk ...