We really like Santiago. With 6 million people it's not nearly as big as Buenos Aires, nor does it have the history, but it has a freshness about it. There's tons of stuff to do and beautiful neighborhoods to stroll through day or night with cute little eclectic cafes. We rented an apartment in el centro just blocks from the presidential palace and the main square, so everything was either a short walk or a metro ride away.But I am sooooo far behind on t...

We've veen stuck here on the border--way in the tips of the mountains---for 2 hours now. In a line of buses on our way across the Andes from Mendoza, Argentina to Santiago, Chile, we sit and sit until someone comes on the bus and yells something about documentos and we all file out.  I'm not about to leave the camera bag, two kindles and an ipad on the bus though, so me and my weighted down shoulder bag head down the steps and into the customs shed for ...

The heavens smiled upon us. We hit Torres del Paine on a clear, sunny day. These mountains are incredible. Ever since Tom and Tammy told us about their trip here I've wanted to see these, but after a week of solid rain, I didn't think there was a chance.We only had one shot so we booked a tour and went for it.

Welcome to Chilean Patagonia, but what else can you expect from an area that gets 8 METERS of rain a year? Eight meters is 26.246719160104988 feet which is about 319 inches.You have to rain nearly every minute of every day to do that, so if you're planning to hike in this country, be forewarned. You're going to get wet. But luckily the wind blows hard enough to dry you off--should you be holding tightly to a tree and not blown into Argentina, that is.This...

We'd (okay, I'd) wanted to do this trip since I'd first read of it. A boat trip through the fjords of southern Chile and all those beautiful mountains and glaciers, the whales, dolphins, sea lions and condors--it sounded gorgeous. Right?What they don't tell you is it rains and blows cold every stinking day and is much colder in summer than the same distance from the equator going north. Hmmm. Did that make sense? What I mean is, 49 degrees north i...