From the waterfalls to one of the most famous beaches in the world.... Ipanema (yes, where the girl comes from in the famous Astrid Gilberto song). Rio really does revolve around the beaches - lots of beautiful people tanning and parading across Leblon, Copacabana and Ipanema beaches. Ipanema is regarded as one of the safest and we really enjoyed walking around its many restaurants and bars from our sea-view hotel. The beach itself is beautiful and busy with haw...

'Poor Niagara!' is what Eleanor Roosevelt reputedly remarked and we can only agree with her... The Iguazu waterfalls are stunning! We are literally in the Argentinian/Brazilian/Paraguayan jungle, as the falls are located close to all of these countries' borders. Therefore we decided to spend two nights on the Argentinian side and two on the Brazilian side. Paraguay was rejected given that we were advised not to even walk from the border as there was a high ...

Four glorious days staying at a bodega or vineyard in deepest wine country! We were lucky enough to be recommended a guide by a couple whom we met in Patagonia and we spent a whole day exploring the valley south of Mendoza with him. First we visited a small new vineyard owned by a brother and sister that was less than two years old but had already won several awards in blind tasting competitions. Our guide then took us to a unique winery - Mendoza's only produ...

Aaand back in Argentina! The bus journey and border-crossing went well and we enjoyed the spectacular views on the way. Including the highest peak in all the Americas! Now we're in Mendoza: wine and steak country. We are not particularly impressed by the city itself (widely destroyed by an earthquake in the late 19th century) but are very much looking forward to discovering the countryside in the next few days. There are countless wineries or 'bodegas' and we ...

We arrived back in Santiago and had a nice evening and very relaxed next day there, just walking around and enjoying good food (as we are slightly 'Ceviched-out', a bit more French/Italian influenced this time... Luckily we still got tickets for the bus trip over the Andes and were extremely positively surprised when we entered the bus the next day as it turns out to be very comfortable, spacious and almost luxurious. Up to our 6-hour trip over the Andes!