A short 6 hours down the road from Pucón is lovely Puerto Varas, Chile...another great little town in the Chilean Lakes Region. We arrived and the sun was shining something fierce as we walked across town to our hostel; Margouya 2. As we checked in the Frenchman owner commented to us how lucky we were to be arriving today as it was the first sunny day in many months. Yup, we'll take it! Also, we will happily take the huge room that we scored at the hostel. Serio...

Another day, another overnight bus ride. This time we were whisked on a bumpy ride from the sleepy town of Valparaiso to the rugged beauty of Pucón; yes, we have finally reached the start of the much anticipated "Lakes Region" of Chile. We were welcomed into town with a very cold, gray rain that spit down upon our faces. Cursing the many layers of warm clothes that lay safely 7,000 miles to the north in Oakland, CA, we grabbed our packs from beneath the b...

Question: How does a "6 or 7 hour" bus trip turn into a 12 hour bus trip? Answer: sitting at the border for 5 hours. Ding, ding, ding...correct. And, that's about how it played out for us on a lovely Saturday afternoon. We pulled out of Mendoza on a beautiful, warm, sunny morning and made great time as we headed up the mountains. I have said it before, but it bears repeating: the Andes are a most impressive mountain range. Jagged, snow covered peaks lined the hi...

A 14 hour bus ride from Buenos Aires dropped us around 8am at the bus terminal in Mendoza, Argentina. This bus ride, I must mention, was a bit different than what we are used to. For starters, I believe it was my whining that lead us to splurge for a "premium" 1st class bus ticket. Without much clue of what we were getting for $120 USD, we swiped the credit card as more of an experiment than anything else. Upon arrival in our premium bus, we were beyond stoked. ...

We landed in Buenos Aires and made our way into the city without any fuss...the only obnoxious thing being the "reciprocity" charge of US$160/each that we had to pay to get into the country. Its not a "visa" fee persay more of a "f-you" fee really; a response to the visa fee that Uncle Sam charges all Argentinian citizens who apply for visas to enter the US. The only good thing about it is the fee is good for 10 years...so we are good in that department for any f...