It is almost impossible to try to describe the landscape that we have travelled through in the last week. Going north from the large town of Salta we have driven on roads that were barely there, through towering mountains and vast plains. The scenery became more and more desert like with enormous cacti in a range of colours and shapes. The communities were small and isolated with small mud houses and their animals which were mostly lamas. The Ruta 40 was almost i...

We have now returned from our days in Easter Island. We really enjoyed the island, it was a very tropical island with beautiful scenery and a fabulous array of huge and often scented flowers which were in many different colours. the statues were huge and mysterious and it is easy to see why all the stories have been written about them and their purpose. We viewed them at sunrise and at sunset. We spent time on a beach that was all pink and golden sand with coconu...

We have travelled through lakes mountains and volcanoes. We then headed for the coast and have spent the last week travelling up the Pacific coastline. It is hard to describe the vastness of the beaches and the colour and the sound of the mighty ocean crashing onto the shoreline. We are so used to the vast seaside resorts that to find totally undeveloped coastline where even the so called holiday places are small and friendly is great. However we have passed thro...

So we have now done 5000 miles. Does that mean we are getting tired of the travelling? Definitely not! every day is so different and there is the excitement of not knowing exactly what the day will turn up. Some days we drive for a while , have a leisurely coffee, stop for a long lunch and arrive at the stopping place for the night in time to have a drink and then prepare the meal. Last night we were in a little restaurant in the middle of nowhere, there was a bl...

Arriving at Chaiten was quite sobering because it was buried in volcanic ash in2009. Poignantly the school reopened for the first time the day before we got there. The people have obviously fought hard to build up the town again and you can wander down the old streets which still have several feet of ash around the buildings and there are cars still buried up to their roof. We then crossed to the island of Chiloe and were unlucky as the weather changed and we had...