Sorry it has once again taken me so long to come back to this blog, due to a rather unexpected end to the whole thing. To be honest, it's a struggle to remember what there is to recount since New Year, but attempting it is already bringing back fond memories of what seems an age ago.So, the day after New Years Day, I left Valparaiso and headed down to the Lake District area in Chile. First stop was Pucon, a pretty little tourist town full of the chalet style ar...

Actually I should confess now I didn't quite make it to Ushuaia, the designated southernmost town of Argentina and supposedly the world before you cross the ocean into Antarctica. Lack of time (and yes that can happen even when you have eight months) and money meant that we had to settle for Torres del Paine in Chile, a worthy end to a memorable visit to Patagonia. But more on that later... So last time I wrote I think I was crossing into Argentina from Brazil t...

Ah Brazil, land of beaches, sun, samba, caphirinas, tropical rainforests, idyllic islands, football mania...where food is pricey and very mediocre; bus journeys super long and freezing with air con (the locals wear tiny shorts but carry a blanket and huge pillow for all their travels); and thousands of mosquitoes await. So Brazil wasn't without its drawbacks, and as I griped in my previous post, I really struggled with the Portuguese to start with (and I'm no exp...

Ok, so I am actually cheating. Have been meaning to post this for the last three days while I was actually still in Santa Cruz, but in fact right now I´m sitting in my hostel in Campo Grande, Brazil... I´ve actually been through three other countries since my last post - Peru, Chile and Bolivia to get here, but hey, my route through south america was never logical to start with, so why start now? Although think I may be cursed when it comes to leaving countrie...

It seems that I have begun updating this blog when I am about to move on from a country. Now I am waiting to leave Quito airport, exactly two weeks since I arrived via Peru. It's grey and drizzly, a sign that its time to move on. Strange to think I was here over two months ago at the end of my Colombia trip - feels forever ago. It was just moving into low season when I arrived in Ecuador, and everywhere seems very quiet, apart from the zillions of expats who hav...