If you go to Patagonia, you must visit Torres del Paine. A set of massive mountains with a 10 day hiking track around and through it. Beautiful landscape, blue lakes, frequently changing weather conditions and great nature. The gateway to the National Park is Puerto Natales, a nice town with the last fuel station for 300 kms and plenty of hiking shops. In the National Park there are plenty of great hikes, some glaciers with wonderful blue ice, a waterfall where...

After seeing Sara and Nik off in Santiago on the 27th Dec, Lukas Ingrid and Stefan took off south to Patagonia. Cold even in mid summer, always windy, we still liked Punta Arenas, one of the starting points for Antarctic trips. Plenty of shops with cold weather gear, some expecitions to watch penguins, but not much else. Many people only come here as it is one of the gateways to the glaciers in El Calafate and Lago Grey or the hiking in Torres del Paine National ...

For the Christmas days we went to Valparaiso, formerly the biggest American port in the Pacific, until the Panama canal was opened in 1914. Valparaiso was the most beautiful city of our journey so far. Macchu Pichu has a great Inca culture on top of a mountain, the Iguazu falls are just majestic, but the city flair in Valparaiso is just marvellous. Hills rising straight from the shore make the exploring a real exercise, but the ascensores (lifts) that allow peop...

For Christmas we met up with our daughter Sara in Santiago de Chile. Santiago was hot as an oven and for Sara who flew in from wintery Germany as well as for us who travelled from cold Cusco, the temperature shock was immense. Santiago is a 7 mio city in a 17 mio country, so it all happens here. Plenty of history with war monuments at every street corner. Like Uruguay and Argentina, Chile has a tough history with relatively recent civial wars and dictatorships. ...

Cusco is the old Inca capital and it is full of the mood of both, the old Inca culture, colours, people, as well as the Spanish and catholic influence. Most people speak Quechua as their first language, some don't understand (our) spanish, and English is rather seldom. Plenty of beautiful old buildings, a cathedral with gold and silver all over the place (the altar was of 1,250kg solid silver), great colourful clothes, but the lot at 3,500m altitude. We got our...