Vern: Our flight landed in Auckland just after 4am. New Zealand's customs officials confiscated our powdered milk - a key component of the trusty coffee kit which by hook or by crook we'd assembled and carried around South America with us to maximize our chances of a daily caffeine fix. We considered making a big scene, a performance worthy enough to get us onto "Border Patrol", (the reality show set in this very customs hall where the Kiwi Officials take stuff a...

Our time in gorgeous South America has come to an end and it seems impossible to summarize our Andes adventuring, urban exploring, jungle whacking and beach baking into a single post but we'll give it ago. For everybody who has had at least a vague interest in what we've been up to but who were perhaps too overwhelmed by the wordy blog entries to follow us week by week, here is a numbered list of the best and worst. Highlights: 1. Strolling the walkways in/over/...

Vern: We waited another day in Mendoza but when the Argentina/Chile border was still closed we reluctantly decided to fly. We found some discounted tickets, paíd for them in a supermarket because of an odd payment system and hopped over the Andes on a one hour up-down flight. The worst part of flying was that Americans are charged a $140 reciprocity fee when entering Chile by plane. So Andrea had avoided this fee on the four other times when we had entered Chile...

Vern: A night bus deposited us at a terminal in Santiago and after some confusion as to whether or not the border with Argentina was open, we bought a ticket to Mendoza, the heart of Argentina's wine region. The border crossing was magnificent. Thirty-five numbered hairpin bends took us up into the snow covered Andes, past waterfalls and under ski-lifts taking skiers up to the top of steep white slopes. It took us two hours of waiting to be allowed to pass throug...

Vern: We bussed down to another small town in the Elqui Valley called Vicuña. It's somewhat bigger than Pisco Elqui and has a grocery store (which excites us more than it should) and bizarrely a store called Canabis which sells children's party supplies. We found a family run hostel, checked in to a peach coloured room with a wooden chair painted peach too (which was almost invisible in poor light) and after a cup of coffee we went out to find activities to keep...