We’re back on the road after a week on the beach. This time we get to drive. On the wrong side of the road even. Apparently, the thing to do in New Zealand is to rent a camper and drive around the islands. Everyone we had talked to along the way had recommended that plan, so we went along with it too. The campers here are known as campervans, although the one we got was just a van. The company we ended up with was named, appropriately enough, Hippie Camper. …

We were excited to finally get off the plane after a 10.5 hour flight, but just ended up in the airport with no idea what to do next. This is the first place on our trip that we didn’t really plan on visiting, it was just a layover on the flight to New Zealand that we extended from two hours to six days, so we didn’t really bother to figure out what there was to do here. A quick check at the airport ticket counter revealed that flights to other …

Since there is no ATM on Isabela and no one takes credit cards, we counted how much cash we had left, subtracted out lodging and the boat ride back and realized we could only stay one more day. One of the reasons we wanted to go to Isabela was to see the volcano. The island is actually made up of six volcanoes that have merged together. We were picked up by the “tour guide” around 8 am and taken to the trail head. The rest of …

After our 4 day hike, we decided to take the tourist bus to Puno. What’s in Puno? It’s the city on the the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca. What’s the tourist bus? Instead of taking the direct bus that takes 6 hours, the tourist bus makes 3 or 4 stops at points of interest and takes 10 hours instead. There are actually 3 companies that do this and we kept running into the other tour groups all day, none of the buses were full. What a waste!
Not on the …

As some of you might already know, Machu Picchu has been closed since the mudslides in January. They hope to re-open the trail by April since it is the number one tourist attraction in the entire country. We have wanted to do this hike for a long time, we even bought a Peru guide book in 2002 to plan a trip. We’re finally here and have already paid money towards a hike that’s not available right now. Good thing the Incas built more than one trail (some estimates say they …

No regrets is what they say, right? We couldn’t pass up the chance to go hiking in the Patagonian Andes, or trekking as it seems to be called in the rest of the world.
We had talked to the guys at the National Park office and at the Club Andino Bariloche to find out where to go and what to expect. There is a pretty popular 3 day/2 night hike with stops at refugios along the way. The refugios offer food, overnight stays and cooking facilities, all for a slightly elevated …

Safely off the boat and back in Ushuaia, we have been busy checking out the town and mountains of Tierra del Fuego. We spent a couple days here before Antarctica and already had time to find the good coffee shops, and visit a few museums, so this week we decided to do a little hiking. Luckily the weather gods supported this plan and gave us a few beautiful, warm, sunny days.
The Martial Glacier was a bit underwhelming after seeing the giant glaciers in Antarctica, but it was nice to …