TravelStream™ news feed for member garth_travel on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/garth_travel en-us Copyright ©2010 TravelPod.com Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:13:22 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garth_travel/chile_2007/1191093720/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garth_travel/chile_2007/1191093720/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garth_travel/chile_2007/1191093720/tpod.html Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:13:22 -0400 My adventures of Chile ...

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Arica, Chile

I finally made it to the beach, after all of the altitude of Bolivia, it was so welcoming!

Just to top it off we had great weather the whole time we were there, the whole 4 days!

Chile definitely was a step up in the world, seeing the first shopping centre in all of my travels, feeling back in the westernised world, normal shopping streets, people dressed well, normalish food on offer and of course much normal prices for things instead of paying $3 for a 3 course meal!

Either way it was a nice change! Arica is a shipping port so you had to walk down the coast a little way to find the beaches but they were there with nice restaurants and places for a drink right on the beach, what more could you ask for! Obviously a couple of evenings were spent like this.

We didnt really get up to too much here, chilled out, got use to being back in the normal world, had McDonalds which had not been hit in a long time, but was not missing much there. Hit the beach most days, apart from that we checked out the mirador which was up on a cliff face over looking the ocean, great views of the surrounding coast and of the city Arica which was not all that small we came to realise.

One day we did decided some exercise would not be bad, hired ourselves some bikes, packed in some lunch & snacks then headed off. We cycled down the coast to a remote part of the coast line, where there was hardly a person in site, riding right near the water, caves and cliffs on one side, lovely coast line on the other. We actually come across a sealion colony out on a small island about 10-15 metres from shore, packed with seals! Then just chilled out on the coast taking in the sensational view around with the awesome sound of the ocean! Nice ride back during sunset to help top off the day then a 3 litre Schop, which is like a beer keg thing you can by to help relax after the days efforts, much deserved!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garth_travel/6/1201537440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garth_travel/6/1201537440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garth_travel/6/1201537440/tpod.html Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:55:10 -0500 Argentina & Torres Del Paine (Chile)

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Trelew, Argentina

Was another one of our 1 night hit wonders, as we now had some flights to make and fart arsing about had to be gone with.

We came to Trelew for 2 reasons, for the Penisula Valdes national park and for the dinosaur museum.

First thing off the bus we got ourselves some food then rented a car. Punting it up that afternoon to Penisula Valdes in the hope to see some ocras (killer whales), no luck though. Penisula Valdes is a little bit of land sticking out of the main land and attracts a lot of sea mammals to it. In the winter time is it a place where whales could be watched but unfortunately we had not hit it this time of year.

Instead on our various stops along the coast line we got to see a huge colony of sea lions just lazying out of the beach! Occasionally there would be a lot of noise between a couple of the males, making territory and their females around them. There were so many of them on the beach, with their young but most of the time being lazy bums! Further down the coast we got to see some more of our good friends, the magallenus penguins, although by this time of year their young were were a lot bigger than when we were coming down on the Marco Polo, about 3/4 the size of their parents with most of their fur looking nearly ready to go, but dam hungry buggers! Was cute to see these guys again.

Further down we got to see some elephant seals, these guys were so lazy they were not doing anything, far less of them but still about 30 - 40 of them on the beach. From what we could see, there was only 1 male, these guys are 9 times heavier than a male sea lion, so they are about 4 tonnes !!

With the sun coming into set, we heading into Puerto Pyramids to stay for the night which was inside of the national park. Leaving the next morning I finally got to see some of their emu like birds, just hanging around the road as we drove past!

The dinosaur museum back in Trelew was pretty cool, it was made up of original dinosaur bones on display, some had been placed to show what the dinosaur would have looked like and others just left as they were found. These bones were from all over Argentina and they had a great variety on display, was really cool and some were massive too!

All in all it was a quality 26 hours spent in this section of Argentina!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garth_travel/6/1202487960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garth_travel/6/1202487960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garth_travel/6/1202487960/tpod.html Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:29:06 -0500 Argentina & Torres Del Paine (Chile)

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Buenos Aires, Argentina

After all the raves we had heard about BA we were looking forward to seeing what all the fuss was about! Our 2 days before our Antartica cruise had not really given us too much of an insight into this place, except that it was huge! We planned to stay 3 days and nights here, with the hope to get Alli a Brazilian passport (which didnt come to plan).

Buenos Aires has everything to offer really, a coast line, which is a bit strange as the water is brown but either way it faces out to the Atlantic, with a nice restaurant front right near there, which we tried out one night, during sunset, very nice with a few drinks. We explored the cities many sights to see from, churches, obeilisks, palaces and the many monuments around the town, all nicely spread out all over the place!

It has a nice park area as well which is a bit out of the city and really cool for chilling out which we did one afternoon before we went to see a tango show, which seemed to be the thing to do in BA & it was a very impressive show, with a variety of tango, some old peru like pipe playing & then some demonstrations, was quality!

There is a lot in regards to shopping here, got myself some new thongs as I had a blow out in my old ones, hard to say good bye after such a journey!

So our time in BA was really nice, mainly filled with warm weather, had to use a fan to keep cool at night, roaming around the city, just checking the place out and enjoying all the food which it had to offer!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garth_travel/7/1202670480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garth_travel/7/1202670480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garth_travel/7/1202670480/tpod.html Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:09:33 -0500 Uruguay & Iguazu Falls

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Puerto Iguazu, Argentina


]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garth_travel/7/1201891380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garth_travel/7/1201891380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garth_travel/7/1201891380/tpod.html Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:06:10 -0500 Uruguay & Iguazu Falls

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Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

When we first arrived from the quite boat from Buenos Aires, we didnt think too much of this place, didnt look like it had much at all to offer.

To our surprise, once into this little coast town it has a great feel to it. It has very old cobble stone streets from what looks like 100s of years ago, with all the old shops still lining them. There is a nice lighthouse which can be climbed in the town centre to give an overview of the coast line surrounding this cute little town and of the town.

The arrived in the afternoon, just one night here, so we strolled around these lovely little streets, through the old fort wall & into an amazing little place. Nice little shops with locally made goods and pictures. The buildings and old churches make it amazing and the couple of wharfs where you can just go relax for a while make it such a quality little place.

Enjoyed some ice cream here which seems to be the thing these days and then a quality meal near the water & of course seafood, it had been a while!

Even only an afternoon here, we loved this place, which we could have quite easily have skipped if we had not given it a go!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garth_travel/7/1202496900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garth_travel/7/1202496900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garth_travel/7/1202496900/tpod.html Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:00:47 -0500 Uruguay & Iguazu Falls

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Montevideo, Uruguay

Montevideo is the capital of Uruguay and we had planned to spend 3 nights here.

Arriving late on our first, we didnt do much more than eat and sleep really! We had a cracking hostel location, with a balcony over Plaza Independencia, brilliant!

On our time here we walked around the city, which has coast line on one side, checking out all the old style building it has to offer, all the old palaces which barely look to be standing these days and all the various statues and churches that are spread out all over the city.

The city has a strange feel about it, seems to definitely have its fair share of beggers and is very strange to see the garbage truck being horse drawn but I suppose that is good for the environment!

Weather was not on our side here, overcast both of our full days, so that ruled the beach out as an option. Although we did have some planning to do to get to Iguazu but thankfully everything falled into place nicely.

All in all it is a very nice city, old school style with all its buildings and not too many of the new style sky scrappers. They love to sleep in here, love their ice cream which is fine with me, with like 40 odd flavours on offer and a nice variety of food, although I have definitely fallen for the chivitos!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garth_travel/7/1202237280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garth_travel/7/1202237280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garth_travel/7/1202237280/tpod.html Fri, 08 Feb 2008 13:54:25 -0500 Uruguay & Iguazu Falls

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Punta del Este, Uruguay

We only spend one night here, as we had heard it was quite an expensive place to stay, well for $20 US for a dorm bed I suppose it was! That was also 10km outside of town as well, which had a goldcoast kind of feel to it and quite touristy, but mainly for the rice south american tourists from what we could see!

10 km outside of town sounds back, but 400m from the beach definitely wasnt and since sleeping in is a must here, us getting down to the beach by about 930 meant we had pretty much the whole place to outselves!! Had massive crashing waves at bikini beach, but was a quality coast line. Strolled down a couple of the other close by beaches before enjoying a chivitos, uruguay hamburger, dam good before returning to the hostel for a dip in the pool before heading into the main town of Punta Del Esta.

Here we did some window shopping, checked out its coast line, saw the many hundreds of boats there and munched down far too much ice cream! All in all it was a great experience and a really nice place.

Punta del Esta is a little branch of land coming out from the main land towards the ocean, so at the end it had water on 3 side of the land, had cracking weather here as well to make it a great experience!
The drive to Montevideo showed off the lovely coast line, lush green meddows and had a sensational sunset!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garth_travel/7/1202064240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garth_travel/7/1202064240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garth_travel/7/1202064240/tpod.html Fri, 08 Feb 2008 13:48:32 -0500 Uruguay & Iguazu Falls

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Punta del Diablo, Uruguay

This was our a cute little place offer the coast of Uruguay facing the Atlantic Ocean!! Problem was that we were not the only ones to have heard about it!!

It was an all dirt road place, very laid back & chilled, the kind of place you could come, kick back and do nothing for weeks and not be worried!!

We spend 2 fantastic nights here, first I was in a 24 male dorm bed HI hostel, which was interesting but then the next night Alli and myself got a room over looking the water, spoiling ourselves a little!!

Spent 2 quality days at the beach, lapping up the sun and going for the occasional dip in the cold water!!

Was a place mainly full of locals, but the food was good, the sunsets even better with lush proper beaches with sand, recommend it for sure !!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garth_travel/6/1199722800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garth_travel/6/1199722800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garth_travel/6/1199722800/tpod.html Fri, 08 Feb 2008 13:12:00 -0500 Argentina & Torres Del Paine (Chile)

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Puerto Natales, Chile


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El Calafate, Argentina


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