Alastair Simpson Zoe Bowden Travel Blog (Home)

Only a couple of days left, so a little indulgence from us with a look back at some of the highlights of the trip.  We have travelled a LONG WAY, in various forms of transportation and in varying levels of comfort, so here are our Best Journeys by:

- Car: Tupiza to the Salt Flats at Uyuni, Bolivia.  4 days, 1,000km, 5,000m altitudes, bumpy gravel roads, some of the most unbelievable scenery of the trip, all in the back of a 4x4.  Click here to see more.

- Foot: The W-Trek, Torres Del Paine Chile.  4 days, 65km, many blisters, snow capped mountains, turquoise lakes, avalanches, glaciers, driving rain and winds, pot noodle lunches….stunning.  Click here to see more.

- Boat: To The End Of The World.  Without heading to the Antarctic, you can’t go any further south than the mythical Cape Horn.  4 days, 3 nights sailing trhough the Magellen Straits, glaciers, storms and 12ft waves.  Click here to see more.  

- Bus: Patagonia, all of the many bus journeys.  32 hour bus trips, only passing through 3 towns….Its a big, big place, with vast open spaces…but stunningly beautiful.  Click here to see more.   

- Bike: La Boca to Playa Ancon, Cuba.  Picture perfect, sparsely inhabited Caribbean coastline, passing lobster restaurants and not much else until arriving at the white sanded Playa Ancon.  Click here to see more. 

- Horse: Tupiza, Bolivia.  Riding around the place Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid met their maker.  Click here to see more.  

Wine, wine, wine…glorious wine…that’s the main reason folks head to Mendoza and it was our reason too….cycling around the wineries in the sun, tasting a few drops was fun but poor Ali was not feeling his best (possibly an allergic reaction to how horrible Mendoza city is!?!?!) but we did our best to taste what Argentina offered….we soon departed the ugly city of Mendoza (not soon enough if you ask us!) with the taste of Malbec still in our mouths….

The road from Mendoza, Argentina to Santiago, Chile…through the Andes - literally at times through tunnels dug through the mountains. Also on some of the most crazy roads yet - hairpin bend, after hairpin bend…yikes! and a loooong way down!

Punta Tombo in Argentina…..100s of thousands of penguins come here to breed every year…

Christmas Day 2010 in the quaint seaside town of Puerto Madryn in Argentina.  I bought Zoe a cat for Christmas….Ok so maybe she just found it on the street….beach and a swim (Plus an ice cream)  in the morning followed by a Christmas roast chicken (Turkeys don’t exist here apparently…) and plenty of Argentine wine and beer….

Christmas eve whale watching, we were 2 weeks out of season but very lucky to have our small boat surrounded by whales, including a very rare albino baby whale.  They even bumped the boat to say hello!  Unbelievable experience…

The giant ice cube, Perito Merino glacier in El Calafate Argentina, the only glacier in the world that is actually growing….and you can virtually watch it grow as it “calves” huge chunks of ice into the water…..sounds like you are in the middle of a gunfight…. 

Sailing through fjords, glaciers and mountains….beautiful scenery….rubbish weather!! It snowed!!!  we made it on deck for about 5 minutes before having to retreat to the bar to warm up again…. 

Ppppick up a penguin…..Isla de Magdalena in Chile where 80,000 Magellanic penguins come to breed every year…Zoe went crazy and couldn’t stop laughing every time a penguin did pretty much anything…we also found out they make very loud noises and sound like a donkey….