Tag: south america

Chile (Julian) Feb 2015

Chile Highlights:
    We started in the capital city of Santiago, by far the most modern city we visited. A interesting city but not one of our favorites, you have to try a hot dog from one of the street vendors. The port of Valparaiso just outside Santiago was really cool, had a great hippy vibe. Kind of a San Francisco feel. From here we traveled up the coast of Chile and visited some cool small towns along the Pacific ocean. The city of San Pedro is in the Acadama desert (the driest in the world) and is a cool tiny star gazing town. Actually it is considered one of the best places in the world to look at the stars!! We didn’t visit any wine regions in Chile due to time constraints but heard they were really nice. 
 
We did not visit anything around Patagonia in South Argentina or Chile because it was so far but heard it was a amazing place.

Argentina (Julian) Feb 2015

Argentina Highlights:
    Buenos Aires and Mendoza! Mendoza is located at the foothills of the mountains and is the most famous wine growing region in South America. Mendoza is a small city with lots of wine and outdoor adventure activities and friendly people. We could have spent a month just here. Buenos Aires is the capital of Argentina and a cultural hub, called the Paris of South America. A large city with tons of neighborhoods (called barrios), very cool place to explore. Lots of people will say that there is lots of crime (muggings are common at night in some parts)but we never felt unsafe. Lots of historic things to do and markets for shopping. The city is alive all night long! It is common for locals (called portenos) to go out for drinks at 3am!

Bolivia (Julian) Jan 2015

Bolivia Highlights:
    We enjoyed the capital of Bolivia, La Paz. It is the highest altitude capital in the world and you can feel it when walking around the city. We were there in Mid to Late January and there was a huge festival going on that was really interesting and a great opportunity to experience their culture. From La Paz we traveled to the Salt Flats and arrived in the morning, did a tour and then left that night. The city that is the staging area for salt flat trips is a hole in the wall place and I would try to not spend a night there. We only did a day trip to the salt flats but 3 day trips are available and we should have done one. The salt flats are one of the coolest places we had ever been and a must do it you are in that part of the world. When we left the salt flats we really wanted to travel directly into Argentina instead of the traditional route that goes into Chile. We took the worst bus ride of our lives and would not recommend it, take the route that the other tourists take.