By: MJ + PJ
South America – November 2nd to December 1st, 2018
It was a gradual move southward in South America this month. Bolivia was great fun and is highly recommended for all. We also headed towards the Patagonia region mid month, visiting both the Argentinian and Chilean areas. A beautiful place to visit, but clearly a world of its own in terms of remoteness, geography, wind speed, infrastructure and culture. We were in the Patagonia region for about three weeks – a period of time that we have found gives us a reliable sense of what an area and the people are really like.
As a small family, we saw and did a lot more than we expected while keeping our daily budget in check. Although we ended the month over budget due to purchasing next month’s flights, our percent days spending under budget grew to 83%. The outlier of the purchase of December flights out of South America is what skews the numbers for the region: with that cost (USD$1700) included, our average was USD$213/day ($71/person/day), whereas with it excluded the average was USD$156 ($52/person/day). This better reflects the local spending during the period, and is almost identical to the averages of the previous month in Peru.
Again, public transport was our primary mode of getting about. We utilized more taxis in this period and did quite a lot of walking. Our longest walks were trekking the W in Torres del Paine National Park at the end of the month, but we covered quite a few km on a daily basis in the cities we were in. Taxis were certainly available, but we had the time to walk and explore. Our Uber use was limited as the only place we visited that had it available was Buenos Aires.
We met many interesting fellow travelers and local people this month. More so than in other months, this helped us develop a deeper sense of context for the regions and cultures seen, and our own travel plans and perspective.
South America itself deserves a general synopsis from our perspective, and so we will devote an entire post to that as an in-depth summary.
BOLIVIA
Uyuni
- Lithium restaurant
- Train Museum… nope… closed for holiday All Souls’ Day
- Train graveyard
- Salt making and market at Colchani village
- Salt flats tour; Salar de Uyuni
- Salt hotel “gateway”
- Photo perspective fun in the middle of salty nowhere
- Incahuasi (fish) Island
- Ajencha salt hotel stay
- Galaxy Cave and volcanic formations,
- Volcanoes region
- Flamingos on high altitude lagoons
- Rock Tree
- Laguna Colorado
- Sol de la Mañana Geyser
- Termas de Polques lodge for night
- Dali Desert
- Green and White Lagoon
- Chile border
- Hidden Valley and Laguna Negra in the lava field
- Dinner in Uyuni at Lliphi
Sucre
- Sucre Eiffel Tower
- Simon Bolivia Park
- Parque Cretácico – Largest Dino Track Collection
- Origenes Cultural Space & Dinner Show
- Museo de la Catedral
- Museo de la Anatomía Humana
- Museum Tesoro (Treasure Museum)
- La Recolecta
- Sucre Sombrero Factory
- Monky’s Churros
- Para Ti Chocolate Shop in Sucre
- Castle de La Glorieta
- ASUR ‘Museum of Indigenous Art
ARGENTINA
Buenos Aires
- The Birra Lab Brewery
- San Nicholas pedestrian streets
El Calafate
- Museo del Juguete (Museum of Toys/Evita)
- Yeti Ice Bar
- Bike Ride along Lake Argentina
- La Zorra Brewery
- Intendencia Parque Nacional Los Glaciares
- Parque Nacional Los Glaciares
- Marpatag Maria Turquesa Patagonia Boat Trip
- Boba del Diablo
- Seco Glacier
- Heim Glacier
- Bertacchi Glacier
- Spegazzini Glacier
- Las Vacation Station Trek in the Spegazzini Canal Bay
- Old Settlers’ Station
- Uppsala Canal
- Herminita Peninsula
- Condor Nesting Wall
- Escuadra Bay
- Canal de los Tempanos
- Perito Moreno Glacier
CHILE
Puerto Natales
- Puno Natales City Tour
- Thanksgiving dinner with friends from Singapore
- Milodón Cave
- Gonia Thai Rolled Ice Cream Shop
Torres del Paine National Park
- The W Circuit Trek
- Central Refugio
- Base of the Torres
- Cuernos Refugio
- Italiano Refugio
- Frances Glacier Lookout
- Paine Grande Refugio
- Grey Glacier Lookout
