South America Posts

Six months ago I was sitting back in my apartment in Chilliwack trying to figure out where the first destination on my big adventure would take me. I immediately thought of the Caribbean, since it was an area I had been to many times and I was familiar with. Since the goal of my trip was to also work while exploring the world, that meant wherever I ended up would have to have decent access to the internet. That took Cuba off the list, as well as most small towns. I was actually homing in on the Dominican Republic when, out of boredom, I started thumbing through The 4-Hour Workweek, a popular book on vagabonding and extended vacations, once again. In the book, Tim Ferris discusses his love of Argentina, and in particular, the City of Buenos Aires. Often described as “The Paris of South America”, Buenos Aires is a […]

I´m currently at the Antarctica Hostel in the city of Ushuaia, Argentina, affectionately called the city at the end of the world. This is officially the southern most city in the entire world, so it´s pretty amazing to be here. I´ll do a proper trip report when I´m back in Buenos Aires, but since I have a few hours to kill before my penguin tour later today, I thought I would do a quick update. The keyboard I´m using in the hostel is prety funky, and many of the keys are out of place compared to a normal keyboard. So, this entry is pretty slow going! But I´m having a really great time here so far. Unlike Buenos Aires, I don´t feel out of place here, probably due to the fact that many people in Ushuaia are tourists. The town reminds me of a cross between Whitehorse, Halifax, and Haines, […]

Yesterday some friends and I decided to make the journey over to Tigre, which is a little town on the Delta about an hour outside of Buenos Aires. On a normal day it may have been a lot of fun, but the weather turned sour on us and pretty much ruined the trip. No matter though. We rolled with the punches and found humour in crappy situations. The Journey The train to Tigre leaves from the Retiro train station. I had thought we would be able to use the subte (subway) to get part way there, but would have to taxi the last part of the journey. Once we got on the D-Line though, we realized that we could simply transfers at the 9 de Julio station and catch the C-Line to Retiro station, which is what we did. Somewhere along the way we had learned about a scenic train […]

When I first started planning this trip, the thought of spending almost a full year in perpetual summer seemed like an amazing goal to shoot for. I mean, who wouldn’t want sunshine and warm temperatures all the time? Truthfully though, I would love nothing more than to have a serious cold snap down here in Buenos Aires. It’s been around 28C or higher pretty much since I arrived. If that were a dry heat, it wouldn’t be too bad. But it’s very humid here, and it makes the heat seem that much worse. In fact, we’ve had 45C days here since I arrived if you factor in the humidity into the equation. And because of that, you can’t really leave a window open here otherwise the apartment instantly turns into a mini-sauna. Which basically means the air conditioner is running non-stop, and the windows are always closed, so there is […]

This last week was a weird week. I met up with a few friends and had some great times, but it was also the first real time I’ve been homesick in any capacity. There was nothing really that happened to make me feel that way, I was just sitting around and realized I was a long way from home. So I spent a day or so of being a bit melancholy. Thankfully the feeling has past, and it’s business as usual again. Weekends always get me excited, mostly because I have more opportunities to get out and explore on Saturday and Sunday than during the week. My Mac widget says I have 26 days left in Buenos Aires, so three weeks and a bit. A friend of Rebecca’s, Henry, is flying in from Chile at the end of the month and I’ll do what I can to show him around […]

I’m not sure why, but the internet in all of Buenos Aires seems to be on its knees. It’s definitely worse in my apartment, but it’s sporadic all over the city right now too. The first two months I was here it was slow, but reliable for the most part. It would take me 10 hours to download something that would take me 1 or 2 back home, but you could always get online when you needed to. It’s been getting worse over the last two weeks, and these last few days have been pretty brutal. The internet in my apartment went down this afternoon for a while, so I went across the street to a coffee shop. It worked better there, but it was still a bit spotty. I left there and went to Starbucks, where the internet didn’t work at all. In fact, Starbucks probably has the worst […]

Last weekend I flew up to Puerto Iguazu to check out some of the most impressive waterfalls in the world, Iguazu Falls. Here is a breakdown of my visit to Iguazu Falls in South America. Flight From Buenos Aires To Puerto Iguazu I booked a flight on LAN airlines from Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazu. Round trip airfare on the weekend is roughly $380 CAD, but thanks to some points on my credit card I managed to get about $300 off, ultimately costing me only $80 or so. Unlike most international flights, domestic flights within Argentina usually leave from the Aeroparque Jorge Newbury, which is a small airport in Northern Palermo. It was a 30 ($7 CAD) peso cab ride from my apartment to the airport, and took about 10 or fifteen minutes. Checking in was a breeze, and the line-ups were basically non-existant. Everyone at the counters speaks english, […]

This is my last blog entry until next week most likely. Friday afternoon I’m packing up some of my stuff and getting on a plane to Puerto Iguazu, a small city right on the edge of some of the nicest waterfalls in the world, Iguazu Falls. This will be my first real trip from Buenos Aires, and the first time getting on a plane again since I arrived. To say that I’m looking forward to this trip would be an understatement. Ever since I saw my first photo of the falls a few months ago, I’ve been anxiously awaiting my chance to see them. So this weekend I’ll finally get my chance. Iguazu Falls is located in northern Argentina, right on the border of Brazil. You can see the approximate location in the map on the left. I’m catching a plane around 3:30pm Argentina time and flying for a little […]

Well, I just did it – I booked a trip to Ushuaia, Argentina, the southern most city on the entire planet. I was originally going to go to Machu Picchu during that time slot, but once I learned that the southern most Irish pub in the world was in Ushuaia and that St. Patrick’s Day would align with the day I arrived, the decision became easy. As you can see from the above map, Ushuaia is about as far south as you can get on the planet, other than Antarctica of course. In fact, many of the ships that go to Antarctica leave from Ushuaia. If I had more time, I would consider making the journey there, but I’m content on this trip simply to enjoy Ushuaia. To save a bit of cash I’ll be staying in the Antarctica Hostel. I picked the Antarctica Hostel because it has stellar reviews […]

Last night I casually asked on Twitter if people reading this website would like me to blog more about food. Surprisingly the response I receive was the most vocal and energetic of all the things I’ve asked or done so far, so apparently my followers like to eat. So, going forward I’m going to try and write about all the unique foods or food related experiences I have while on my trip. A few weeks ago I had mentioned to my spanish teacher that I was heading to Uruguay. Upon hearing that, she immediately asked me if I was going to be eating a Chivito. I had no idea what it was at the time, but she went on explaining that it was a really tasty sandwich consisting of beef, mayonnaise and other tasty fixings. It’s actually the official food of Uruguay, so they take the Chivito pretty seriously there. […]