El Páramo and La Culata

A drive up through the Páramo is a must on any visit to Mérida.  The views are spectacular, the small villages historic and colorful, each with a plaza and church.  There are highlights to enjoy all the way up the curvy road leading to Sierra Nevada National Park and beyond along the trans-andean highway.
The Loca [...]

Circuito Chico

Mountian bikes took us around the ¨small circuit¨ that winds around Lakes Nahuel Huapi, Perito Moreno and beyond.  It was kind of a tough ride, since we hadn´t been biking since Tahiti.  The uphill climbs were rewarded by long coasts downhill, though, and we were left with a sense of accomplishment at the end.  There [...]

Mega Cubes and Mega Tubes

Thanks to the Potters family´s early Christmas present, we splurged on a trip to see the glaciers in Glacier National Park.  We had planned a walk to see the most famous, Perito Moreno, but instead we booked an all-day boat ride and were able to see several of the glaciers from the water!
We boarded the [...]

Friends and Foes at the Lagoon

Donny made a new friend on our walk around Laguna Nimez just outside of El Calafate.  She was a pretty black lab with a red collar, and obviously belonged to someone, but she was out for a walk on her own.  She accompanied us around the lagoon fetching the stick that seemed to be an [...]

Ushuaia Cruise

Braving cold and icy winds, we took a boat ride on the Beagle Channel to see several nearby islands and a lighthouse.  They call Ushuaia ¨Fin del Mundo,¨ the End of the World, so some think the lighthouse is the one Jules Verne refers to in his novel The Lighthouse at the End of the [...]

Tierra del Fuego

We spent Thanksgiving hiking in Tierra del Fuego National Park.  The route took us along the coast and then through a mixture of Patagonic and High Andes forest.  The “lenga” covers mountain slopes.  The most eye-catching were guindo trees most of which had large nodules with an interesting fungus growing out of them.  They were like bunches of orange-colored [...]

Tongariro Alpine Crossing

From a base in Ohakune (carrot capital of NZ, and a huge ski and snoboarding center in winter), we did an amazing 19.4k walk called the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, in Tongariro National Park.  The full trek is multi-day, but this full-day hike was plenty for us, with some steep terrain heading up and an even [...]

Diamond Lake, Beer and Puzzling

The Diamond Lake Track near Wanaka leads past it’s namesake body of water, then up to the summit of Rocky Hill.  The views from the top were fantastic and gave us a great idea of how the glaciers had carved out this amazing landscape.  We were a bit parched when we got back down the [...]

The Road to Milford

Te Anau is a lovely destination on its own, and we took advantage of the lakeside setting for a morning walk.  After checking out road conditions (there has been snow and sleet), we rented snow chains from the service station and head north 119k to MIlford Sound.  It was still quite cold, so we bundled [...]

Departing the Daintree

On the way out in the morning we did the last boarwalk: Dubuji, which looked different than the others had on previous days, due to the heavy rain the night before.  There was lots more water in the creeks and everything seemed sort of steamy.  This was a longer walk with lots of lowland rainforest, [...]