Category Archives: Latin America 2011

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So we were back in the United States after being abroad for over 7 months. It was no doubt a strange feeling and one I assume is not felt very often for most people. The first place we saw was a … Continue reading →

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Nicaragua turned out to be everything we hoped to find in Costa Rica: cheap food and accommodations, kind and open locals, and beautiful terrain. Our first stop was the beach town of San Juan del Sur. Perhaps the most touristy … Continue reading →

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In 7 months it’d be impressive not to have many mishaps just at home, living a normal life. For us here, surrounded by foreign people, places, and languages, we have of course had our fair share of mess-ups. Do-overs if … Continue reading →

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Getting from our sailboat to the capital of Panama proved to be more expensive than we’d figured. We had no choice but to pay for a private motorboat taxi to the mainland. They, of course, would only take us to … Continue reading →

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Despite all the luck we’ve had this trip with just about everything: places being spectacular and living up to reputations, perfect weather, awesome fellow travelers, transportation working out, being able to meet up with people when planned, etc., we have … Continue reading →

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Well, I had to get that last post off before this next update because when we left Cartagena, and Colombia, and South America, we paid a pretty penny to do so. Where Panama meets Colombia there is a region called … Continue reading →

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I estimate that so far on this trip I have spent about $6400 (rough estimate, including airfare). On average, that’s about $915 per month. Considering where we’ve been, what we’ve done and seen, and how comfortably we’ve traveled, that’s far … Continue reading →

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Our long trek out of Paraguay landed us in Ica, Peru, a sizable city just off the Pacific coast. We spent the morning checking email and travel tips before negotiating a short, cheap taxi ride to Huacachina- an oasis just … Continue reading →

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Well, the same old type of post, updating where we’ve been and what we’ve done, has gotten a little boring to write, so I want to split those up with some new types of posts on other things. This first … Continue reading →

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There are 3 countries in South America for which citizens of the United States need to buy a visa: Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay. On this trip we are, unfortunately, bypassing Brazil. The visa is expensive itself (like $150 US) and … Continue reading →

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Once we finally chose a tour operator from a plethora of options, and gave up on finding Michael, a friend we met in La Paz, we left to tour the southwest region of Bolivia. We spent 3 days trying to … Continue reading →

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We drove along Lake Titicaca for a few hours, crossed a narrow bit of it on a boat, and then drove east away from it a short ways to get to La Paz, the economic capital of Bolivia and the … Continue reading →

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At Machu Picchu we were at about 9,000 feet in elevation. Back in Cusco we were staying at closer to 11,000 feet. We said goodbye to John, Lisa, and Gilmer, and hung out for a few more days. After that, … Continue reading →

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Ah, Machu Picchu- the gem of South America it seems. Maybe one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations. The most popular way to do it is to backpack in- via the Inca trail or some other trail, and arrive … Continue reading →

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­Up until we crossed into Peru, it seemed like the differences in culture from our own (ethnocentric, I know, but it’s for the sake of context) that we had been experiencing in our travels were far from vast. Yes, Uruguay, … Continue reading →

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Goodbye Kyle Mapp, goodbye Bariloche- you will both be missed. After an overnight bus ride, we woke up in Ciudad de Mendoza, still Argentina. Out of the deep south, out of Patagonia, and straight into the middle of the South … Continue reading →

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Okay, so it was out of Torres del Paine National park, and back in Puerto Natales. There we relaxed, recuperated briefly, ate another delicious breakfast, and bought bus tickets to get back to Argentina. We went straight from Chile’s ‘trekking … Continue reading →

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First, let me apologize- my last blog post was inadequate. I got lazy. I sold you short on my writing and tried to make up for it with pictures. Pictures are nice, I’m sure, but they lack the commentary which … Continue reading →

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Last time I wrote was from Buenos Aires (this is a revised version of what I wrote since Buenos Aires). While there we saw only some of the sights, making it to Casa Rosada (where Evita made her famous speech) … Continue reading →

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Hello. I hope you are all well. It has been a very interesting two-weeks since my first post. That very night (January 3rd) our journey began with a couple bus rides to the Richmond District in San Francisco (later buses … Continue reading →

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Women of Latin America BEWARE: the LaBarge brothers, infamous for leaving piles of broken hearts in their wake, are about to blaze a trail through your continent- and with Karl Keefer on board, they will in fact be unstoppable. No, … Continue reading →