I recently wrote a review of my packing list for Latin America, here are six of the less obvious items that turned out to be indispensable: Earplugs – Noisy hotels/hostels, long bus journeys with crying babies, Bolivian folk music. All enough to cause loss of sleep, and subsequently bad moods. All preventable with a decent [...]

Days 205 to 207 – Wednesday 12th to Friday 14th April 2006 As we had celebrated Robin’s 21st the night before (albeit in his absence as he was sleeping of the effects of the top shelf) it was a fairly slow start to the day. Once we had acquired some breakfast and woken up our [...]

Day 178 – Thursday 16th March 2006 After having a poor night out drinking in Mendoza, and then a bad mornings sleep I decided to leave the town, so bought a ticket for another overnight bus. This one would take me north to the town of Tucuman.

Days 158 & 159 – Friday 24th & Saturday 25th February 2006 The final day of hiking began late, as all I had to do was walk 2 hrs downhill to be picked up by the bus which would take me back to Puerto Natales. I could have chosen to get up at 4am and [...]

Day 157 – Thursday 23rd February 2006 Having been ill the day before I was a little bit concerned about overexcerting myself and making myself ill again, so I decided to take it a bit easier. It being the 4th day as well my feet were beginning to feel the heat. Thus the first hour [...]

Day 156 – Wednesday 22nd February 2006 Despite waking up a few times in my tent I managed to get a reasonable nights sleep, and the sleeping bag passed the test. I woke at around seven thirty, packed up and left the campsite about an hour to begin a long days walking.

Day 155 – Tuesday 21st February 2006 I woke up slightly stiff, but after 10 hours sleep I felt good and ready for another hike. The only hike I had to do for the day was to make my way back down to campsite Paine Grande (where I had got off the catamaran the day [...]

Day 154 – Monday 20th February 2006 I woke up half an hour before my alarm and lay awake wondering if I had forgotten anything for my 5 day trek to the Torres del Paine National Park. It was a pretty futile exercise as at 6am even if I had forgotten anything I wouldn’t have [...]