Barcelona–Park Guell and Hospital de Sant Pau

The spectrum of macarons at Bubo

Barcelona had become a familiar and comfortable base.  The city offers much more to see and do but our visit was rapidly coming to an end.  On our last full day, it was time to see the places in

Barcelona—Ruta del Modernisme

Inside the nave of Sagrada Familia

Our day started slowly.  Late in the morning, the metallic, mechanical sound of our room’s Nespresso coffee machine ejecting spent cartridges filled the room.  We were tired and Becky was brewing an excessively large number of shots of coffee.  A shower soon followed our

Burgos to Barcelona

A statue of El Cid in Burgos

Our stay in Burgos would be short.  We rose early and before we left went out into the dewy morning air and explored on foot.  We entered the old town as the warm sunlight was just kissing the upper reaches of the cathedral.  The streets were clean and empty. 

Laguardia to Burgos

Bodega Ysios seen in the morning light

Our cell phone’s alarm clock rang early.  We were tired from the travel, but forced ourselves up and out into the early morning light.  This was the last hours of our short stay in La Rioja and we wanted to make the most of it.

Torres del Paine and Punta Arenas

The Towers in the morning sun

I guess it is not too surprising, but the average tourist in Torres del Paine was packing a pretty significant camera.  Sure, there were some pocket-sized point and shoots, but nice DSLRs were more the standard. 

Torres del Paine: Full Paine

Glaciar Grey extending into Lago Grey

During the night, fierce winds pounded the lodge.  We felt like we were back on the Navimag ferry as the building swayed from the brute force of the Patagonian wind.  When dawn came, the cold winds mixed with rain

Torres del Paine: Lago Sarmiento

Looking across Lago Nordenskjold towards the Horns in Torres del Paine

Heading out from Hosteria Las Torres and crossing the Black Bridge, we turned southwest along the base of the collections of peaks that make up the massif of Torres del Paine.  The southeastern portion of the park is

Torres del Paine: The Black Bridge

With his head out the window, a driver creeps across the Black Bridge with a load of clients.

In our ideal world, we would have trekked the Valle Frances on our second day.  Unfortunately, the boat that transferred trekkers across Lago Nordenskjold just switched schedules to once a day.  We could have

Torres del Paine: Towers of Pain

An unobstructed view of the towers or torres of Torres del Paine

We had booked our hotel, Las Torres, with an “all inclusive” program.  Beyond all the pisco sours, food, and the room, the program included excursions throughout the park, as many as we could handle.  The night

Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas: What would Tony Bourdain do?

Morning in Valapraiso from our room

We left Valparaiso in the morning retracing the route of our trip out from Santiago by first taking a taxi to the bus station.  At the station, we needed to exchange our return trip voucher with the old man at the