Best of the Best. South America

Best country? P&M- Ecuador
Best sight? P&M -Machu Picchu and Perito Moreno Glacier
Best people watching spot? Plaza de Armas in Santiago, Chile for the fountain swimmers and religious crazies
Best hike? Huayna Picchu
Best route? Quilotoa Loop in Ecuador
Best weather? Banos and Mindo in Ecuador. Not Quito!
Best hostel? Itao Cabanas in Puerto Lopez, Ecuador (minus the larger than life spiders) Hammock, mosquito net, fresh paint job, clean sheets and bathroom, including full breakfast for 2 for $16. Not too shabby.
Best budget country? Ecuador, then Peru, then Argentina, then Chile.
Best snack/street food? P- Salcedo ice cream, hands down. M-Empanadas
Best meal? P- Rice with pasta, potatoes, corn and bread. jk. Prob Vegetarian almuerzos in Quito. M-Grass fed Argentinian steak.
Best drink? P- Pilsener beer in Ecuador and Soda water(thanks dani). M- Wine in Argentina
Best fruit? P- Tree tomato. M- Guava
Best shopping? P- Tied between Otavalo for the indigenous market and the colorful boutiques in Buenos Aires. M- Otavalo
Best Spanish phrase? P- Limpia tu mama! M- "Insert word here" no mas.
Best souvenir? P- Jewelery in Ecuador, Alpaca everything in Peru, Antique seltzer bottle from Argentina. M- Indigenous purses in Ecuador, Alpalca sweater in Peru
Best museum? P- Evita Museum in Argentina. M- Guayasamin Museum in Ecuador
Best beach? Iqueque in Chile, but aint much to write home about
Best park? Perito Moreno Glacier National Park in Argentina. Wow.
Best wildlife sighting? P- Flamingos in Patagonia. M- Boobies!

There you have it folks. South America was a blast. We tried to sum up the best, but here's some bonus advice, especially for those planning a trip...

Go to Ecuador. Skip Chile. Unless you are hitting Patagonia in Chile. But lets get real, go to El Calafate if you're headed to Patagonia. Dont be afraid of Quito. Head to Hospital Metropolitano in Quito for organ removal. Learn Spanish. Re-learn Spanish in Chile because they dont pronounce most of their letters and are damn proud of it. Re-learn Spanish in Argentina because they replace most of their syllables with a "sh" and are damn proud of it. Go to Eastern Peru, skip the coast especially if coming from a city. Don't drink too much in Ecuador or Peru, the altitude helps in that department. Land travel into Chile or you'll have to pay $135 at the border. Carry $135 cash if you're American and plan to enter Bolivia. Don't bother getting malaria tablets or a yellow fever vaccination before you come, they're ridiculously cheap here. But you'll need three people (Thanks Mabe!) Take a salsa lesson in Ecuador and a tengo lesson in Argentina. Bring a mutli tool with a corkscrew. Trust us. Always carry antibac and tissues. Again, trust us. Get yourself an ISIC card if you can score one. Stock up on motion sickness pills. You'll need them. Ear plugs wouldn't hurt either. Eat Salcedo ice cream. Eat empanadas. Pick and eat avocados. Eat everything blackberry, and drink the blackberry juice. Wear sunscreen in Patagonia. Your skin will thank you. Rent bikes but bring a seat cushion for the 60km downhill ride from Banos to Puyo. Your ass will thank you.
See you in Asia!

Patagonia

Wow. I understand why there is an entire brand named after this place. After much hassle of making and breaking plans (what else is new!), we finally decided on how we would get there. Rather than spend a few hundred on a 28 hour bus ride down Route 40, we decided to spend a few hundred on a 3 hour flight. Good idea we think. So we headed straight to Buenos Aires from Mendoza on an overnight bus, spent about a week in BA (will blog about BA later), then hopped the flight to El Calafate in southern Patagonia. Lets just get it out of the way, El Calafate sucks. It is stupidly overpriced. But its certainly not the town that draws you here so it doesn't quite matter.  Eighty km outside El Calafate is what really counts.  We took an early morning bus to Glacier Perito Moreno (one of 3 Patagonia glaciers that are not retreating) and were thoroughly amazed. The bus finally rounded the corner giving us our first glance at the amazing glacier and we really couldn't believe our eyes. Perito Moreno is gigantic- 30km long, 5km wide and 170m deep! We faced the advancing edge of the glacier so had incredible views of calving icebergs and could see the glacier for miles into the horizon, without being able to see the other side due to the sheer size of it. At the calving edge, the glacier stood 60 meters above Lago Argentino, which was a beautiful milky turquoise color. Each iceberg that broke off, no matter how small, caused really loud cracking and creaking noises. We spent all day staring at the glacier from all different angles, trying to guess which piece would break off next. Some of the icebergs were huge, like the size of a large car. And in the sun, the glacier reflected a deep shade of blue allowing for some pretty amazing photos. Check them out. From faraway, I swore the top of the glacier looked like a fancy cake full of white icing. Perito Moreno was pretty amazing. May I suggest you visit for yourselves? And when you do, please bring us. Oh, and there's a hole in the ozone over Patagonia, during Patagonia summer, so wear, and reapply that sunscreen.

Our second and third days in Patagonia were spent at the lagoon and at Lago Argentino, both a 20 minute walk outside of town. Again, both were simply amazing. As usual, we aquired a dog freind to walk with us and hang by our sides all day. The lagoon was full of gorgeous daisies and a reddish colored wheat grass that we have about a million pictures of. The water was such a deep shade of blue and glistened in the sun in such a way that can't be described. This of course contrasted the turquoise blue of the waer in the lake. The lagoon was home to flamingos(!!!) and the lake was home to ice bergs that had made their way all the way from the glacier. Normally you wouldn't consider flamingos and ice bergs in the same body of water, but it happens here. I can't really describe the beauty of this place very well, so I won't. Click the photos link, then the Patagonia album and let the pictures do the describing for you. Enjoy! Love, P & M

Wine country in Argentina...

is not what you might picture!

Although Mendoza, Argentina is known for the quality wine it produces, drinks and exports, it turns out Mendoza, the city, is not as picturesque as we envisioned. The city of Mendoza is populated with overpriced restaurants, dirty overpriced hostels and thousands of taxi cabs and not much else. However, once you escape the small city and visit some vineyards, your mood will change. Upone our arrival to Mendoza on a long bus from Chile, we were slapped in the face with tons of insanely priced hostels (by South American standards). We left the place we had a reservation at because he wanted to charge us the fee for a 5 person room, even though we are only 2 people. CRAZY! We are still unsure if leaving at 11PM was the best decision...we ended up walking the city until 1AM before settling on a place that, although was still overpriced and dirty, it had an air conditioner to cool us off. To make a long story short, if you are headed to Mendoza, Argentina be sure you have an appetite and plenty of pesos because it´s expensive for what it is. If you´re lacking mucho pesos though, spend them on the wine and sleep on a park bench, it´ll be worth it. Oh, one last complaint about Mendoza- walk if you can because the cabbies start the meter before you enter the cab because "it´s the cheapest thing in Mendoza, we have to make our money somehow," as was explained to us.

On to the positives: the vineyards and the Mercado Central.

Our visit to Bodega La Rural was nothing shy of amazing. We caught the last tour of the day and had an intimate explanation of the grounds and the wines, as well as a taste of the grapes straight off the vines and a few tastes of wines...not the size of tastes we get in the States either, a "taste" here is a full glass of wine, and some! La Rural even has a small museum cataloging the history of wine making in the region, interesting stuff.

The Mercado Central is also worth visiting for a more authentic experience of foods of the region. Very much like Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia (but a fraction of the size), these mercados found in just about all the towns we´ve visited, offer smiling faces, great food, juicy produce, and mouth-watering smells (except the butcher stalls).

After a couple of days of Mendoza, we set off on an overnight bus to Buenos Aires, where leafy plazas offering tango performances and great wine awaited our arrival.