South America Blog
About this blog
Wayne Bernhardson is the author of Moon Handbooks to Buenos Aires, Chile, Argentina, and Patagonia. Here he shares his vast knowledge of South America and its people.
Recent Posts
- The Papal Cumbia
- The Uruguayan Sacraments: Tango & Mate
- Taxing the Tourist: Argentina's AFIP Aims Low
- Fortress Falklands: A Book Review
- Pope Argentinus I, The Musical: Ragtime Meets Tango
- Credit Where Credit Is Undue?
- ¿Adios Hugo?
- When "No" Is A Positive
- Chile and Its "Crazies"
- The Oscars: A Post Mortem, So to Speak
- Sacrificing the Atacama? A Chilean View of Dakar
- Chilean Oscar Faceoff? "No" v. "Kon-Tiki"
- Friday Digest: Southern Cone Nuggets
- Dancing in the Mud? The Andean Aftermath
- Floods & Mud: Summer Storms Hit the Andes
Road Tripping: Pointers on Purchasing an Automobile in Argentina or Chile
In the course of creating and updating my guidebooks to Argentina, Chile, Patagonia, and Buenos Aires (including coastal Uruguay), I have normally traveled by automobile. The distances to be covered are great - Argentina is the world's eighth largest country, only slightly smaller than India, and Chile's territory extends from the tropics to the sub-Antarctic. The destinations are numerous, and many are remote, with little or no public transport. Given the compressed time frame in which I have cover this territory, the car has proved to be my most efficient means of transportation; once in country, I rarely fly, though I occasionally take buses and ferries (as I'm writing this, I'm on the Navimag route from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales, with my car on board, and I usually travel from Buenos Aires to Uruguay by ferry). more >>
Chaitén's Still Smokin'!
Last Thursday, I took a drive from the city of Castro, on Chiloé, to the ferry port of Quellón at the south end of the island. As I approached Quellón, the view across the Golfo de Corcovado included an enormous plume of ash and smoke, at least twice the height of surrounding cumulus clouds, from the still active Volcán Chaitén. The photograph here was taken from a distance of roughly 85 kilometers. more >>
Win This Book - in Chilean Patagonia!
On Monday afternoon I will be sailing, for at least the sixth or seventh time, from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales via the Patagonian Channels on the Navimag ferry Evangelistas. In my opinion, the nearly three-day trip, which arrives in Puerto Natales on Thursday morning (weather permitting) is one of the Southern Cone's highlights, with almost unmatchable maritime scenery (a sample appears here). more >>
Penguin Summer
South America’s west coast is the mirror image of North America’s, and the archipelago of Chiloé has a geography similar to British Columbia's Vancouver Island - a stunning, densely forested Pacific coastline that alternates rocky headlands and seemingly endless beaches. Like Vancouver Island, Chiloé has a climate that can make drizzly Vancouver or Seattle feel like the Mojave Desert. more >>
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