Two Days to LA and BA

Last weekend was a travel marathon as, on Saturday morning, I left the Bay Area for Los Angeles in a rental car, en route to Buenos Aires. Obviously…

Airport Scrabble? SFO to LAX to SCL to PHD(?)

Over the weekend, the New York Times Magazine published an amusing column on airport codes as literature, and it coincides with a southbound trip I’…

LAX-LIM-EZE: Twenty Hours in the Air(Ports)

After spending 20 hours in airports and on airplanes, I finally arrived at a cool, soggy Buenos Aires Monday evening. It was mostly uneventful – eve…

Tales of Airport Security

In December of 2004, returning from my only visit to Antarctica, I was about to fly from the Patagonian city of Río Gallegos to Buenos Aires, three h…

Ash, Ants, Frost & Soccer

Today’s topics include the lingering effects of Volcán Puyehue, the weather, Argentine soccer, and Argentine ants, some of which overlap.Puyehue Upda…

Peso Problems Precipitate PR Crisis

The Panorama of Santa Lucía de Santiago

Long overshadowed by Buenos Aires, whose reputation for European elegance belies its essential modernity, Santiago de Chile is an underrated city t…

From SCL to LAX and Out...

Last weekend, I began the end of my six-week excursion to Chile with a Sunday afternoon shuttle from Renca to Aeropuerto Internacional Comodoro Artu…

Waiving Visas & Dollar Developments

Yesterday, finally, I finished the manuscript for the new fourth edition of Moon Handbooks Patagonia, and that liberates me to consider other matter…

Chile's Latest Ferry Tales, Plus Hangar Pains at Buenos Aires

Rain? In the Atacama? Again?

Early one morning a decade or so ago, I stepped outside my hotel in the northern Chilean port of Antofagasta (pictured above) to notice an unexpec…

Open(ing?) Skies of South America

Those of us who live in North America often resent the “legacy airlines” – I’ll refrain from mentioning any names – because of their arbitrary rules…

In Search of Peru(vian Cuisine)

I first visited Peru in 1979 and, except for brief layovers at Lima’s Aeropuerto Internacional Jorge Chávez, I haven’t visited the country for nearl…

Dust My Pumice: a Puyehue Update

In its weekly update, the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program has given the most succinct summary yet of the eruption at Chile’s Puyeh…

The Curious Charm of Paraguay

Monday Miscellanea

Today’s entry will be a summary of events regarding Argentina and Chile, some of them more notable than others.Chaos at EzeizaOver the weekend, thing…

Observations from Santiago

Normally, when updating my guidebooks to Argentina, Buenos Aires, Chile and Patagonia, I first fly from Los Angeles with LAN Airlines to Santiago, wh…

From the Falklands: A 2011 Perspective

The wildlife-rich Falkland Islands get extensive coverage in my new third edition of Moon Handbooks Patagonia, which has recently appeared on the s…

Returning - to This Blog and Aeroparque

First of all, apologies to my readers for an unavoidable absence - though I’ve been in Argentina for more than two weeks now, computer issues have pr…

Flying to the Falklands, on a Budget?