Traveling with the Stanfords 2025

We returned to Buenos Aires Friday afternoon. Saturday we ventured out to a part of Buenos Aires called Caminito, in the La Boca neighborhood. It is wildly colorful. Many years ago when Italian immigrants moved to Buenos Aires to work in the shipyards they lived in a poor section of the city. Many of the homes and buildings were made of tin. To spice up their living environment they brought home left over paint from their work at the shipyards and painted their homes and buildings with a real mish mash of bright vivid paints. Not only is the area colorful and vibrant, they also have numerous cartoonish looking figures on many of their balconies. There is a lot of activity with many places to eat and tango dancing is very present. We also went to San Telmo which is another section of Buenos Aires. Two weeks previously when we first arrived in Buenos Aires we spent the afternoon at Cementerio de la Recoleta. This cemetery was built in 1882 and is quite ornate. It is similar to the ...

As I sit on the plane flying back from El Calafate I reflect back on our days in Torres del Paine.  We arrived there a bit on the nervous side, due to the lack of signage, gravel roads and horrendous weather.  After checking into the high dollar hotel everything smoothed out. The next day (Tuesday 22nd) the weather was much better, but still very windy.  We spent the day driving through the park, and exploring the 62 kilometers of roads.  Torres del Paine is a very big Chilean National park.  It is very different than American National parks.  There are no services like gas stations or food stores and all the roads are gravel.  There are three or four hotels, campsites and a few hostels which are basic buildings for shelter, with no heat.  All electricity has to be generated, and all food and drinks brought in from the nearest town, about 100 miles away.  This is why it is called 'Wild Patagonia!'  The park is beautiful, with turquoise...

Now for the last phase of our trip. On Monday 15th we flew from Buenos Aires to El Calafate, Argentina, a small town where most people start their Patagonian adventures. We picked up our car and drove north about two hours to El Chalten a very small mountain town just below Mount Fitz Roy. The town is primarily full of backpackers, trekkers and climbers. We had a nice room at the Condor De Los Andes hostal and the next morning started our preparation for the trek to a camp at the base of Mount Fitz Roy.   We had brought all the backpacking equipment we needed from home for our four night, five day trek. The real problem started when we finished loading our packs and weighed them using our small digital travel scale. John had 50 pounds and Sara 40 pounds, with 20 pounds being camera gear – big mistake! Nevertheless, off we went and struggled through the three and a half hour hike to base camp. Fortunately the altitude was only a little over 3,000 feet, and the path wasn’t too stee...

We got up early Wednesday (4:30am) for our second visit to Machu Picchu.  We were really fortunate with the weather, beautiful clear skies and quite warm.  We spent another five hours taking photos and exploring and then took the bus back to town for lunch.  The ruins are amazingly well preserved and it is easy to imagine people living in the city.  They must have been very fit and nimble because it is a bit hazardous climbing the stone stairways! Wednesday afternoon we took the train back to Ollataytamba and then a taxi to Pisac, a lovely little quaint town in the Sacred Valley. We stayed at Pisac Inn, which is right on the town square, excellent accommodation, and exceptional food. When we got up Thursday the entire town square had been converted into a huge market. We spent the rest of the morning perusing the market buying alpaca clothing, tapestries and some gorgeous silver jewelry. Everything was hand made by local Andean craft people in the su...

Well I have to say my wonderful wife Sara must have been a tour director in a former life.  The travel and accommodation arrangements she made are proving to be awesome.  We started out with a first class flight to Miami, then a business class flight to Peru, all on award miles.  The business class is the first time I've ever been able to make my seat go flat and sleep. The next morning we flew to Cusco.  The view from the airplane showed lots of beautiful mountains, many with snow covered tops.  Getting of the airplane at Cusco we immediately noticed we were in a city over 11,000 feet, as it was hard to breath. We were picked up by our driver who worked for our hotel in Ollantaytanba.  It was about a two hour drive to the hotel., which is in the Sacred valley.   We wanted to stay in Ollantaytanba  instead of Cusco because it is lower in altitude and an easier train ride the next day. We roamed the town in the aftern...

This years adventure is a three week trip to South America.  To celebrate our 15 year wedding anniversary we decided to head back to the mountains - the Andes.  We leave tomorrow (November 7th.)  We'll spend a week in Peru, visiting Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley, followed by two weeks in Patagonia, the southernmost region of South American covering both Argentina and Chile. We'll be staying in hotels and hostels in Peru, and then mostly hiking and camping in Patagonia.  As usual there has been months of preparation and we shall be glad to get on the plane for a rest! We're looking forward to some great experiences and photographic opportunities. More later Sara and John