South American travels

My recent holiday was perfect. A quick summary:-

- one day touring Rio de Janeiro - beautiful
- approx 4 days in Cuzco and Machu Picchu... the Hiram Bingham train was superb and the Sanctuary Lodge hotel was also excellent. Visiting Machu Picchu was a dream come true for me and exceeded expectations. Particularly enjoyed climbing Wayna Picchu and up to the Sun Gate (Intipunko)
- one day touring Buenos Aires - also a fabulous city
- a day or so in Ushuaia, with a visit to the Tierra del Fuego National Park - running out of superlatives
- perhaps the best bit: a 3-night cruise on the Mare Australis from Ushuaia, via the Beagle Channel and landed on zodiacs at Cape Horn - so exciting! Then cruised through Magellan Straits. Stops at glaciers and Magellan island - inhabited by 200,000 small penguins. Off at Punto Arenas in Chile. The crew were wonderful and the trip could not have been better (apart from the man snoring in the next cabin!)
- 3 days in Chile - the Torres del Paine park. Enroute we saw lots of condors.
- El Calafate, in order to visit the Perito Merino glacier: 5km wide and 80m high above water... so blue and beautiful
- Llao Llao hotel at Bariloche - a great place to walk and relax. Beautiful views and scenery but it rained a lot - the worst weather of the trip, which so far had been really good.
- Then, another highlight and another dream come true for me: Iguazu waterfalls, staying at the Sheraton hotel, with wonderful views of the falls. You can get SO close to the falls, on walkways drenched by spray. Xmas morning was spent on a boat trip under the spray... soaked through!
- A final day or so in Rio, then home.

Interesting... this has been a dream of mine for at least 35 years and now I have done it. It feels quite odd.