Chasing the post holiday blues!

SUMMER IN SOUTH AMERICA

By now everyone knows that one of my favorite continents on the planet is South America.  

Now when winter is approaching us in North America, it is summer in the southern hemisphere. What better time to get away from the cold snow and ice and escape for an adventure in those wonderful countries of South America.

Take a flight to Santiago, Chile, a great jumping off place for a visit to Easter Island with it's mysterious Moais.  Known as Rapa Nui by the locals who live there, there are some great new hotels including the Casa de Mike....an Explora hotel.  or......

This is also the perfect time to visit Torres del Paine national park where you can hike around the beautiful Torres or take any of the exiting excursions into the Patagonian sheep range nearby. Why not spend a week at a real sheep ranch such as.......and get to know how wool is exported all over the world.

Or you can spend a few days at Explora, Salto Chico. This wonderful hotel even has windows in the bathrooms so that you can watch the ever changing vistas of the Torres.

Singular Patagonia is another Chilean hotel of note.  Built in a renovated meat packing plant, the offer exursions daily to see the nearby glaciers or go kayaking or riding to the cave of the Milodon, a prehistoric cave bear.

In Argentina, you can learn to Tango in Buenos Aires, or travel to the Valdez Peninsula for some of the best  wildlife viewing in south American.  At this time of year, the Orca whales come right up on shore to enjoy a feast of Megelelenic penguins as this is the time of nesting for the birds and no less than 200,000 can be found along the beaches at any one time.  Sea Lions are also spawning at this time of year and there is nothing better than to see the pups being urged by their mothers into the water for the first time.

Brazil at this time offers up great beaches and great parties.  It is the time of Carnival. Not to be missed are the Carnival parades in Rio and then a good long rest on one of the exotic beaches of Bahia.