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
- On Wednesday: Around the Southern Cone
- Argentine Trains: Off the Rails, So to Speak
- Book Review: The Practical Nomad
- Torres del Paine: The Final Word for 2012?
- Subte's Soaring Fares; Airports & Ashes
- Paine's Road Back; Chiloé Concerns
- Tango Mexicano, ¿Rancheras Argentinas?
- Book Review: Malbec Conquers the Wine World
- Paine Catches Fire: the Aftermath
- Paine Catches Fire
- Cancer with Perón?
- Saturday Sundries: Chaitén, the Carretera Austral, Argentina's At-tax Dogs
- The Malvinas Museum of Argentina
- Patagon Journal Takes Off; Cape Horn's in Dutch
- Currency Roulette: Uruguay 2012
On Wednesday: Around the Southern Cone
Today’s entry covers a diversity of topics from Argentina, Chile and Uruguay.
Fudging the Stats?
For some time, critics have called out the administration of Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner for meddling in the state statistics bureau INDEC to make inflation figures less alarming than private economists believe they are. Now,
across the River Plate, tourism operators in Punta del Este (pictured above) are questioning whether the Uruguayan government is exaggerating the arrivals of visitors – many of them Argentines – in the peak summer season. more >>
Argentine Trains: Off the Rails, So to Speak
A couple weeks ago, at work, my wife was to participate in a lunchtime game that required each person on her team to disclose a fact, anonymously, that nobody would expect about him or her; in turn, the team would try to match the fact with the person. When she asked me to suggest what she might reveal, I told her she should offer that she had once hitched a lift on a freight train, which the two of us did from the northwestern Argentine town of San Antonio de los Cobres to the international border, before continuing on toward Antofagasta on a Chilean freight. more >>
Book Review: The Practical Nomad
Ever since I first visited Latin America, on a spur-of-the-moment train ride from Mexicali to Mazatlán nearly 40 years ago, I have preferred to travel independently and – with the exception of a few necessarily fixed cruise ship itineraries - I’d sooner wing it. Even now, as my Moon Handbooks and other writings include suggested itineraries for those who must fit their travels into fixed periods from a week to a month or more, my own itineraries remain flexible. more >>
Torres del Paine: The Final Word for 2012?
Given the scale of the recent wildfire disaster at Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, and its strategic location, it’s reassuring that things in the park are returning to relative stability, if not quite normality. Those still intending to visit this season may not get to see everything they’d like and do everything they’d hoped, but there’ll still be plenty to occupy their time. more >>
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