Peru – Lima

(March 13 – 17). Lima is virtually impossible to wrap your mind around. It is over 800 square kilometers and functions as thirty separate “cities” each with its own mayor.

Peru – Lake Titicaca

(March 10, 11, 12,13). Running between Cusco and Puno is an elegant train called the Andean Express.

Chile – Santiago

(February 27, 28, 29 and March 1). After centuries of being under Spain’s thumb and then decades of oppression, Chile will soon be a force to be reckoned with.

Peru – Machu Picchu, Sanctuary Lodge

(March 8). The best way to visit Machu Picchu is to take the Orient Express-owned “Hiram Bingham” train from Cusco to Aguas Caliente and then hop on their bus for the short but spectacular ascent to OE’s Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge, right at the base of the site.

Chile – Atacama Desert (Explora Hotel de Larache)

(March 2, 3, 4, and 5). Imagine a desert so dry that parts of it have never had any water, that other parts are so arid that there only two types of plants that can grow, where even the oases are so dry that water is definitely a precious resource. That is the Atacama Desert, the world’s highest at 2500 meters.

Chile – Via Australis Through the Beagle Channel

(February 24,25,26, 2008) For the obligatory trip to “the end of the world,” we took the four-day, three-night cruise around Cape Horn aboard the Via Australis, a 40-cabin ship with quite luxurious space and furnishings.

Argentina – Ushuaia

(February 21,22,23) Ushuaia has named itself the “end of the world” and is proud of it.

Argentina – El Calafate

(February 18, 19, 20) Here we are on what is called the Patagonian steppe, home to only two species of native flora—the thorny calafate shrub and bunch grass. In contrast, the grounds of our hotel, Posada Los Alamos, are a cultivated oasis of cypress trees, a small golf course and even more unexpected, a profusion of lavender.

Argentina – Villa la Angostura

(February 15,16,17) At the southeastern end of Lake Nahuel Huapi, San Carlos de Bariloche is the most popular tourist destination in Patagonia; and with good reason.

 Sloping up from the pristine waters of this 140,000-acre lake are lush mountains, with the snow-capped Andes in the background.

At its deepest, the glacial lake goes down more than 400 meters and averages 225 meters.

Argentina – Buenos Aires

(February 11, 12, 13, and 14) If you want to enjoy European visual aesthetics at depressed US dollar-affordable prices, take your next “European” holiday in Buenos Aries.

Argentina/Brazil – Iguazu Falls

(February 9, 10) One of the “musts” in every travel book on South America is Iguazu, with its 200 to 300 waterfalls depending on the amount of water available in the lake that supplies them.

Brazil – Amazonas/Manaus

(February 4,5, 6; 2008) We spent three days on the five-cabin Amazon Angler, venturing 90 kilometers away from Manaus. Our many “canoe,” excursions were more about birds and scenery than animals, which is typical for the Amazon.

Brazil – Buzios

(January 31, February 1, 2) Except for the overheard sibilant sounds of Portuguese and the almost total absence of Americans, one would assume this was a town in the Caribbean.

Brazil – Rio de Janeiro

(January 28, 29, 30, 2008) Rio is a bustling beach metropolis that sprawls up and down hills and for miles along the Atlantic.