Jeanette and Pat go to South America

Other than three week-long trips to beach resorts (Fiji in 1990 and 2001, and Club Med Malaysia in 2000), this was our first overseas holiday since we were youngsters back in 1983. It was of course also our first trip away without our children.

23 years is a long time between trips.

We have discovered that we really enjoyed the physically active side of the trips, especially the walks of the Inca trail and in Patagonia. Visiting large cities is certainly interesting, and we think all Aussies should make a trip to Europe at some stage of their lives (preferably when they are young). We DON'T like overly organised tours, and like getting around independently when we can. But having someone carry our full packs when hiking was good!

We were reminded of how lucky we are to be born Aussies, and what a privilege it is to be able to afford to live well, and to be able to travel to see other parts of the world. We are incredibly fortunate.

Gay from Jetaway did a fantastic job of linking together our 23 flights and three different sub-packages. This was obviously more complex than we initially thought. We hope to be able to spend a bit more time researching our next trip, as we realised that we were able to maximise our experiences where we had prepared more. Nevertheless the places where we basically just arrived (like Rome) were still easy to explore!

If anyone wants to know any more about any of our experiences, especially in Peru on the Inca Trail, in Patagonia with World Expeditions, or on the Galapagos with Samba, just send us an email (using the link) or post a comment.

We would love to hear of other's experiences as well, so please contact us.

Meanwhile, its back to the real world, and saving some more money so that we can do this again soon!

Signing off from South America

Jeanette and Pat