Alan Irwin’s Blog

So, the answer to the 2010 question “Where are you two going this year?”: Laos. Despite all of our trips to Southeast Asia, Laos is the country we’ve always missed. We’d thought of it as the sleepy neighbor of Vietnam and Thailand, but we’ve met a lot of travelers this year who’ve said that it’s [...]

There’s a great feel here; the people are lovely; the scenery is spectacular; everything seems less expensive than in Argentina, and the food — ah, dear friends, more on that soon. Puerto Varas is a sweet, little, rose-filled town on the shore of Lake Llanquihue with a bit of a Santa Barbara feel – not [...]

Here’s some irony: Our plane touched down on Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire) just a few hours before Santa Barbara erupted in flames. We were online early the next morning (middle of the night PST) and began speculating who among our friends and acquaintances had become homeless. We knew Chuck’s house was in the [...]

El Calafate The road to El Calafate cuts a long, gray swath through a cold, windy, desolate desert. Once likely a funky little backpacker/climber village, the town itself is quickly becoming more like an Aspen with chi-chi shops, expensive hotels, overpriced chocolate boutiques, and a casino. We, of course, managed to find a very simple [...]

TANGO Tango is Argentina’s national dance, passion and blatant obsession. It is everywhere in Buenos Aires. There are lavish shows in huge theaters, performances in tiny cafes, impromptu dancing on sidewalks when the music wafts within audible range, and on any given night there are milongas — public dances — throughout the city. Young and [...]