goodbye Chile, see you soon

Best pics

Wow, what a great trip! We got 5 out of the 6 stations working with the 6th one coming in a couple of weeks. We saw

Santiago-city with 1/2 of Chile's population
Punta Arenas- southern most city in world on the Magellan straights
Puerto Natales- gateway to the famous Torre del Paine National Park
Valdivia, Osorno- in the lakes region
La Serena- resort city on the beach

I then went on to Buenos Aires and Iguazu Falls. In total, it was 10 hotels, 14 flights, and a whopping 18,000 miles! This is about 85% of the circumference of earth. The highlights were the lakes region of Chile, Torre del Paine, the soccer match in Buenos Aires, and Iguazu Falls.

Stay tuned for the next blog when I go to Antartica in Janurary....

Santiago-daty 26

I went with Marina over to her University. I think I´ve been here 10 times now.

Tonight I fly out at 10pm and get into Miami at 4:30am. I then fly out again at 7 and get to Boston at 10:30am.

tomorrow Ill post the top pics from the trip...

Santiago-day 25

Happy Thanksgiving! I wish I could be there and eat turkey,mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie with everybody

I met up with Marina today and went over to her apartment in the afternoon. She took me on the same bike ride we did earlier in the trip. We went up to the top of the mountain and had 2 of the apricot drinks with barley. (mote con huesillos) I think Im going to have to open up a cafe with that drink. Delicious! My Thanksgiving dinner consisted of Chinese food in Santiago.

Im definitely going to miss the 70 degree weather once I get back to Boston. The weather in beantown shows snow.

Iguazu Falls- day 24

I wrestled with the idea of visiting Ciudad de Este in Paraguay. It is a spot for cheap electronics so I considered buying a GPS navigator. I spoke with a Peruvian girl and she said that they dont check any IDs going accross the border.

Before I went accross I did a little research online. I learned that as an American I do need a visa. In addition, in just minutes after doing a google search I learned that....

1. One American without a Visa on his passport got detained, got taken downtown, and had to pay the guard triple the visa rate to get released.
2. The city is known as the black market capital of south america with drugs, guns, and plenty of smuggled electronics.
3. Websites warned of robberies walking accross the bridge.

With all this I decided to stay in the safety of Brazil. Good form.

Lots of traveling today again. I took a taxi ride from Brazil to the airport in Argentina. Flew from Puerto Iguazu to Buenos Aires. Took the 2 hour bus ride to the international airport in Buenos Aires. Flew from Buenos Aires to Santiago and finally took a taxi to the hotel. I left around noon and didnt get to my bed until about midnight.

I went on my 11th and 12th flights today and stayed in my 10th hotel room. I also realized Ive been in the Santiago airport 6 times. Im definitely ready to go home and get away from airports, buses, taxis, and custom officers.

Iguazu Falls- day 23

The Brazil side offers the best panaramic view and the Argentina side offers the chance to get close to the falls. Argentina didnt disappoint. When you get next to some of the falls, the sound is deafening to the point where you cant hear the person next to you. At the same time you get soaked just from the mist that rises up. It really is a unbelievable experience being just feet away from such powerful waterfalls.

our jetboat, at first we went out to take pictures, then we put our cameras away and cruised underneath the falls. Underneath the falls you couldnt see the seat in front of you from the water everywhere.

my peruvian friends

the granddady of them all- devils throat. best waterfall ive seen in my life.

Foz do Igazu/Iguazu Falls, Brazil- day 22

Today I went to Iguazu Falls and saw them from the Brazilian side. Wow, they are absolutely amazing!!! They are the 2nd widest behind Niagara and 3rd highest behind Victoria and Angel Falls, but when combined makes it incedible. Plus the sheer number of falls-275!


The map of the falls-they are the border between brazil and argentina






Helicopter ride


beautiful!

After the falls I went to Itaipu dam. It is by far the largest power plannt in the world, the equivalent of 4 nuclear power plants! It generates 20% of Brazil´s power and 90% of Paraguay´s power. It is split between Paraguay and Brazil so I got see some of Paraguay today too.

One of the 14 generators. Just one of these bad boys powers all of Paraguay. The other 13 go to Brazil.

Buenos Aires- day 21

This morning I hit the last few hot spots in Buenos Aires. I walked through the Sunday market in San Telmo and then went to mass at the Basilica. The Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar was built around 1700. Inside a nice old Argentian lady sat next to me and was explaining in Spanish all the parts of mass including the sign of the cross, going up for communion, and the collection (she even gave me pesos to put in the basket). I didn´t understand most of what she said, but Im guessing she thought I was just a protestant tourist.

During the sign of peace, they gesture with a kiss on the cheek , common in south america, and not a handshake.



After church, I went to the ´cemterio de la Recoleta´ near by. Very impressive gravesites.

These are pictures from the burial site of Argentina´s famous first lady Eva Peron, also known as ´Evita.´

After that I went to the National Museum of Fine Arts which has over 10000 works of art including picasso, monet, manet, and van gogh. This is the flower which opens and closes everyday outside the museum.

Then this afternoon I flew to Iguazu Falls! It turns out that my hotel is in Foz do Igu on the Brazil side so Im trying to ramp up in my Portuguese. I also had to change more currency so I now have dollars, Chilean pesos, Argentinan pesos, and Brazilian reals in my wallet. My dinner was great- buffet, an additional steak, 2 mango drinks(delicious as expected) and a beer for $7! cant wait to see the falls tomorrow...

Buenos Aires-day 20

The one thing that Argentinians love is soccer. To experience this passion to the fullest I walked over to the La Boca neighborhood where their most famous team plays. This neighborhood was the city´s first port and has colored buildings started by the first Italian immigrants.

Pictures from the Boca Juniors Stadium Tour- Boca has a very devout following-there were close to 100 people on the tour alone. So many people the tour guided needed a megaphone.

Interesting fact- Coca Cola had to change their advertising to black and white because Boca didnt want their arch rivals, River Plate, colors in the stadium.

Then tonight I saw a match between 2 teams in the city. It was an amazing experience! Both sides were chanting the whole game with so much energy. The chants were actually very musical putting many American chants to shame. The most impressive part... all this was done sober since alcohol is not served in the stadium.

Security meausres (a selected few)

1. 20 foot fences- in picture

2. Barbed wire -in picture

3. Police

4. Riot Police

5. and 30 minutes after the game to let the visitors leave the grounds

¿is this a prison?