Torres Del Paine, Chile

Sorry Andrea, but Chile has not been on my countries to see. However, since I was in the neighborhood, I decided to drop in for the day and check out Torres del Paine, considered one of the most beautiful trekking places in the world. Unfortunately, I only trekked a short day hike and was almost blown away by the wind. The weather conditions can change at a moment's notice and I discovered that when it turned from rainy, to windy to sunny and back in about 30 min. I hope to trek Torres del Paine another day when I am better equipped with camping gear and a friend to help carry the tent. I'm not much of a trekker although I try my best.

On my day tour, I saw a couple foxes, one even eating some dead animal. Guanacos, a wild version of the llama are prevalent as are condors who grace the skies preying on dead animals.



Besides the wildlife, the scenery is gorgeous. The minerals in the lake turn the color a blueish-green, which highlights the blue of the sky on clear days.After waiting many hours, the sky finally cleared enough to highlight the cuernos, I think. The tall mountain peaks in the background.

Ice Climbing, Ice Trekking and Ice Cream

Because I just could not get enough of the glaciers, I decided to try ice climbing on Glaciar Viedma near El Chalten. I really don't have any warm clothes, but wore everything I owned out there and still nearly froze. I watched as my guide gracefully and quickly mastered the ice wall without a rope. Of course, I used a rope and would have fallen off the mountain if it wasn't there. Ice climbing reminded me a little of rock climbing although a little easier because I had crampons and ice sticks to pierce the walls for support. I managed to climb to the top on various different ice walls with no major injuries.



After ice climbing, we explored the various crevices of the glacier and admired the bright glacier blue color that sparkled in the sunlight. The compactness of the ice causes the light to travel farther creating the blueness. We trekked through ice tunnels and drank from the streams flowing along. The glacier water is the purest water I have ever drank and probably the coldest. After the long day, I ended it with ice cream, which seems to be a national dish for Argentinians and my favorite food.

Thunderous Roar of Cracking Glaciers

Glaciar Perito Moreno is 30km long, 5km wide and 60m high and continuously receives a facial daily by cracking and peeling outer layers that fall into the water and melt away giving a rejuvenated look. When snow accumulated in the Andes, it built up and compacted into ice that has migrated downward with the additional weight of accumulating ice to form this magnificent glacier that moves at 2m a day. I ice trekked for the first time on top of the glacier and couldn't get enough of the enormity and beauty of the sun reflecting off the ice, which thereby nearly blinded me. This may be one of the most spectacular natural wonders I have seen. I took hundreds of photos and would have taken more if I hadn't run out of room on my memory stick. Here are just a few of the many photos,

Dancing til Sunrise

Shall we dance?... probably not based on my tango skills. Instead, I chose to watch tango in and around Buenos Aires, the tango capital. In the neighborhood of San Telmo, where I spent most of my time, dancers will dance around the plaza and then pass a hat for donations. They are quite incredible and I feel like I am in a different decade watching this style of dance. Most of my time, I laid back in a chair with my cup of cafe and allowed the Buenos Aires world to float by me. I now understand why people never leave this country once visiting it first on their travels. Buenos Aires screams with energy and radiates vibrantly in true Latin style.

Each neighborhood has a flavor all its own. If I lived here, I would take up residence in Palermo that has cute boutique shops, international restaurants, and quaint cobblestone streets lined with trees. San Telmo is a little edgier with more antique shops, but my favorite to photograph was La Boca because of all its color. Although, La Boca is not necessarily in the safest neighborhood, it has the most interesting 2 blocks of colorful architecture.







In Recoleta, a ritzy neighborhood, one of the most famous cemeteries resides here. The rich and famous of Buenos Aires including Eva Peron and past presidents are buried in some of the quite large and elaborate crypts. One of these crypts is probably worth more than my house these days and seems more spacious.



To end my final night in Buenos Aires, I met up with Ankit, an old co-worker from work and we danced the night away. We started dinner at 10:30pm and finished it around 2am and then danced til 6am when the club eventually closed. I really didn't notice the time and was quite awake til sunrise. I could have kept going if there was another club close enough. Ankit almost bailed out on me early, but then decided that he needed to close the club down with me in the end. This is typical Buenos Aires night life and plenty of after hour clubs exist to keep people dancing until noon. I didn't have it in me and headed back to my hostel as people started their work day.

Natural Beauty of Argentina

After traveling through Bolivia for the last couple months, I wasn't ready for the sticker shock that awaited me in Argentina. Argentina seems to be out of their financial crisis that saw the downfall of the peso in 2002. Prices for buses and hotels are about 50 to 100% higher than what the Lonely Planet book that is only 6months old states and the prices continue to surge. My budget of spending only $25/day is being blown out of the water.

Despite the exploding budget, I couldn't miss Argentina. Patagonia has been on my top 3 travel list for some time. Therefore, I started my Argentinian journey in the North, but fell ill with bronchitis/pneumonia. The hostel had to call the doctor to come straight to my hostel bed to treat me because I was bedridden for a few days and couldn't seem to get out. The doctor even had my antibiotics delivered directly to my bed. I like the Argentinian health care service. Since dorm life wasn't helping, I upgraded my accommodations to a hotel spa in the vineyards. I used up all my Starwood hotel points for one wonderful night of luxury. After a couple days lounging around the pool, being pampered and treated to a massage, I finally had the strength to enjoy Argentina.

Argentina is known for its natural beauty throughout the country. In the North, the landscape takes on a life of its own with the mountainside taking on familiar shapes with the iron, copper and sulfur in the sand adding an element of color. This particular region is referred to as the Quebrada de Cafayate.





I then headed south to Tafi del Valle, but unfortunately didn't wake up at the right hour to get off the bus and ended up 3 hrs south of where I was suppose to be. I then backtracked back up to Tafi, but somewhat regretted that. There's not a whole lot to do in Tafi, but enjoy the rolling green hills. So, I just chilled, watched the hills roll nowhere, and continued to recover from my illness.

Live Dynamite

Potosi is billed as the highest city in the world. Given that I had trouble breathing in this city at over 4000m, I believe it. Granted, I was a little sick, but upon entering Potosi, I could barely climb up a set of stairs without stopping for more oxygen 1/4 up the way.

Potosi gained its fame as the city that built Spain out of silver. Silver has been mined for centuries here and as a result, millions of miners and slave laborers have died in the mines. Mining continues and although the conditions have improved for miners, they are still not ideal. I took a tour inside the mine and found myself surrounded by asbestos, dust, darkness and claustrophobia. I'm not surprised to find the miners only live to around age 42 because of these harsh working conditions. Thankfully, lots of soda pop, cigarettes and cocoa leaves makes their work slightly more bearable. Mining is hard work. One of the miners let me help him pound a hole into the rock so he could put some dynamite inside. I didn't do much damage to the rock, but more to my body.

Inside each mine, the miners have a shrine to Tio, the devil who they worship to protect them from caving mines. I gave Tio some coca leaves as good luck to ensure that the mine would still be intact while I toured around inside.　The donation worked and I made it out alive albeit a little breathless. I'm sure I took home some asbestos as well inside me.


Outside, the mine, I had the privilege of holding live dynamite. I had the tourist version with the extra long cord. The guides let me and the other tourists hold this ticking time bomb as we all posed for pictures. Thankfully, none of us dropped it while we slightly panicked passing it around. The guide then ran off to throw the dynamite into the river and we all watched as it blew up. Exciting times indeed.

Stan Makes New Friends

Although Stan is quite shy, he has branched out to make new friends along the way. See, I haven't forgotten about dear Stan. In Nicaragua, he met some friendly ancient statues.
In the Bolivian jungle, he tried to play with Mariano the tigrillo, but Mariano was a little over aggressive and pulled him apart. Don't worry, he fits back together easily enough.

The pumas didn't really want to play with him because they were in heat and so he just petted them some.

On the Salt Flats in Bolivia, we played with the perspective and Stan is now taller than me.

At Diabetes Camp, Mary Lizeth warmed up to him and he ended up with a crush on her.

His final friend, is Ba, the cat, who sells shoes in Bolivia. Stan makes friends where ever he goes and people really like to learn about him although they still confuse him with the Chinese finger traps.