A New Country or Two

Take a look at this map.

So far, our travel plans include the majority of the west coast of South America: Ecuador, Peru, and Chile.  Our original plans were to travel south through Chile after our Peruvian adventures, and our last week of vacation was scheduled as busing from city to city, enjoying the different parts of the country. But upon examining this map a little more closely...

...we (as in Tanya, mostly) quickly realized that there is a whole other part of South America that we are literally right next to.  And as her parents said, we're there, and who knows when we will get to be there again, so why not take advantage of it?  Money is trivial; these experiences are what make a life.  So without further ado, we present to you our final week of travel:

ARGENTINA

and URUGUAY

Once we reach Calama, Chile, we will fly to Santiago, then fly to Buenos Aires.  We will spend about two days there before catching a ferry from the city center to Montevideo, Uruguay.  We will spend about three days (not long enough!) there, and then head back to Buenos Aires, Argentina for a couple more days before heading back to Santiago, Chile.  We'll spend one more day there before heading back home.

Basically, one thing I am learning while planning this trip is that I really, really, really want to spend more time in South America.  Eventually, our travels will take us there again.  We have some Patagonia to see, as well as Antarctica.  For a long time I had very little desire to spend time in this part of the world.  Besides the fact that I have already traveled to this continent, mostly it just scared me.  Mostly because I knew so little about it.  And what I had heard often had something to do with spiders.

Rick C. West: Arachnologist

Really big spiders.  (This particular species of Tarantula will probably not be seen by us, as we won't be in the rain forest all that much.  But it eats bugs, not people, and there is no documentation that a person has ever died of a Tarantula bite.  There are a few documented cases of crapping one's pants, though.)  Well, spiders are still going to be an issue, as I'm legit arachnophobic.  I see, however, that there's probably a lot more to these places than just enormous spiders.

Like Colca Canyon in Peru

http://www.backpackinglight.com

Where we will see the flight of the Andean Condor

National Geographic, Anne Keiser

One of the largest birds in the world able to fly.  It can weigh up to 33 pounds, and has a 10-foot wing span!  So it lives in windy areas where it can glide without much effort.  It only has one chick every other year, so unfortunately in its current endangered status, the survival of this species relies on captive breeding programs.  We will see this flight of the condor from Cruz del Condor Viewpoint, which is about 10,784 feet above sea level.

http://www.backpackinglight.com

I'll stop there before I go into a rant about why travel is so, so, so, so important (because it is), because I'm probably preaching to the choir.  The whole, learning about new cultures and learning about different ways of life and learning EVERYTHING and how that makes us more empathetic and open-minded toward things that are not our own customs or other parts of the planet and conservation and then it leads to open doors and so on and so forth.

I've digressed.  Our added destinations, Argentina and Uruguay, now make our grand total of distance traveled 30,209 miles.

In Buenos Aires we are making it a point to visit a Tango dinner show that Tanya's parents visited while they were there.

www.tangoporteno.com

Needless to say, we are pretty excited about our upcoming trip.  It's a little surreal.  Like, is this really happening?  Are we REALLY going to South America for 2 MONTHS???  Do we REALLY get to see all these amazing places we've been reading about and planning for?

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We're about 6 weeks away, folks. :)

This weekend we are planning to go through our packs to get a better and more final idea of what we need to take - things we have that we don't need, and things we need but don't have yet.  Since we will only be taking a single carry-on bag, about 40L, and we will be traveling for so long, this is an enormously vital piece of our trip.  At least one blog will be devoted to this.  Stay tuned!