Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Brazil and Uruguay

It seems I have let this updating get away from me. But, I will try to catch up now.
In late February, after my Aconcagua climb, I had a few weeks to explore Northwestern Argentina before John came down for a visit. I started off by heading north to the town of San Juan. This was a nice desert town with lots of shade trees. I had a huge and delicious lunch in the Syrian-Lebanese Club.

From San Juan, I continued north to the town of San Augustin del Valle Fertil. The night I got there was the town carnival so I got to see all the kids in the town in costumes on parade. The next day, I went for a walk in the dry country side, but after only a few hours, the 100 degree temperatures took there toll and I went to the riverside to sit in the shade with my feet in the water and a book in my hands.

The main tourist attraction near San Augustin is the Ischigualasto Provincial Park. It is also known as the Valley of the Moon, so naturally I wanted to check it out. Ischigualasto is a small park a few hours from San Augustin. There was a very unusual heavy rain the night before so the dirt road was very muddy and fun. Many of the streams had flooded over the road and we got stuck in the mud at our first stream crossing. Luckily, the driver of the car had some rope and a nearby bulldozer was enlisted to pull us through the mud. At the second muddy crossing, a pick-up truck was used to pull us through.

At the park, we joined a convoy of other cars for the tour. We stopped at the various viewpoints and a guide lectured us about the natural history of the place. Also, as in most desert parks with rock formations, many rocks had names. We saw the "Worm" and the "Ball Court". Because of the mud, we were unable to visit the "Submarine". After the driving tour, we visited the museum. Many dinosaur fossils have been found there and they had a good display of the bones and techniques used to unearth them.

After lunch, my three person tour continued on up to the Talampaya National Park. It was a beautiful red rock place with high cliffs. We looked at some of the aboriginal petroglyphs carved into the rocks. Then, we entered the narrow and tall canyon and visited the Echo Chimney. The Chimney was a tube carved out of the wall that went all the way to the top. We saw some condors flying near the lip of the canyon. At the bottom, it was very quiet and because of the special acoustics, we could hear the air rushing loudly over the birds wings as if they were only a few feet away.

From San Augustin, I wanted to head north, but because the road was so bad, I had to return soutn San Juan in order to continue on up to La Rioja. I spent a couple of days working my up through Catamarca and Tucuman. In the province of Tucuman, I visited Tafi del Valle. Tafi is a small town in the hills and I spent a couple of days wandering in the country side.

My next stop was the hot spring town of Termas de Rio Hondo. I found a cheap hotel near the bus station and went in search of the hot water. At the tourist information office, I was told that every hotel has hot spring water and that there are no special places to go. Unfortunately, my three dollar a night place did not have hot water. Since it was in the middle of a desert in the summer, I had no use for hot water in the room anyway. In the evening, I went down to the river where there was a public hot spring pool. The water was warm and I relaxed there for a while.

I spent a couple of days working my way back to Mendoza and then crossed the border into Chile on the 11th of March. I went to stay with some of John's friends in Santiago. The next day, John flew in from Alaska and we all explored downtown Santiago.

On the 14th of March, John and I headed a bit southeast to the mountains. We made it into the Canyon of the Maipo River and spent a night above the river. The next day, we went up to the Natural Monument Park and started our hike. After registering with the friendly guard, we headed up the narrow valley. We spent the night next to Lake Morales. The next morning, I learned that John has the same special ability as I do. We both woke up, picked up our books and never even left the tent until afternoon - when the books were finished.

After lunch, we hiked to the head of the valley and the foot of the San Francisco glacier. I sat at the bottom and John climbed a little way up. He knocked rocks down in my direction in the hopes of having them land in the river and splash me. I think he managed to get one or two drops pretty close to me, but he never got a rock chip closer than a meter.

In the afternoon we hiked down to the park entrance to camp. We visited the local thermal springs the next morning. They were barely warm and we did not spend much time soaking. After a tasty lunch in a place overlooking the river, we returned to Santiago.

With John's friends, we all went to the coast for a couple of days of relaxing by the seashore. Then, John and I went to the small fishing village of Horcon. It was a great place to relax and we found our own private beach to read our books on. Next, we went down to Vina del Mar. I wanted to see the Moa statue from Easter Island. The museum also had a very good display on shrunken heads and how to make them.

We spent that night in Valparaiso and tried out one of its famous cable cars the next day before returning to Santiago. John went back to Alaska and I went with Jerry to a soccer game on the 26th of March. Chile was hosting Uruguay in a World Cup Qualifying match. The game started at 10 at night and we did not arrive much before that. The stadium was packed and everyone was standing and being loud and having fun. Once the game started, the crowds sat down and were pretty quiet, except when Chile was close to scoring. It was a bit strange considering how involved they were before the game.

On the 28th of March, I returned to Mendoza and started my journey east. I spent a night in San Juan and then took a bus up to the Sierra de las Quiljadas National Park. After setting up my tent in the campground, I joined a guided tour along the valley floor. The park was dry and full of canyons, just like my favorite areas of southern Utah. So, naturally I had a great time.
I continued east and past through the big city of Cordoba on my way to Santa Fe and Corrientes. I wanted to visit the embassy of Paraguay and get a visa. Unfortunately, that embassy is only for information and not visas. So, I spent the morning visiting the really sad zoo next to the river. I felt sorry for the big lion in the little cage.

I wanted to visit the capital of Paraguay, Asuncion. The closest border crossing is the Argentinian town of Clorinda. I got there on a Thursday night and went to the Paraguayan embassy on Friday morning. It was closed for a three day holiday weekend, so no visa for me. Instead, I just went to the bridge and walked over the dirty little stream to Paraguay. It was a border crossing for local people, not tourists, so there was no customs or immigration controls on the Paraguayan side. I wandered around for a bit and then came back to Argentina.
Without a visa and entrance stamps, I did not want to travel too much in Paraguay, so I continued east in Argentina. It took a couple more big bus trips to get to Iguazu National Park, on the border with Paraguay and Brazil.

Iguazu is one of the largest waterfalls in the world and I spent a whole day wandering around the Argentinian side. They have miles of trails and boardwalks and it was very easy to get up close to more than one mile wide falls. I took a short boat trip to an island and a ten minute jet boat ride that went under a small section of the falls. The grand finale in the park was walking out to the overlook directly above the Throat of the Devil. There was so much water that it was impossible to see the river down below. Only mist.

The next day, I tried the local adventure activity. I climbed up a tall tree on a rope ladder and clipped on to a 200 meter long wire. Then, with a slight push, I was sailing over the jungle to a tree off in the distance. After a second leg of wire flying, my little tour group moved on to a small waterfall. We clipped on to a rope there and took a couple turns at rappelling down the water. It was a pleasant day, but not too exciting.

On the way back to town, I noticed an Embassy for Paraguay. I went in to ask about a visa, but they told me that it was a brand new office and they don't have visas yet. But, I spoke with the man in charge for a while and he told me that if I just visit the nearby city of Ciudad del Este and don't go further I won't need a visa. From Puerto Iguazu in Argentina, they have direct buses to Ciudad del Este. The road passes through the Brazilian city of Foz do Iguacu. I did not want to spend $100 for a visa to visit Brazil, so I took the direct bus that does not stop at Brazilian immigration and is not allowed to make any stops in Brazil.

When we got to Paraguay, we did not stop at their immigration either. I spent the afternoon wandering around Ciudad del Este, Paraguay. The town is famous for its cheap imported items. Paraguay has had a lot of immigration from China and I felt like I was in Hong Kong. They had 10 story buildings crammed with hundreds of electronics and computer shops, many run by Chinese people. There were quite a number of Asian restaurants and lots of signs in Chinese and Korean.

When I was ready to return to Argentina, I went to the bridge to Brazil. It is a narrow bridge with a lot of traffic. People who want to get across quickly, get on the back of a motorcycle taxi and zip through. I waited on the bridge for my bus and hopped on. I explained my situation to the bus driver and he was very nice to me. After we drove through Brazilian immigration without having to stop he pulled the bus over and let me jump off for one second. Now I can say that I have visited Brazil, even if I don't have a stamp to prove it. The rest of the 40 minute bus ride back to Argentina was uneventful.

The next day I ended up on the slow local bus and spent the whole day getting to Posadas. By then, I was running out of time, so I opted for a rare journey by night. But, since I like to sleep at night, I took a super-luxury full-bed bus. It cost $30, but it was worth it. My very wide seat reclined all the way back to horizontal. I slept great and woke up in Buenos Aires the next morning.

My passport was full so I visited the US Embassy to get some new pages put in. That went surprisingly fast. I wandered around the city and looked for interesting places to eat.
Uruguay is really close to Buenos Aires, so I took a high-speed ferry across the Plate River. I visited the capital city of Montevideo and spent a few days wandering around this lovely old city. They have done a great job of preserving the miles of shoreline and making the beaches easily accessable. Montevideo was the site of the first World Cup of soccer in 1930. I visited the original stadium, where the US had their best ever World Cup finish - semifinalists.

I spent one more night in the old town of Colonia before returning to BsAs.

On the 20th of April, I flew to Peru for my next adventure.