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.

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?

Buenos Aires-day 19

Buenos Aires...wow, quite the city! The city with 12 million people is the 10th biggest in the world and has tons of culture. For lunch I ate BBQ and saw Tango dancing-2 staples in the city. I ended up walking about 80 blocks today, but it was well worth it since I saw a big chunk of the city.

San Telmo neighborhood- famous for the tango dancing


Pink House - President´s house, painted pink in the 1800s to unite the red and white politcal parties



English Tower- gift from England to celebrate the 100th year of independence


Obelisco


House of Congress


On the way I ran into an outdoor orchestra concert and even a paint party! My white shirt almost paid dearly. A student explained to me that the party is his school´s celebration for the end of high school as the students go onto the university.


Tonight some people at the hostel and I had drinks. We had the US, France, Australia, New Zealand, England, Denmark, and Brazil all represented. It was good for me that the only universal language was English.

Buenos Aires-day 18

After doing a few errands in the morning, I made the trek to Buenos Aires. It was tough figuring out each leg of my journey since everything is new and I know very little Spanish. It consisted of a 10 block walk, 15 stop subway ride, 30 minute busride to the airport, 2 hour flight, 2 hour bus ride to downtown Buenos Aires, and a 5 block walk to the hostel. The hostel was labeled with a small 1´ by 3´sign in an alley making it very tough to find.

After 10 hours, I made it!!! Im especially happy I got by taking a city bus to Buenos Aires for $0.50 vs. the $45 taxi ride.

The best part of today was flying over the Andes. What an amazing view!

La Serena - day 17

After driving back to Santiago, we had to say goodbye to Thanasis and Kathryn who both went back to UCLA. For me, the work part of the trip is over and Im starting the vacation even though Im getting pretty tired of traveling.

I spent the night with Marina who has a top floor apartment in downtown Santiago. It was challenging talking to her Mom. Her Mom knows Russian and a little German and Spanish and I know English with a little German/Spanish. When you combine the 3, you have our conversation.

La Serena-day 16

We finished our fifth installation so we have 5 down, 1 to go. It was a little weird since we were stared at by a stuffed kangaroo, stuffed opossum and many cages of lizards in the biology department.

After the installation we drove to the center to go shopping for a little. Then we had a fantastic dinner on the beach in which I had fish and a traditional Alto del Carmen drink with coke.

view of the beach from our hotel room

La Serena-day 15

Today we made the long drive from Santiago to La Serena. It is about 300 miles away and it took us about 6 hours. We took Marina's 1990 Toyota truck or as we affectionately called it 'el trucko.' It is definitely a no frills truck. No AC, no radio, the passenger front seat is permantly reclined, nothing automatic, and no insulation so the inside was defening from the engine and car noises. It is truly a tank. The same day we got hit by a taxi on the side and there was only scratches while the taxi had a dent.

The drive reminded me of the drive from Vegas to LA. Leaving Santiago there were still trees, but they gradually turned to cacti and the grass browned driving north.

Valdivia-day 14

We all caught a lot of z´s sleeping in to 11am. After a late breakfast, we drove back to Valdivia and decided to go on a river boat cruise. It was a clear day in the mid 70s so a perfect day on the water. We saw many kinds of birds and even seals!

Afterwards we looked around the outdoor markets before going back to the airport to fly back to Santiago.

When we got back to the hotel, we were greeted by an American woman yelling at the receptionist. She told him in a very condescending tone, ¨My room is horrible and I want a new room since I´m staying 5 nights, thats cinco diaz.¨ Apparently she didnt realized that if he was talking in English the whole time, he probably new what 5 nights means. Its people like her that disgrace America abroad.

captains crew



rio valdivia







sunset over the chilean coast