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Brasil..

Sorry no pics at the moment...having trouble finding a computer to download..

Since Buenos Aires, we made it to Iguazu falls, both the Argentina and Brasilian sides. It was amazing! The falls are so big and so beautiful, and we were able to see quite a bit of wildlife walking through the national parks. The falls are surrounded by jungle type forest.
We headed to a small town called Bonito after the falls. Here the group went snorkeling in a river of crystal clear water, with huge coloured fish. It was pretty cool.
We then headed to the mosquito infested pantanal...the biggest wild life reserve in South America. I have never had so many mosquito bites in my entire life, despite wearing an excess of clothing (and sweating like crazy because of the heat) and deet! It was quite amazing...we did see a tonne of wild life, the neatest was the parakeets, tucans and blue Macaws that were everywhere. Oh yeah...went pirana fishing with the caymans..I caught 11 (fish that is...not cayman)! Loads of fun... I also got to hold a cayman that the guides caught...was interesting....
We are now in Paraty, a little beach town enjoying the ever so hot weather, sweating out about 10 pounds a day. We did a boat ride yesturday to a few of the beaches...it was sooo beautiful. Brasil so far has been amazing because of the scenery. Everything is lush and green..palm and fruit trees everywhere you look.
It is also a bit odd being in such a hot place so close to Christmas...the decorations just dont seem right....
We are headed to Rio tommarow...will be there for 3 days to enjoy the scenery, beaches, possible a bit more shopping (depending on the baggage space) and of course some samba....
See you all soon! Merry Christmas to those of you I do not see at the time!

Imagine this...

Can you imagine...
Sitting outside in 35 degree sunshine, not a cloud in the sky, in a Buenos Aires football (soccer) stadium. The roudiest fans youve ever seen despite the stadium not being full...red against green. The singing and clapping and jumping continuously through a 90 minute game. The first goal from red was put in by a players head. Green won the game 2 to 1 in the second half.
Can you imagine...
A bright sunny day at 35 degrees..not a cloud in the sky. Hopping into a tiny plane with a harness on. Getting strapped to a man with a paraschute and jumping out of the plane at 3000 meters...Brilliant! Yes...you guessed it. I went skydiving! And I made it down alive and with all bones intact!
Buenos Aires is a very amazing city. I did get around to doing more than just shopping. I went to a football game that was quite crazy fun and went skydiving. I managed to get to a few different little suburbs and saw a proper tango show. We made it out to the clubs a few nights, pretty crazy...and went salsa-ing one night.
I did manage to spend quite a bit of money as well..
We are leaving BA to get to the falls tommarow morning, than out of Argentina to Brazil!
Hope all is well at home.

Finally some heat!

I spent a few days at the end of the world enjoying the landscape. We did a boat cruise around the Beagle channel and saw a bunch of sealions and birds. We went hiking in the national park which was quite beautiful and scenic. The panamerican highway ends in this park, so we made it there to take some photos...I also enjoyed a lot of cold weather there...yes, even snow! ( I am not sure that it was as cold as Alberta though... :)
We had a few really long days on the bus but finally arrived to Puerto Madryn where it was sunny and hot! I spent a day lazing on the beach which was brilliant. We played some beach volleyball and soccer, got a few odd looks from the locals... We spent the next day in Peninsula Valdes. We went whale watching in the morning. This was unreal. We saw a whole bunch of South Right whales. They were quite calm, but did come right up to the boat... and they were HUGE. I have never seen anything like it. We spent the afternoon in a penguin colony and two elephant seal colonies. The penguins were very cute and small, and we were able to get quite close.
After Puerto Madryn, we spent another day and a half on the bus and FINALLY arrived in Buenos Aires....an amazing city. It is huge, hot, sunny and has a lot of great shopping! I think I may be getting quite a bit poorer in this city....
And the BEST news...I am now a very proud auntie of the cutest baby ever... Baby girl Abigail Maya Elizabeth just born today!!!!

Patagonia

In the last two weeks I have visited a few more cities of Argentina and Chile. We went through the lake districts of both countries than headed down for Patagonia. It is as amazing as people say. It is so beatiful. Everywhere you look you can see mountains and lakes that are this amazing shade of blue. OUr first stop in Patagoins was El Chalten, where I did a full day trek to a glacier than geared up with crampons and did a glacier trek. This was pretty amazing despite the very cold temps. I also got to pull myself over a glacier water river on a rope..:)
We also stopped in El Calafate, which is the home of the famous Perito Moreno glacier. This was truely unreal. There are two pictures above...one shows a big chunk falling off. Every few minutes you would hear a loud noise and see large peices of ice tumbing into the waters below. The glacier was also very blue in color and soooo huge.
We made it Torres Del Paine national park and stayed for 4 days to do a bit of trekking. We were painfully welcomed with a little snowfall to set up our tents in....I felt like I was in Canada! The hikes were very beautiful...amazing mounatins and lakes everywhere. It was quite windy here, I felt like I could have been blown off the mountian at times. It did help us get up the mountain though!
On our way to Ushuaia, the end of the world...or the southern most city in the world, we stopped at a penguin colony...the little guys were everywhere and so cute! They were fairy penguins I think, so they dont get too big. About knee height.
I am now in Ushuaia, which is very beautiful but also cold. I hit a little snow storm as I walked to a glacier here. fun.... The good news though is that I will be hot temps in about a week to start working on a tan!

And the camping begins...

I made it to Santiago, Chile and spent 3 days there. I took in a Daft punk/DJ shadow concert, which was crazy fun because the stadium was packed with people...you just had to jump and dance when everyone else did! I met up with the tour group here...turns out there are 30 people on the tour and the group seems really nice and everyone is around the same age...ish. There is a picture of the bus we travel on! It really is NOT as comfortable as it may look. The guide and our driver are great fun. I am going to be practicing my culinary skills as we all have t0 cook meals for the group...should be interesting.
We spent two days in Pucon, Chile which is a little ski resort town. We tried to climb the active volcanoe (the one covered in snow in the picture..yes it is smoking!). We had on so many layers and lots of gear, including crampons and an icepick! We hiked about 2 hours, which was very difficult because the winds were so strong...everytime you would take a step, the wind pushed you back a little. Unfortunately, someone from another group had a 70 foot fall because the winds were that strong, and was very badly injured, so all the groups decided to head down. Good choice. Sadly, we did not make it to the top, where apparently you can see flowing lava!!!! The second day in Puconn I went Hydrospeeding, where you grab a boogie board and head down the white water rapids. You try to hang on for your life while you get bashed into the rocks, other people and the rapids. Great fun!!!
We are now in Bariloche, Argentina which is another resort town in the lake district. Amazingly beautiful place, right on a crystal clear lake. Spent the morning on bikes with my tent buddy...who happens to be an Irish OT...how perfect???? And spent the afternoon walking around town and tasting the famous chocolates....mmmm.
Oh yeah...the tenting...not so much fun, especially in the below zero night temperatures....but an adventure!!!

Pics from Cafayate and Mendoza

1. Halloween party at the hostel...apparently they dont celebrate it in south america, but do it just for the travellers!
2. Me, getting ready to go repelling...getting courage!
3. The waterfalls at the end of the hike in Cafayate
4. Landscape outside of Cafayate
5. Landscape outside of Cafayate
6. Me paragliding in Mendoza