Perito Moreno Glacier

So I'm headed to the Perito Moreno Glacier tomorrow.  This link has some information about it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perito_Moreno_Glacier

Its one of the few advancing glaciers left in the world.

After a few hours there I'll be headed to El Chaltén for a few more days of treking.

Torres del Paine

Did it...

Ushuasia

more to come here...

Buenos Aires

After leaving Montevideo I spent some time in Colonia de Santiago, Uruguay before crossing the river to Buenos Aires.  You can find some of the pictures in my photo albulm.  I was lucky enough to be on the same bus as some of the people who I had met at my hostel the night before.  We all ended up hanging out that day in Colonia and becoming good friends.  Colonia is a rather historic city on the banks of the river separating Argentina and Uruguay.  Think cobblestone streets and rustic spanish architecture.  After about 5 hours or so I parted ways with my new friends and took the ferry over to Buenos Aires.

Upon ariving in Buenos Aires (BA) I was in a rather difficult situation...I had no Argentinan pesos, no did I have a hostel reserved.  I managed to split a taxi with a guy to the Microcenter where there were lots of hostels, giving him a few USD for the ride.  After getting dropped off in an area several blocks away from where I wanted to be, I managed to find a hostel and a place to stash my stuff for the night.

My intentions for the night were to go out salsa dancing...and this is exactly what I did.  Now, getting to the club which was quite an adventure...opting to take the BA bus.  I ended up getting to the club at 2:30 am...perfect timing for BA...rather late for me..oh well.  Long storey short...fun night, danced quite a bit, made it back to the hostel around 6am, left for the airport at 7, took off for Ushusia around 9.  So much for sleep.

I'll have to save the sightseeing for another time...maybe in a few weeks.

Pictures

So if anyone out there is reading this blog...here is the link to my photo albulm so far..

http://picasaweb.google.com/todd.owen/SouthAmerica#

Enjoy,

Todd

Montevideo, Uruguay

After nearly 24 hours of travel I made it to my first destination: Montevideo, Uruguay.  Most people have never heard of Uruguay as its a rather small country.  In fact, everyone I've talked to about it didn't know it even exisited, nor its relative location in South America.  I guess those geography lessons in grade school went in one ear and out the other.

Things went fairly smoothly upon my arrival.  After picking up my bags I caught a bus to my hostel, and magically was able to get off at the right stop.  Thats pretty amazing since I only had a cross street and no map of the surounding area to go by.  I would talk to the bus driver but I can't understand a lick of what they are saying.  The spanish here is a bit different.  ll = ch and y = jo.  Not to mention a bunch of other things they do like vos.  So long storey short I found my hostel (Pocitios Hostel) and checked in.

The hostel was located in the district of Pocitios and a few kilometers away from the city center.  This gave the place a nice peaceful setting.  The place was beautiful.  The dorm was clean, the place had free internet, and there was a big backyard for socializing.  Not to mention the cool staff and friendly travelers there.  I recomend it.

After arriving around noon I checked in, grabed my small backpack and went for a very long walk around town.  I spent the rest of the day wondering around the city, taking in all that it had to offer me.  Unfortunetely it was easter weekend and most shops were closed and people were not to be found.  A positive side of this was this beautiful city was now rather empty, giving its beautiful buildings, cobble stone streets a majestic ambience that can't be found on a normal day.

After returning to the hostel around sundown I kicked back and relaxed with my fellow travelers.  It was pretty fun to hang out that night.  Everyone was talking in spanish so talking was a bit difficult for me, but I manged.  In the end I made a bunch of new friends that night who I would have a fun adventure with the next day.

The start of my sabbatical adventure

I've been on many vacations before, but this one seems different to me.  While its hard to belive, this is my 7th major international trip and my 3rd that will last for over two months.  My plan is fairly simple, to fly myself to the southern most point possible and work my way north, eventually ending up in Quito, Ecuador.  From there I'll fly home and return to the USA.  My route will cover many types of terrain, climate, and geographical locations.  I'll go from subtropical beaches to vast mountain ranges, to glaciers advancing into the ocean.  This is truely going to be an adventure of a lifetime.