The end of the road on a hike we took up into the Andes. It was pretty altough some of the higher peaks were surrounded by clouds and I coundn´t see them. Time is winding down so this will probably be my last post. I would like to thank my faithful readers, hopefully it gave you some good insights into South America.

Thought I should bring everyone up to date. For the last week I have been in Santiago, Chile. For the most part taking it pretty easy and kind of winding down this whole trip. I really like Santiago. It is a pretty nice city to live in but not a whole lot of things to see. I have been hanging out with my friend, Daniel, going to his university classes with him a couple of times. Yesterday we were going to go to an amusement park but when we got there it had already reached it´s maximum capacity so we couldn´t go in. Bummer. Today we went up into the Andes to do some hiking. It was very beautiful, especially this high mountain lake that was at the end of the trail. I´ve got pictures and am contemplating uploading one or two. Daniel is infatuated with McDonalds so I haven´t gotten as good of a taste of the typical cuisine as I would like but I think I have gained all the weight back that I had lost. The one typical Chilean dish that I have been able to get are called Completos. It is a Hot Dog with sliced tomatoe, avocado, and mayonaise on top. Pretty good, I think it would be better with sour cream though.

Arica, Chile. In the north of Chile on the Peruvian border. I was glad to be back in Chile. I was tired of the Peruvians trying to rip me off. Especially in Nasca.

The Nascan Lines. I think these lines are smaller than the rest, because they were quite a bit smaller than I expected. This is a tree, kind of hard to make out how they get a tree out of this but at the top you can see the roots then the branches are at the bottom of the picture. I could see these from a metal watch tower that they have erected at the side of the pan american highway. From the tower there are two lines visible, the rest you have to get an airplane to see.

One more from Machu Picchu. This is the last one.

The Incan Bridge. You can see a couple of logs that go across the middle which was a type of drawbridge. You can also see the continuation of the trail as it goes across the cliff on the other side of the valley. I think this was the Incan escape route from Machu Picchu.

My buddy going swimming in the highest lake in the world.

This video is pretty close to the entrance way to Machu Picchu. It is bigger than it looks from pictures and postcards. One could easily spend all day here and not get bored. Which is what I did.

Awwww, Machu Picchu. Everything that could go wrong it getting here did go wrong, going back a week and in a different country. Trying to get from Santa Cruz to La Paz, Bolivia was a nightmare and ended up taking us two days longer than expected because all the bus tickets were sold out. Finally, we got to Desaguadero, Peru right on the Bolivian border. From there we should have had an 1.5 hour and 7 soles bus ride to Puno. However, disgruntled Peruvians protesting high food prices decided to block the roads throughout Peru, including the route to Puno. The protest was supposed to end at 8 that night. The protests supposedly ended but the bus drivers still refused to go because they said that the campesinos had put rock baricades on the roads. I was thinking, "well we just get off the bus and move the rocks, ya esta." Finally we found a caravan of taxi drivers that were going on some back country roads around the baricades. I came to understand that when Peruvians put up rock baricades, they really put up rock baricades. So we were driving down some dirt road in the middle of nowhere in a caravan (strength in numbers). Apparently the farmers in the middle of nowhere got the notice late that Peru was on strike because they were just starting. Our drivers had to negotiate and work our way through a couple of baricades. Finally we got back to the main highway. For the last 50 miles or so there were rocks strewn all over the road. Literally miles of rocks that we had to weave around. I understood why the bus drivers didnt want to go. So we got to Puno, from Puno another interesting bus ride to Cusco. We had a great day in Cusco. We were supposed to get free round trip train rides through the organization that Jesse works for, but we found out that we have to apply and then wait 2 weeks. We didnt have two weeks so we had to pay100 bucks for round trip tickets. Then they didnt like my student i.d. because it didnt have an expiration date so I had to pay full price to get into Machu Picchu, about 40 bucks. Then on the train ride there was a German running all over the train trying to take pictures of any rock he figured an Incan could have touched. Then, on the final leg of my journey, on a bus up the switch backs to Machu Picchu I had a Frenchman get mad at me (in French). Still not sure but I think he wanted the window seat (I came to that conclusion because he was leaning over me the whole time to video tape the ascent). But the view of Machu Picchu, as you can see from this photo and the ones below, priceless.

Cusco

Yesterday we were in Puno on Lake Titicaca. We went to the Artificial Islands that were/are being built by the Aymara Indians. From Puno we took a bus that was very unconfortable to Cusco. Today we headed around Cusco. Cusco is amazing, and the pictures will probably describe it better than I can. It is half Incan half Spanish. The spanish started building where the Incan had left off or where they got tired of tearing down. There are remnants of Incan engineering everywhere (I have a bunch of photos down below). Tomorrow we are up early to head off to Machu Picchu.

Cusco, the Capital of the Incan Empire. Possible the only place on our planet that proudly boasts being the navel of the world. When the Spanish arrived they started constructing on top of the Incan buildings. For that reason it is very common to see classic Incan architecture (fitted stones) on the bottom of a building with Spanish Adobe on top. Days could be spent in Cusco without ever scratching the surface of what there is to see or understanding all of its history.

Lake Titicaca. From this lake the first Incan King and Queen emerged and formed the Incan Empire, according to legend anyway. It is the highest lake in the world. In the middle of the lake the Aymara Indians have built artificial islands. By doing so they were able to avoid conquest by the Incas. The Uros, speak Aymara, some still dont speak Spanish. One lady, who was trying to sell me some handicraft scratched the price on to her hand because she didnt know how to tell me how much it cost in Spanish. Very interesting place.

Maldita Santa Cruz

So, still in Santa Cruz. The idea was to leave for La Paz on Sunday night. From La Paz we would visit Tihuanaco which has some Incan ruins before heading for Puno then on to Cusco. I was able to convince my friend to come with me. Which means we have a place to stay in Cusco and also we will be getting the $80 round trip train ride from Cusco to Machu Picchu for free. I love travel connections. However, there was something that we did not plan for. Apparently, Bolivia just started their winter vacations which means abnormal amounts of people are traveling. Furthermore, La Paz is the main attraction because of some independence day, or flag day, or some kind of party that they are having there. Hence, all of Santa Cruz is going to La Paz. All of the bus companies, in a frenzy to diversify, have coordinated to leave at five in the afternoon. So all the buses leave at the same time. On sunday we went to the bus terminal with all of our stuff thinking we would be able to get a ticket and get on the bus. Everything was sold out, all 15 or so companies were full up to go to La Paz. So, we figured we would be smarter and this morning I went to the bus terminal in the morning to get the tickets for this afternoon. I got there at 9 30 and everything was sold out. I stood in line for about an hour at the last company that had anything going to the Alti Plano and they sold out just before I got to the front of the line. So I asked, what does someone have to do to get a ticket out of this city? They told me that the bus tickets go on sale at 8 in the morning. I asked what time the bus station opened? It opens at 6. I asked if people got there that early for tickets? I was told that if I wanted a ticket for sure I should be there at 6. So tomorrow I will be up early to get the bus station, if not I will be here in Santa Cruz doing humanitarian work for the rest of my life.

The bridge in the background was constructed by Ascend Alliance, a humanitarian aid organization who Jesse (red shirt) is interning for this summer in Bolivia. Jesse was a buddy of mine from school. They built the bridge over this busy street because there is a school on the right hand side and a few kids had been killed trying to cross the street. So, the people from the area started to protest and Ascend helped the local mayor get a bridge constructed. They also put up this fence that you can see so that people would have to cross the bridge. Then other local people started protesting (cutting off transit on the road) because they didn´t want to walk down to the bridge. So here we are (ordered by the mayor) to take out a section of the fence so people can cross the street. Now the busnessman down by the bridge are mad because more people are going to cross the street there and they say they are going to go out of business. Like my pops always said, "some people will complain if you don´t hang them with a new rope."

Protest in Rosario

This was a protest done by "El Campo" protesting the tarriffs proposed by the government on Soy been oil exportation. It has caused quite a stir in Argentinga, especially in the heavily agriculturally based province of Santa Fe.

Bolivia

I got to Bolivia, one day behind schedule due to a missed bus on monday. So as to not miss the bus on Tuesday, I left Jujuy for a little town called Guemes at 3 in the morning. The bus ride to Santa Cruz was about 16 hours. It took forever getting through the border because I had to fill out a ton of paperwork. Luckily, everyone else on the bus was pacient with me. The fee to get into Bolivia was $100. I had been keeping a hundred dollar bill in my belt for the occaison, but apparently it had a little stain on it so apparently the bank would not take it. The border agent made me go to a money changer where I had to pay ten bucks to get a "new" hundred dollar bill. The trip from Jujuy to Santa Cruz was absolutely beautiful with mountains covered with trees. I am staying with a buddy from BYU who is doing an internship here in Santa Cruz for a humanitarian aid organization. Today I went out with him to help people learn how to plan garderns. The idea is to go with him to Cusco and we are making sure he has the money to do it. Hopefully he can do it because he has some sweet connections throught the organization in Cusco.

The travel Gods have not smiled down upon me in this day

Today I was supposed to go to bolivia. I hardly slept last night because I didn´t want to oversleep because I had to leave the hostal at 4:30. I was pretty impressed that I woke myself up with out an alarm clock at 4. But my bus was late which made me miss my connecting bus to Bolivia. Luckily the second bus company was willing to move my ticket to tomorrow but I had to come back to Jujuy (two hours bus ride) to get my ticket changed. So tomorrow I am going to try to go a little earlier, which means leaving at 3 in the morning. So this afternoon I took a nap in preperation. At least I will be able to sleep on the bus. Is Bolivia worth it? Before they told me I was going to have to return to Jujuy to get my ticket changed I was considering staying in the little town (Guemes, don´t bother looking for it on a map), which would have been interesting because the only hotel they have is currently under contruction. I hadn´t yet slept in a bus terminal but I was considering how those wooden benches would feel all night.

Jujuy

From Salta I have moved on to Jujuy. The province sandwiched in between Salta and Bolvia. A very pretty place, somewhat reminds me of Eastern Oregon with high mountain valleys. Yesterday I took a two hour bus ride to a couple of pueblos. The first one, Purmamarca, has a national tourist sight, El cerro de Siete colores. The hill has seven different types of rocks each of different colors. So there is a crimson red, a purple, orange, gray, and some other colors. Then I went exploring, the trails around the pueble offered some beautiful sights. The pueblos I visited are very old and anciently formed part of the Incan trail. The second place I visited, Tilcara, had some Incan ruins on top of a hill that used to be a fortress. The natives that lived there held out for 50 years against the spanish, and was one of the last groups to be conquered. The position was vital to the route the Spanish wanted to establish in between Lima, Peru and Buenos Aires. The site has been partially restored to show what it was like in Incan times, very interesting (photos are pending). Tomorrow I will be off to Bolivia where I am planning on meeting a friend from BYU who will be my traveling buddy to Cuzco and Macchu Pichu.

On the Gondola in Salta heading up the hill. On top there are some really good views of Salta. All in all, Salta is a pretty city, a lot of colonial type architecture and fairly clean.

Here is a video I took in Asuncion of a local soccer mathc. All of the dirt was really red, must be a disaster to wash clothes. My old mission companion and his brother are on the blue team. I was staying in his house which was just up the road from the pitch.

Paraguay, Paraguay

Hey, Hey,

I have arrived to Asuncion, Paraguay. Supposedly I was supposed to get a visa before coming here. But I was unaware. The guy at the checkpoint coming across the border told me I needed the visa and that I would have to pay 200 pesos. I told him I only had 40 pesos. I thought they were just trying to get money out of me (I looked it up on the state department website, and I guess I really do need the visa). I told him I didn´t have any more money (even though I did). They told me I was going to have to go back to Argentina, which I really didn´t want to do. I thought they would take the 40 pesos and let me through. They made me wait while he went to talk to his co worker. Then he came back and told me it would be very difficult to give me the visa for less than 100 pesos. I held firm and they let me in but without stamping my passport, so I guess I am illegal here and told me I would have to pay a fine on the way out of the country. I guess we will cross that bridge when we get to it. I hope Asuncion is good. Everyone speaks in Guarani and I don´t understand anything.

Rosario

First of all I would like to send a shout out to my most loyal commenters on my blog, Pete and Adrea. For Andrea I will keep putting up videos and for Pete, I took a hot shower today and it felt very, very good. Yesterday I arrived in Rosario which is about 300 kilometers north west of Buenos Aires. I woke up early monday morning to be able to catch the bus in Buenos Aires. I was lucky to get to Rosario with out any problems (if you have been following Argentine news, farmers have been cutting off transit on the highways because they are mad at the government over increasing the export tarriffs). Luckily, the farmers were only stopping the grain trucks (even though the truck drivers last week launched a counter strike by stopping everyone, saying if we can´t transport, no one can use the highways). Last night I went with two mission buddies to a protest at the ¨Flag Monument¨in the center of Rosario were they were having a massive protest, everyone beating pots and pans and honking horns. I got some on video so I will put it up soon. Today we went around Rosario and looked at some of the touristy things they have hear. Rosario is on the Rio Parana and there are some pretty cool views of the river (fotos also coming soon). I´ll be here in Rosario for a couple of days and from here I will be going to either Paraguay or Brazil. My last day in Buenos Aires was spent in bed with intermintant trips to the bathroom. At first I thought it was food poisioning but I now think it was just a Flu virus that was going around. I am mostly recovered but still not 100%.

Another clip from the Lanus Stadium.

We went to a soccer game. Lanus was playing Talleres de Remedios de Escalada. Maradona played in the game. The game was a benifit game because Talleres is going bankrupt. For those who don´t understand Argentine Soccer, it would be like Northern Wichita State playing BYU with Joe Montana quarterbacking one half each for both teams. In this clip, Maradona is kicking a penalty kick, but I think he must have paid the goalie because there wasn´t a whole lot of effort on his part.

The Salamanca in La Plata. A place German took me where there was a live band and people danced the traditional dances of North Western Argentina, the Chacarera. The place also had excellent pizza and empanadas.

This is me in the Museum at the Boca Juniors Soccer Stadium. I did the whole tour of the stadium which explained the history. Supposedy the teams colors are Blue and Yellow because when the founded the team they decided their colors would be taken from the next ship to sail into the port. The next ship was a Swedish vessel so, bam, blue and yellow. Yesterday I went into capital to see the Congressional District which I had heard good things about. The congressional building was pretty cool. You can see photos of it down below. I also went to see Caminito, which is a street, one block long, which is world famous as the birth place of Tango. Tomorrow there is a chance that I will get to go to a soccer game between Lanus and Talleres. It is just a friendly match but Maradona is supposed to play in it. So there might not be any tickets left. I am going with a person I taught while on my mission. Hopefully it works out.

This is the stadium of Boca. Pretty big stadium and home of Maradona.

New Photos (big sized down below), Zoo

Today I took a break from visiting people I know here in Buenos Aires and went to the Zoo in Buenos Aires. The zoo was pretty cool. They had all of the animals that you would expect in a zoo. Some of the animals are a little antisocial and didn´t come out to let me look at them though. They had a white tiger which would probably be my first option for a pet, I wonder where they sell them. The zoo is right by the American Embassy. The embassy wasn´t as cool as I thought it would be, in fact I wouldn´t have been able to recognize it as the embassy if it weren´t for the American flag on top. I was expecting something more like in the movies, oh well. Hope everyone enjoys the videos I uploaded, they took some work. Also, I have put a bunch more photos down below, check them out.

This is the 9 de Julio, the widest street in the World which runs through Buenos Aires from Constitucion to Retiro. In the middle is the Obelisco (kind of like the Washington Monument). I turned the camara sideways to get a better view of it, forgetting that it probably wouldn´t turn out to well in the video. Oh well.

German and I walking around Plaza Moreno, the central Plaza in La Plata. On one end is the municipality and on the other end is the Cathedral. The Cathedral is the second largest in Argentina and one of the largest in South America.

One of the most impressive sights I have ever seen in my life. Taken from the Argentine side of the Devil´s Throat.

This picture was taken on Leland and Natasha´s last night in Argentina. The Asado was great and it was a very nice treat from Hermano Alfonos.

Movies

I have finally figured out how to post videos to my blog, and along the way I learned how to post videos to youtube. It takes forever to upload one though, but I will try to post some. In the meantime, enjoy this one of a tango show on La Florida, Buenos Aires. I have also added some more, larger pictures down at the bottom.

La Plata, Chascomus

Saturday and Sunday I was in La Plata. On Sunday I went to church in a Romero, which was my second area. When I was here they were meeting in a rented building. Everyone in Romero was mad at the church because they had bought a nice piece of land with a very nice house on it, then they tore down the house. The assistance fell a little bit so they couldnt build a chapel. As a result, the land just sat there and weed grew up. The people were mad that the church bought the land and then let it go to waste. Well, there is now a beautiful chapel and the rented building is now a little supermarket. The ward is doing well so it was a good Sunday. I came with German to Chascomus on Monday. Today I went to Castelli where some the members still remembered who I am which was nice but surprising to me. Tomorrow I will be visiting people in Chascomus.

Suiza

Yesterday I met up with Daniela, a friend that had been an exchange student in Baker in Highschool from Switzerland. She is doing a study abroad in Buenos Aires. I don´t think we really imagined we would ever see eachother again and even less in Buenos Aires. We went to see parts of Buenos Aires together. We saw the Cemetary of Recoleta which is where Evita Peron is burried. It is a pretty big tourist site because of the ornate grave sites and because the large quantity of famous Argentines burried there. Besides Evita, there are numerous other past presidents of Argentina burried there. After the cemetary we went to the Museum of Art which had a mixture of international art but also quite a bit of Argentine art. They had a Van Gough, a few Monet´s, Manet´s, and a whole exhibit dedicated to modern Korean Art which was interesting. We finished off the day seeing the new Indiana Jones movie which was pretty good. Of course I have to recommend seeing it because quite a bit of it was filmed in Argentina at the Iguazu Waterfalls. There are some pretty good shots of the Devil´s Throat which will further convince all to visit the Falls.

Going at it Alone

As of today I am a lone traveler. Leland and Natasha are flying home from Buenos Aires today. This morning we went and did a session at the temple and then they took a bus to the airport and I took a bus back into the city. Sad to see my traveling companions go. Yesterday we went to the center of Buenos Aires to see some touristy stuff. We walked down La Florida which is a pedestrian only street that has shops on both sides. We saw a tango show that they were doing and as soon as I figure out how to link the blog to youtube I will post a video of it. We went to La Casa Rosada which is the Executive Branch of the Argentine government´s headquarters. Kind of like the White house. Across the plaza from the Casa Rosada is the San Martin Cathedral. A very ornate Cathedral which houses the coffin of San Martin, the liberator of several South American Countries. We went out to lunch at an all you can eat buffet. I had mostly asado but Natasha absolutely loved the sushi. I didn´t know that you could eat that much raw fish and not get sick. Tomorrow I am going back to La Plata and from there go with German out into the country to Chascomus.

New Fotos

I finally downloaded a bunch of pictures. Enjoy them because it took a long time to download each photo. I have been recieving a couple of comments on my blog which will serve as an indication as to who gets souvenirs from South America. Just a reminder. Today I am off to Capital Buenos Aires to look around and get Leland and Natasha from the bus station. They are going home on Thursday so we only have a couple of days to see everything in Buenos Aires.

Like Santa Clause

First of all I would like everyone to know that I have linked my blog to Google Analytics. I therefore know the number of people that are visting my blog and where they are visiting from. It doesn´t tell me who you are but sometimes I can figure it out. Therefore, I can use this as a measurment to see who will receive gifts from South America. Be ware. If you want to make sure to get a gift, you have to leave comments on my blog. The last couple of days I have been visiting people from my areas in Buenos Aires. Yesterday I went to church with a family that I had baptized which was awesome, except it was the first time in a while that they had gone. Still awesome to be there with them. I have to say something about the hospitality here. I have lunch and dinner all lined up for months to come. I could stay here forever and I think people would fight to give me food. Absolutely amazing. Last Friday night I went to a place (I guess it would be a type of a bar) were people dance folklore. There was a live band and performers dancing. It was really cool. I didn´t take my camara so no pictures, but I might go back. We stayed til 4 30 in the morning which I´m not used to, but it was a lot of fun.

La Gran Buenos Aires

I have finally returned to the southern suburbs of Buenos Aires. It has been great to return. After leaving La Colonia, we went to Montevideo. While in route to Montevideo we still had no idea where we would be spending the night. We arrived in Montevideo around 8 pm at the bus station. Luckily, we had a lead of where we could stay. Natasha´s grandma grew up with who is now the mission president of the Montevideo, Uruguay mission. Natasha has never met him before though. However, her grandma had given her his number before we came on the trip. So we told Natasha to call him up and tell him about how we were stranded in the rain without anyplace to stay. She called him up and told him how her grandma had told her that we should go by to say hi, and with a little bit of handy work she got us invited to stay the night. What a great family. We stayed up late talking to President Ashby and his wife about the mission and about our trip. We slept in very confortable beds for the first time since leaving Chile and he had breakfast ready for us when we woke up the next morning. We also got banana creme pie that a senior missionary couple had made. For a day I didn´t feel like the backpacker that I was trying to be. He helped us check into the temple hostal, even paid for us (10 bucks for the 3 of us), and we went off to tour the old City part of Montevideo. Montevideo was alot like a miniture Buenos Aires, alot of the same architecture but a lot smaller. The central cathedral was pretty impressive. It was very ornate and very well kept. We walked down the peatonal which is a streat closed to vehicles with shops on both sides. It goes right by the central square and cathedral. The peatonal is one of the things I like best about Latin America. The peatonal is about 10 blocks long and cuts just short of leading out to the fishermans wharf. We walked out to the end of the breaker which was a couple hundred yards long. We watched people fish for a while, which is much more interesting than actually fishing. After wandering around the rest of the center we headed back to the temple, accidently taking the wrong bus which resulted in a mile walk and a taxi ride. We went to a temple session where Leland and I were the only men. It was pretty empty. Then we went to bed and enjoyed a nice night in the temple hostal. The next morning I seperated with Leland and Natasha. They are going norht in Uruguay and I came down to Buenos Aires. I took a fairy across the river to Buenos Aires. It turned out to be an all day trip before I finally got to the house of the Alfonso Family where I will be staying for a few days. Today I went around and visited people. It was great to see some of the people from my mission. I now have a place to eat for the next week as everyone I visited invited me to eat at their house. Great hospitality.

Cataratas, Uruguay

It has been a while since posting. So to bring everyone up to date. We are now in La Colonia, Uruguay. It is a really pretty, old city. Originally it was a fort, bastion, or something of the sorts to keep people from invading the Rio de La Plata region. Originally it was in Spanish hands but I think it also was in Portuguese hands for a while. There are still parts of the old fort which we are going to tour this afternoon. We came into Uruguay last Saturday and spent all sunday a little bit outside of the city of La Colonia in a place where Leland had served. We stayed with a family that he knew and they were very nice to us. They now live in Montevideo and were just visiting for the weekend but let us stay in their house the second night by ourselves even though they had to return to Montevideo. Last week we went to the waterfalls at Iguazu. A place that should definately be on everyone´s bucket list. Probably one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. Especially since the Argentines have built a walk way that litterally goes and overlooks the falls. It is built on a little island that has waterfalls falling hundreds of feet on both sides. I am going to try to upload some photos but it will probably be later on in the week. The bus rides to and from the waterfalls were long but they were overnight so we didn´t have to get a place to stay. However, we weren´t able to shower for a little while, not so convenient in that regard. Later today we are off to Montevideo then I will part ways with Leland and Natasha while they go northward to Tacuarambo and I´ll cross the river to Buenos Aires.

First Day in Argentina

Today was our first full day in Argentina. Yesterday we left Santiago around noon on a bus headed toward Mendoza, Argentina. Crossing the Andies was amazing. Hard to imagine without seeing the photo, which I will upload later, but at one point we went up 34 switchbacks to get to the top. It was crazy. There really isn´t much of a mountain pass, just a place where the mountains are a little less tall. The road just goes up and over. For those Eastern Oregonites out there, it puts Cabage Hill to shame. We got into Mendoza around 7 at night and our bus left at 10 which left us little time to look around the city. We went down town for a while and looked around the central plaza, got some empanadas, changed some money and got on the bus headed for Cordoba. The trip from Mendoza to Cordoba lasted all night and we got into Cordoba at 8 this morning. Sleeping on the bus saves us the hassle and money of finding a place to stay. Today we looked around Cordoba. We looked at some pretty cool churches that are among the oldest in the hemisphere. We also looked around alot of the shops around and rested a while in the central plaza. We decided to take it easy so we went to a movie, Iron Man. Tomorrow we are leaving Cordoba around noon for the Waterfalls of Iguazu. It is a 22 hour bus ride so we will once again get our transportation and hotel at the same place.

Last Day in Chile

Today was my last full day in Santiago. Tomorrow we will be moving on to Cordoba, Argentina. Yesterday I went to see another friend and I stayed in his house last night. We had an asado which was very good. The asado has two parts, first come the choripanes which is a sausage which is followed by the full course of meat, potatoe salad, tomatoes, and salad. I got so full on choripanes that I almost couldnt eat any of the main course. I was very full. Today I went to church with him then we went to San Cristobal which is a hill in the middle of Santiago that gives an excellent view of the whole city. On top of the hill is a huge statue of the Virgin. All in all, I have loved Chile.

Vina, Cartagena, Santiago

It has been a fun couple of days here in Chile. We went to Vina del Mar and Valparaiso which are two coastal towns right next to each other about an hour from Santiago. In the summer time the beaches are full of people and Vina hosts one of the biggest music festivals in the world. However, now in the fall it is a little more abandoned. Even though abandoned, it is still beautiful. Hopefully I will be able to put up some photos later. We were going to travel further north to La Serena but my traveling companions wanted to see some other friends in Santiago and then travel further south to visit a friend. So... we returned to Santiago and my companions went south to Talca. Last night we had an asado with some friends from daniel´s ward who are getting sealed in the temple. Today we are going to the temple and then I will be going to stay with another friend from my mission.

Yesterday we had a little scare when someone told us that the Cordillera was closed due to snow and that it wouldn´t be open until September. If that were true it would mean we would have to travel about 8 hours south to cross the Andes were they are quite so tall. That would take a lot of time and complicate our trip quite a bit. We called the bus company and they told us that the cordillera still isn´t closed so we are in luck.

First Day

First day in Santiago was great. We arrived a little after 8 then proceeded to tour Santiago almost the entire day. First we went to a "Bodies Exhibition" that had disected cadavers. Very interesting. We toured all of Santiago including el Cerro Santa Lucia where Santiago was founded in the 1500s. Tomorrow it is off to Vina were we are staying in a Cabin that we can use because Daniel (the mom of my host here) has connections through the army. Hasta Luego.

First Exciting Development

The first exciting thing to happen has occurred a full 3 days before me leaving. Talking to the owner of the Argentine restaurant across the street from my house I discovered that his brother still lives in Buenos Aires. His brother is a T.V. anchor for a news channel. In return for me taking a note and a t-shirt down to his brother, he is going to try to get me a place to stay and an interview on Buenos Aires T.V. We'll see if it turns out.

Pre-Trip Musings

By request, I am setting up this blog to chronicle my many adventures through the vast unknowns of the land southward. For the most part, the blog will probably be fairly boring because I am not going to post stories that might frighten my mom and Marie (although they might excite others). So... come back soon for the latest stories and possibly a photo or two.