I am sitting on a sand dune that reaches as far as the eye can see near San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. This is the most arid desert in the world and it hasn't rained in over 400 years!

This is part of the Valle de la Luna, also near San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. I was fascinated by this "mudstone". It's very crumbly to the touch and not nearly as compressed as the sandstone I've been familiar with. The landscape around here is lunar, hence the name.

Greyhound doesn't service Bolivia yet! This was in March, on the shoulder of the rainy season, and what a trip it was! As you can see, we had a little trouble with getting stuck but it wasn't anything a little teamwork couldn't take care of. This trip from San Borja to Trinidad took 11 hours to cover 160 kms. I think we made pretty good time considering the bus had to be pulled out twice, don't you? Oh, and the ride was so bumpy that my seat actually rusted through the floor of the bus! There was a gaping hole underneath me!

No, this caiman didn't try to sneak into my tent in the night but it was killed by the farmers at this estancia, the previous year. Do you see the size of this thing? The only alligators we saw were much, much smaller - and quite tasty, if I do say so myself.

 

In January of 1999 I'd had enough of snow so my friend, Dan, and I headed south for 14 weeks of hiking, camping and exploring. We spent a month each in Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and then spent our last 2 weeks in Peru. This is just a small sample of our experiences but I hope it is enough to tempt you into making the trip yourself someday. I'd go back in a minute.

This town is the departure point for cruises to Antarctica and do you know it's on about the same latitude as Thompson, Manitoba, my birthplace? In a different hemisphere, of course. Ushuaia is located at the southernmost tip of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina and I was surprised to find out they have lots of beavers there - Canadian beavers! Apparently they were imported at some point in the last century and have taken over.

These Magellenic penguins fascinated me. Dan and I visited the Ottway Penguin Colony in Chile and spent a few hours just watching the penguins. They hardly seemed to notice the human intrusion and although we didn't touch them, we were close enough that we could have. Do you know that penguins can be found as far north as Sao Paulo, Brazil?