The Final Post

What an amazing experience these world travels have been. I have met hundreds of great people from all over the globe, who I will never forget. But all good times come to an end and unfortionately the end is tomorrow. My Birthday was great we went out and got some amazing south american bbq. Today we celebrated my birthday by jumping 10,000ft out of an airplane which was pretty fricken sweet! These 9weeks have just flown on by but wow what an experience. From the beautiful people of Buenos Aires ,and the world peace buddy bears to literaly the end of the world in Ushuaia- El calafate to see the amazing Perito Mereno Glacier- with our amazing aussi friends, The Chilaen Navimag adventure- Camping in the Andes(wet) Mendoza-Rosario-Iguazu-and many more places now its time to hop on a flight and head home. IM FREAKEN excited to get home for the summer!

Thanks for all the great comments hope you enjoyed reading up on my great South American Adventures. CANT WAIT TO SEE YOU ALL.

Ciao!

MIKE

I think we ate people last night

....not really but we had buss food which is probably similar. It was blah......

It Was in one of the hostels just a random funny sign.

We camped in this amazing park

As we get closer to the end of our journey we are trying to cram in as much as possible. The last post I wrote was in Mendoza we had just arrived off the long haul buss from San Juinin(Don't go there it sucks). Any ways Mendoza is the wine country of Argentina. Many people come all around the world just to taste the wines of Mendoza. The first day we just hung out and cruised around the city. The Next day our Aussie. buddy Sara arrived Aaron Sara and I went to a very small aquarium and snake exhibits (not really large enough to be called a zoo. Nothing really all that exciting. The following day we hired a far and drove all up in the Mountains of Mendoza and saw the Inca ruins. They were covered in kind of a yellow slime which was created by the sulfur and ash from local volcanic activity. We originally planned to stay the last night but our Vineyard bike tour was canceled due to the fact the tour company's minimum was not met. So after watching movies earlier in the day (Australia,Slum Dog) with our new found Argentinian friend we said our good buys again. Then Aaron and I hoped on a buss to Rosario which was several hours.

Mendoza
The Inca Ruins In Mendoza Sara and I discovered on one of our adventures
Little Market in Mendoza mountains

Very Amazing Rosario Monument
AMAZINGLY MASSIVE BEAUTIFUL ROSARIO MONUMENT.

Rosario was not to exciting except for the amazing monument. The day we got in to Rosario there was a 1/2 marathon which would have been fun if I would have known several weeks earlier. The 2ND day we walked around the massive markets that went for miles of people selling all there arts and home made souvenirs and stuff. I originally planned so see Sarah at some point but we were running out of time and Sarah had other things going on. The next morning we took another 18hour buss to Iguazu. I'm not sure why all the buses seem to be 18hours but that's just the distance to many of the far places. But this buss was by far the worst. They were blasting the air conditioning with no blanket and the seats didn't go back much at all and I think we probably were eating the people who died on the buss the night before for dinner. (haha not really but definitely seemed that way.) The whole way I was freezing my ass off.

Iguazu Falls Was Dividing Brazil and Argentina

IGUAZU
We Finlay arrived in iguazu falls. We went to a hostel which wanted us to come back later and check in, which is usually the case but we were eager to get to the falls. So we just walked about 5 minutes back to the buss station and stored our huge bags for the day and decided to hop a buss to the Iguazu nation park. Once we arrived we got on a small train which took us to the main fall which is in the new Indiana Joans Movie. The falls were dry because there has been a drought but we didn't notice at all but lots of the locals were pretty shocked at how low the falls were. We continued to walk around the park and i heard a ruffling in the palm tree and noticed a cat with a snout was falling out of the tree. It was a Coati! Lots of them. We then continued to descend down to the base of the falls where we took a boat across to a very small island where I was please to dive into the 3ft deep place for tourists to swim. It was amazing getting wet after being in the hot 85-90ish F humid weather. After walking a long while we wondered around and saw they had a buffet with live music, which was a litte pricey for Argentina and our budgets but we worked way to hard to come to Iguazu we figured we better treat our selves, and the food was DAMN good. As the day turned into night we got on the buss back to La Terminal where guess what we did next?................... We decided not to stay the night and take a buss to Buenos Aries ... and YES it did take 18 hours. With a nice hot meal melenase and rice YUMMY with a good movie in a nice cozy Camma (Chair folds out) with a pillow and a blanket. Within the first hour we began to watch 21 which is a great movie by the way. I couldn't have been happier. I soon was out like a rock and woke up in Buenos Aires.

Today it has been raining all day since our arrival and I have just been hanging out not doing much just taking it easy. Tomorrow I'm off to explore Buenos Aires again I'm excited. As for school I have completed all the work I have on me With A's WOO HOO so once I get home I get rewarded with lots more... YIPPEE
You Could Take a boat under this part of the fall and get really wet!

The Coati Sliding/Falling out of the tree
CIAO LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL LOTS~

Mike

Parque Nacional Lanin, Junine De los Andes, Mendoza

Hola Amigos! This morning we arrived in Mendoza off our long haul buss from Junin De los andes (18hrs) It was not bad at all because it was night perfect time for a good sleep! 5 days before that Our good Aussi. Friends droped us off in Parque Nacional Lanin and me and Aaron camped for 5 days. The first 3 nights we stayes in a campsight on the lake rite under the volcano. We went on many hikes to the waterfalls that were coming from the volcano. 3 days later we hiked 2 miles from where we were carying our packs, mines 1/2 my body weight to a little picknick area with a bell on the beach. As soon as we rang the bell a little old man came out across the lake and paddled across to get us. We were then taken to a little camp ground across the lake where we camped for 2 nights. The first night was great we hikes all over the little are and were lead to a little cove on the lake nothing really that exciting,except for the home made emphenadas and bread the little family made for us. And having a conversation and me saying "im really happy it didnt rain that really would have sucked" But as the day progressed into night it began to poor down rain. Within the first hour I was shoveling water out of my tent with a small tupper where container. And every item I owned was soaked with water. Once we got to junin I had to try and dry all my stuff out as much as possible becuase it was just adding more weight to my 65lb pack which is not what I wanted. And now were in Mendoza for the next 3days.

Here is a map of most of the cities I have been to not sure how well it will turn out.

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San Martin De Los Andes

The Look Out on our hike

Hiking arround the lake

Que paso? So I have been in San Marin De Los Andes for 3 nights now tonight will be the forth. We have gone on many different hikes that over look the lake. Friday night when we first arrived we went to a pub which had live music which was nice. Our Australian friends Dan& Anita were off on a hike and I ran up and met them It was about a 7 mile run arround the lake with amazing views. Last night was there last night with us Untill maybe Mendoza. For our last night with them we played poker and made some verry good mexican food including quesadillas."Yummy." We keep crossing paths with tons of people who were on our navimag trip which is not surprising because we all basicly doing the same routs. We met back up with 2 others who were in our group of 10 and who went with us to Bariloche. Tomorrow were hiring a car and going to head up to Puerto Canoa Which is fairly close to San Junin De Los Andes. Puerto Canoa seems to be a very good place to camp, Aaron and I plan to camp there for about 4nights and then continue our journey North. Im not sure if ill be ready to leave South America by then.

Bariloche- San Martin De Los Andes

Today we left Bariloche which was nice lots of chocolate shops and sweet views of the lakes. I really enjoyed the 20 mile bike ride with our pretty cool groop. There was 6 of us. 4 Ausies and me and Aaron US obviously, Now were still with our original 4 and think are going to split for a while and head East while they go to Pucon but we have no plans yet.

You have all the cool pictures up untill this point. Ill post a map tomorrow of where we have traveled so far since many of you have no idea where these places are!

Ciao!
Mike

After The Navimag

Chiloe

Chiloe Island, Chile

One of the lakes and cool looking houses in chile chiloe

Our big group of cool friends we met on the navimag and other places from all other the world

(The Cars we rented and some of our group!)

Once we got off the Navimag we didn't really have a plan but still wanted to be with our group or the next few days. At this point there were 10 of us 6 from Australia 2 From Europe and 2 from the USA Aaron and I. After the long process of getting the cars because of all the strange questions Aaron and others were asking such as " Does the insurance cover the car when we get in a crash"? The car was covered as long as you were moving, but if you hit a parked car or a tree it wasn't covered the object must be moving. Then Aaron was asking more questions again like "Well if we have to be moving can we crash both of the rental cars into each other and it still be covered. It was all very funny and im surprised the guy actually rented us the two cars.

Then we drove for about an hour where we pulled up onto a ferry and arrived on the island of Chiloe (Chile) and stayed there for a few days and drove all around the Island which was verry nice. We also had enough emphenadas to last us a life time. We drove to a very amazing beach in the middle of know where it was very peaceful and cool.Beach On Chiloe I took this picture and i love it!

A few days later we went up and stayed on the volcano, and on the way we had to stop at the berry festival which was very interesting, but they did have good pie! We stayed at a hostel on the volcano and had great views.

Berry Festival The next day we made arrangements to take a buss back into Argentina Bariloche, Here we saw many people just coincidental who were also on the navimag and other people we have met on our journey. The hostel we are staying at it just like any ordinary just not like the one below that we stayed in Puerto Natales (Bellow)
We didnt get this room thank god but there were all sorts of stuffed animals all over this place but the lady was very nice.

The buss was nice to bariloche the seats reclined pretty far back. The following day we did a 20 mile bike ride around bariloche which was pretty hard at some points with many big hills at some points, But was absolutely amazing!

Bariloche Pictures

Navimag CHILE

Puerto mont

Puerto Mont view from the boat

The Arival in Puerto Mont

Small Glaciar we passed on the way!

The smallest canal of out trip 1st day navimag

First day on the Navimag

Puerto Natles waiting to set sail.

(Puerto Natales, Chile)

Well it has been about 10 days since the last update or more and there is lots to tell you all about. The 2 Australians Dan and Anita had said they were going on the Navimag and told us how cool it was going to be, so we quickly changed our plans. We traveled to Puerto Natales, Chile for a few days.We left on the Navimag on the 4/12/09 well kind of because we got on the monstership at about 11pm and stayed on the dock untill 2pm the next afternoon. Waiting wasnt all that bad except for the fact it would have been nice to get going on the water. The first day had by far the best views from the boats. We passed massive glaciars and went through the smallest canals of the trip and could see lots cool mountains and dolphins. The following 3 days had all of the same views nothing really to exciting but still was amazing. We did end up hanging out with many other cool people for the majority of the trip, about 10-14 of us in our group. As for activities lots of card games patagonia bingo kinda funny! The boat was a pretty big party boat with lots of crazy exciting people.

The last day we all woke up at about 9am where we got the last call of the tourguide chick saying "your atention please, Thank you for traveling on the navimag", or something like that but over and over again. They were basicaly trying to say get the hell off our boat. Puerto Mont was so Amazing as you can see in my pictures above.

Its verry late here now and I have been up craming for my chemistry final. I took 2 tests in the last day and night. Im excited because I have officialy finished my chemistry for the year. With a 96% A. Ill get cought up on the whole trip tomorrow.