A final Hola from South America. Its been a while since I have posted and I have been lazy. Since last I posted, I have traveled down the coast of Chile, over and down to the bottom of Argentina, and up the Atlantic coast to Buenos Aires where I sit now. Along the way I have experienced some magnificent natural resources, new cultures, and fun experiences.

Rainy and surrounded by mountains and glaciers, I found myself on the Careterra Austral, a gravel road (and the only road)that runs from north to south in Southern Chile. I was surrounded by Europeans with bicycles that were loaded down like pack mules. One of the cyclists had hurt her knee and offered me to take her bike while she hitchhiked. Before I knew it I was steering a heavy bike down a gravelly mountainous road that passed by giant fjords. Every few miles, I noticed little shantys near the shore.

I soon found out that they were salmon farms, a multi million dollar economy booster for Chile. These farms consist of keeping a lot of fish in a small area, similar to the way cattle are raised on many factory farms. And like the problems of waste management on factory cow farms, salmon waste pollutes the water. We peddled on and eventually were picked up by a bus to take us further south.

After many hours on the bus I reached the Patagonian mountains of south west Argentina. Before reaching the town, the bus pulled over at a Park Ranger station, and everyone on the bus was required to enter the building and listen to a 15 minute talk about protecting the natural resources of the park. Talk about mandatory environmental education. I was impressed and the results showed because even though hundreds of people hiked through the glacier filled mountains each day, the human; impacts were limited. I also learned that the sun burns a lot stronger in Patagonia because a hole in the ozone directly overhead. The hole was caused by using cfc, which came in the form of aerosol spray cans of the past but are now illegal in the US, but not all over the world.

Recently I have headed north along the Atlantic Coast of Argentina and stopped in a place called Puerto Madryn. The coastline was arid and brown and had small cliffs, which is pretty different from the Atlantic that I know. In this area of the world, Orca whales breed and hunt seals along the beach during certain times of the year. Away from the whales, people from vacationing from Buenos Aires layed in the sun all day and drank mate ( a herb tea that gives one energy).

Thats all from Buenos Aires, the next stop is Tanzania, Africa on February 6th.

Thanks for checking in

Felipe