Los Cuerves, Argentina

Stopping here near Aconcagua National Park was my last chance to get a few good views of Aconcagua and to say goodbye to the Andies for now. Aconcagua is the highest peak outside of the Himalayas and it towers up to almost 23,000 ft. There were a bunch of people trying to attempt the climb, but no one I talked to made it up. There were 4 people that died trying to climb during the 4 days I was there. On a positive note the Dakar race went through the town I was in and it was cool to see all the off road vehicles passing through. If you don't know the Dakar is the longest off road race in the world and usually goes from Europe to Africa. In the picture above you can see a lady who was in the race, she crashed really bad and her face was full of stitches.

Iguazu Falls, Argentina and Brazil

King of the waterfalls. This place is amazing. I took a 30 hour bus to get here from Rio and now I am going to take another 36 hour bus to get to Mendoza. From there I am only 7 hours away from Santiago which I fly out of South America from there. I decided to stop in a little town Los Cuerves which is right next to Aconcagua National Park and do a little hiking for a few days before I say goodbye to the Andie's for a while. This part of South America you can move fairly fast but that should help you get an idea of how big this place really is. I am surprised that the buses really don't bother me.

Rio De Janerio, Brazil

Jesus Christ Statue!

The beach is huge and it was packed like this for miles.

Is this up to current electrical code?

This picture does no justice to how amazing the fireworks were!

It's getting close to the end of my time in South America and I must say, "I never expected to be here so long." As the New Year was approaching I made a last minute decision to swing into Rio De Janerio for a little vacation. Although I twisted my ankle a month and a half ago it still hurts a little and thought a couple weeks in Rio would be good along with Rio having the largest NYE party in the world. As time pushed towards Christmas in all my time traveling had seen so few travelers. Christmas was the worst day I have had so far. Everything was closed and there was not one person to be seen that spoke English. Brazil is also a difficult place to get around since I don't speak Portuguese, and for Christmas I did nothing but give a little money to the homeless and I went to the movies. The following day was like the flip of a switch. Within 3 days Rio went from being completely empty to more people I have ever seen in my life. New Years at Copacabana beach made all the costs involved in getting there worth while. I stood on the beach watching the largest and longest fireworks display I have ever seen thinking about all the paths crossed, goals accomplished, and wonderful experiences I have had in the past 8 months. It was said that there were 2 million on the beach that night. It was the most people I have ever seen in my life but, 2 million is an awful lot. I really feel like I ended this part of my trip with a bang and excluding Iguazu Falls, I have seen what I am going to see for now in this part of the world. Rio is a fun city with a ton of fun things to see and do. I will leave it to the pictures to explain the rest. Some of my favorite things in Brazil are tropical weather, Acai ( Fruit Smoothies), beautiful beaches, and all the bikini's which in turn has caused pain in my neck from it turning too many times to look around :-) At the beach everyone plays volleyball but they don't use their hands and it is amazing to watch them play better them most people can play with their hands. Another crazy thing to watch is the hundreds of groups of Brazilians standing in a circle kicking a soccer ball like a hacky sack, and I must say they have the most amazing coordination I have ever seen in my life.

For the first time in my trip I had a guy pickpocket me. On NYE in a heavy crowd I was walking and at the last second I felt my camera come out of my pocket. I blindly snatched down to grab a hand with my camera in it and without thinking I pulled his hand to the side and as I was about to knock all of his teeth out, I made the right choice, decided to just grab my camera back and he gave it back without resisting. I decided that his life was tough enough, although he was a thief. It was a good reminder that I shouldn't get to overconfident and I need to always keep my witt's with me while I travel as I was 1 second away from being with out a camera. I ended up breaking 2 weeks later anyway, how ironic.