Hi Everyone, welcome to the blog for my 2006 World Tour, where I´ll post pictures and updates from my trip. The idea is to see 5 continents in 4 months-- South America (Argentina, Chile); Africa (South Africa, Swaziland); Asia (Nepal, Thailand, possibly Singapore and Malasia); Europe (England and whatever else I have the time and money left for!)

I arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina on September 2nd. I stayed for a few days with my friend, Lucas, and his parents. It´s great being back here after 2 years to see old friends and places. After 2 days in Buenos Aires I took an 18 hour bus ride straight across the Andes to Santiago, Chile, where I visited Sofia. I visited the Pacific port of Valparaiso for a day and stopped to hike at Campana National Park, made famous when it was visited by Charles Darwin in the 19th century. From the top you can see the snow-capped Andes on one side, and the distant Pacific Ocean on the other. Back in Santiago, I spent a day skiing with Sofia at Valle Nevado, where we had a great time hitchhiking to the mountain.

Back in Mendoza, Argentina, I did some mountain biking and decided to spend a few more days skiing in Los Penitentes, located high in the Andes on the border with Chile. The snow down at the bottom was icy, but I was able to hike a bit and find some great steeps with softer snow, which was alot of fun! The highlight was hiking up to get a far off glimpse of Cerro Aconcagua--the tallest mountain in the western hemisphere at just under 7,000 meters.

I met up with Lucas and Ariel, 2 Argentine friends I met while studying at the University of Buenos Aires in 2004. After visiting a few local wineries and and olive oil factory we left the mountains of Mendoza headed north to the more desert-like province of San Juan. We made our way to Ischigualasto National Park, also known as Valley of the Moon for it´s barren landscape, extraordinary natural features, and variety of fossils encountered.

After bidding goodbye to Ariel, Lucas and I made our way north, where we hoped to visit Lucas´ family in La Rioja province. We were disappointed to find that there was no direct bus service from where we were so, feeling up for an adventure, we decided to hitchhike the 200km through the desert to La Rioja. A man working on an electricity project for the government brought us the first 60km and dropped us off at an intersection in the middle of nowhere. As the sun sank closer and closer to the horizon, it looked like we would be spending the night camping by the road (fortunately we had a tent and plenty of water!), but luckily, right as the sun was about to set an incredibly warm couple stopped to pick us up and brought us the rest of the way. We rented a beautiful cabin in Valle Union and continued on to Lucas´ Aunt and Uncle´s house in Chilecito the next day.

I often find that the best way to get to know a new place is to walk around (coincidentally, the cheapest as well), so Lucas and I spent alot of time walking around in Chilecito. The sights were just spectacular—enormous cactii, mountain streams, and the kind of wide open spaces that I love. We climbed 2 nearby mountains with Lucas´ great uncle Miguel who, at 69 years old and still in great hiking shape, is my new role model and motivation to keep excercising! We also spent an afternoon exploring an old abandoned mining station. As beautiful as everything was, the town is very small and off the beaten tourist path.

Our last day in Chilecito, Lucas´ aunt had a party with all of her friends to celebrate the first day of Spring. Someone called the local radio station to send a greeting to the party, and must have metioned that I was there as well. I couldn´t stop laughing when the radio host announced that a person from the United States was in attendance at the party - not once, but 3 seperate times!!! That shows just how off the beaten path we were!

Having taken over a week off from school and work, Lucas had to get back to Buenos Aires, so we spent another 18 hours sitting on a bus crossing the vast Argentine pampa. I´ve been here for the last week relaxing, walking around the city, and visiting old friends. We went to see Cadena Perpetua, a punk band from Buenos Aires. I got to spend time with Muchy, my Argentine mother, and her daughter Mariana. I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that my friend Cliff from the Hopkins cycling team is studying here, after I recommended it to him 2 years ago! We hung out a bit and went to the nature reserve south of Puerto Madero. Yesterday, after enjoying a delicious Sunday afternoon asado (Argentine barbeque) with Lucas´ family, we went and played soccer. I was afraid I´d embarass myself, but to my surprise I held my own pretty well.

I´m leaving in 2 days for Capetown, South Africa tonight, and am eagerly awaiting my 2 weeks there. I´m planning to make my way northeast along the Indian Ocean into Swaziland, back into South Africa to do a safari in Kruger National Park, and arrive into Johannesburg to catch my flight to Nepal. I´ll try to write more frequent updates from now on. Comments and encouragement are always welcome...

Also, if you want to see my photos you can go to the following link (You´ll need to create a snapfish account to view the pics)

http://www1.snapfish.com/shareereg/p=96441159970943370/l=212921203/g=7234898/pns/share/p=96441159970943370/l=212921203/g=7234898

-Travis, Oct. 2^nd, 2006