it's not a map, it's a to-do list!!!

one of the very exciting reasons i wanted to take this trip down south was for the possibility of a trip through the rest of the continent (or some of it, anyway) after working in the hospital. i'm starting to nail down my path, and i thought i'd show you all a little of the plan and some of the juice. the whole thing begins when i meet janae down in peru to see machu picchu at the end of june. well, i'll probably hit some of lima before then unless janae talks me into waiting and seeing it with her. after that i'm going to lake titicaca (hehe!!!) in peru before heading south down into chile, hopefully splitting my time pretty evenly between their coast and their mountains. i'll for sure also stop in valparaíso and santiago. i probably won't get any further south than that before i head east into argentina and buenos aires and all the fun that argentina has to offer. then i'll head up north to see the iguazú falls at the argentina/brazil border. the dotted line is dotted because at that point my trip will probably be more determined by money and time more than my desire to see any or some of brazil, paraguay, uruguay, and bolivia. (since there's no such thing as the south american union, border crossing down here isn't quite the passport stamping formality and fun it is in europe, and currency exchange is more complicated than...no currency exchange in europe.) brazil seems the overall least likely to be visited, as pretty much any non-coast city there is hard to get to and probably not as exciting as other places you could go in that time. so that's the plan--here's some sights i'm hoping to see:

here's machu picchu, one of the main reasons for my taking this trip at all.

this is lake titicaca. it has villages like this floating on reeds in the middle of the lake. it's also the highest lake navigable to large vessels, which means it's big and high. this picture doesn't really capture the size or height, but don't worry--i'll go get a better shot and show you later.

chilean patagonia.

this is plaza de armas in chile. chile is considered by many to be the most european country in south america.

buenos aries--it's a big city. and steaks (some of the best in the world, reputedly) are $5. i think there might be a few more draws than steak, i'm just saying--i don't need them.

here's the iguazú falls. a friend here describing them to me told me the falls made her believe in God. they're over 260 feet high.