Viajeeees

Jeremy (a friend who is in Australia) inspired me to turn my ever-growing mental list of places I want to visit into a blog entry. Here goes:

Valparaíso is a city almost due West of Santiago on the coast. It only takes about an hour and a half to get there by bus and will be an easy weekend trip that I'll hopefully make relatively soon. It has a lot of old buildings and is really cosmopolitan, though a lot smaller than Santiago. Viña del Mar is another city just south of it (similar to a Minneapolis-St. Paul situation) that I'd also like to make it to. That could even be a day-trip. I've heard it has nice beaches.

Pucón is about 10 hours south of here. It is on a lake and not far from several big volcanoes. The south is a lot different than the north, which is all I've seen so far. It sounds like there is good hiking in the area.

Buenos Aires, this tiny little town in Argentina. (Ha) I wasn't sure if I wanted to make the haul over there, thinking that it was just going to be another huge city and maybe not worth the cost, but the more I think about it and the more I see pictures, the more I want to go. Flights aren't so bad if I buy far in advance, and since I don't have class on Mondays I should be able to make a nice long weekend out of it. Plus I have to make it over to the home-country of my new favorite writer one way or another, right?

Mendoza, Argentina To tell you the truth, I don't know much about Mendoza besides it's a decent-sized city, it is in the wine-producing region of Argentina, and it's only 8 hours away by bus. Heyo!

Pichilemu a beach about 7 hours south and is known (unofficially) as the surfing capital of Chile. Magdita says she has tíos there and that we can go stay with them once we get closer to summer!!

Peru I'm thinking about making this my big trip at the end of the semester, depending on what my budget is by then. I'd really like to make it to Lima and maybe Cuzco. We'll see!

Ahhh it's amazing how a list can have such a calming effect. I don't know if I'll get to do them all, not to mention there are several others that my friends and I talk about from time to time, but I'm anxious to cross off as many as I can!