THE ADVENTURE IS SET TO RESUME

Dear friends and interested visitors to this site:

It is my great pleasure to inform you all that I am now in the advanced stages of preparing once again to set out on a new travel adventure in those austral realms of that most magnificent continent of South America, and a return once again to some of my favorite destinations (plus a few new ones) in the countries of Chile and Argentina.

This time, I will be leaving the USA on February 7, and will arrive in Santiago the following morning after the all-night flight from Dallas, Texas. My good friend and agent, Andrés Gabor will again be providing me with a sturdy 4x4 pickup truck to use for the duration of my travels, which will last until my scheduled flight back to the USA on March 11.

Since this is only a one-month excursion (instead of my usual three month extravaganza) I will not be visiting Patagonia this time around. My current itinerary will instead concentrate on points north and east of Santiago, beginning with a northward drive up the Panamerican highway and back into the Atacama Desert, that will include visits to places such as Vallenar, Huasco, Alto del Carmen, Copiapó, Taltal, Antofagasta, Calama, and finally San pedro de Atacama. From San Pedro I am planning a new traversal of the high Andes at Paso Jama east of there which will lead me into the rugged realms of Argentina's Jujuy Province, in the far northwest of that great country.

From there I will work my way back southward along the east face of the Andes and through some of the most spectacularly scenic country that one can imagine. Anticipated stops will include the Argentine cities and towns of Susques, Jujuy, Salta, Cachi, Cafayate, Tucumán, Catamarca, La Rioja, Villa Dolores, and finally, Mendoza, before re-crossing the Andes to return to Santiago for my return flight home.

Now that I have resumed this blog I will plan to post regular updates from various cyber cafes en route. I have tentatively re-set the commentary option so that those of you who visit will be able to post your comments. If this gets to be too bogged down with spam however (as I suspect it might) then I will have to adjust back to posts limited to blogger members only. WE'll see about that.

So come on back whenever you feel like it - that's my invitation for you to vicariously come along with me!

Chao, amigos!