Vero's Adventures in Chile and Argentina

How to sum up my experiences in this amazingly varied country? I think my feet can sum it up better than I can (not to mention that I am in Pablo Nerudo country so a poem, even if delivered by my feet, seems fitting.)

During this trip, my feet have

...ascended a live volcano

...tiptoed along the ridge of a sand dune at sunset in the Valley of the Moon of the Atacama Desert

...kicked hard to get ashore after capsizing in the glacial waters of the Rio Azul (brrr!)

...helped me keep my balance while scrambling up boulders leading to the glacier carved spires that give Torres del Paine their name

...fled, shoeless, from a burning building in Puerto Varas

...been put to the test by 50+ miles of trekking in Patagonia´s Torres del Paine (no small feat for my feet)

...gratefully received their first official massage at a national park in Chile

...helped me wiggle my toes during yoga classes during my indulgent river rafting trip

...thanked me for putting them in a hot tub overlooking the mighty green river of the Futaleufu (in the aforementioned indulgent river rafting trip)

...danced like they have never danced before on the wood platform of a bar in Patagonia (rivaled only by the dancefloor at Adam and Leonora´s wedding and senior dinner dance at Williams)

...stayed on their designated path during an unforgettable visit to an island in the Strait of Magellan where they carried one very happy penguin admirer

...have racked up 12,000 frequent flyer miles (and counting!)

...have attended other people´s honeymoons (thank you Marlo and Evan!)

...floated in a salty desert lake in the Atacama

...been instructed to wear flip flops so that when they walked across crackled, salt encrusted desert plains, only 5 dollar flip flops would be ruined

...let´s face it, have smelled really bad (what´s poetry without a little reality, and what´s great hiking without smelly feet?)

...shockingly, have not received a single blister yet, and more importantly,

...are eagerly awaiting to see where they will take me next.

Vamos a Argentina!
Veronica