South America: Continent in Review?

5/31/10

This is where we’d normally do our Bolivia/Peru: Region in Review, but Steve covered that pretty well in his recent review post. Throw in the awesomeness of the Salar de Uyuni and the Amazon with Muyuna Lodge then throw out the crappiness of the overnight El Dorado bus ride to La Paz, and you’ve got yourself a full region in review. In all, we spent 42 days in Bolivia/Peru – 22 with family and 20 by ourselves. Peru will definitely go down as one of our favorite countries on the trip, even throwing out the bias we have toward it because we were able to share it with our family.

As a change of pace from the usual review post, I would like to honor all of South America (except the parts that we didn’t go to and therefore do not exist) with a short poem. Other continents, hope you’re reading – this is the kind of treatment you get when you’re Kevin and Zhou’s favorite continent in the world.

The South America stint of our trip is over
Onward we now move to Madrid
Memories the bees’ knees for these world rovers
To recap: here’s what we did

We literally had a shaky start getting here
Stranded in New Zealand for days
The earthquake delayed but did not stop our cheer
Eventually we flew into BA

We saw fun times to come from our first bus ride
A 53 hour adventure
Bingo and snoozy movies helped us survive
It beat reading bond indentures

We backpacked Patagonia from the end of the world
The southernmost city: Ushuaia
Torres del Paine rain left our cold toes curled
The wrong hike? Why! Oh, why-a!

We were amazed by a glacier called Perito Moreno
We fell for El Chalten’s tasty steak
Vivid Valparaiso colors are bueno
By Fitz Roy there’s a pictureseque lake

My favorite place was easily Easter Island
The moai story remains a mystery
A surprise scenic crater was seen from the high land
Where we learned of the “Bird Man” history

Next we moved north to unique Bolivia
Salt flats made Gomer Pyle say Golly!
For people who seek sleek Bolivia trivia
The Salar inspired Salvador Dali

I won’t mention again Zhou’s Worst Night Ever
Which caused us to not pause in La Paz
Lake Titicaca was a lengthy endeavor
Folks flocked there for Feast of the Cross

Next a quick rest then the best was to be had
In the form of  a few family members
Arequipa was where we welcomed Dad
We hadn’t seen him or Steve since September

The four of us found a Llama Path team
And hiked the hyped Inca Trail
Machu Picchu was a rewarding scene
Though the trail made us all a bit frail

Amy arrived and we boarded a yacht
Animal watching, swimming and fishing
The Amazon was amazing with one caveat
Those mosquitoes and all of the itching

A terrific three months, to say the least
No other continents can comparica
Southern hemisphere fun never ever does cease
Book your tickets to South America!
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Picture of the Day: It’s as if this child in the town on the Amazon river was calling out to us, “Please don’t leave!”