I have just arrived in Santiago,Chile, enroute to Mendoza, Argentina. There is not enough time to leave the airport to catch the subway into the city. It is a bright spring morning and there should be some great views of the snowy Andes as I cross them. SCL is one of the more pleasant airports in South America and very economical due to the peso being 649 to the dollar. When I was here 8 months ago it was 390 to one dollar.

More [osts later today from Argentina.

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Adventure Travel in Latin America has just gotten 30 % cheaper in the last two weeks. Worldwide economic volatility has has caused flight to the US Dollar from many fearful investors in Latin America. As a result :

The Chilean Peso is now 622 to the Dollar. This compares to 390 earlier this year.

The Argentina Peso is pegged to the US Dollar, but has still slipped from 3 to 3.22 and probably will go lower.

The Mexican Peso was 10 to the Dollar a few weeks ago and is now 13.2 !

Most dramatically – the Brazilian Real was 1.5 to the dollar in August – and is now 2.2 – in effect – 50% more spending power for the US Dollar.

As a long dark and financially dreary winter takes hold in the North – now is the time to enjoy the incredible Nature, Sunshine and Adventure of Latin America. Book now on ArcticTropic Direct Booking.

Three days after crossing by bus in 8 hours, I fly over the same route in 45 minutes. There is a longer version coming from blip.tv as YouTube does not accept video over 10 MB.

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After getting off the flight from Mendoza, I boarded the Santiago Metro to go off to a few meetings before heading back to Miami that night. The subway comes about every 45 seconds – much better than New York.Cost is 350 pesos – about 75 cents.

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Cerro Aconcagua – 6,962 metres – 22,841 ft is highest mountain in the Americas, Highest in the Southern Hemisphere, Highest outside the Himalayas. It is 15 Km East of the Argentina – Chile border.

The bus from Santiago to Mendoza took almost 8 hours due to customs holdups and road work. I’ll be flying back tomorrow , since I have meetings in Santiago before flying up to Miami tomorrow night. The bus ride ranks amongst the world’s most beautiful !

Mendoza has been 24/7 nonstop – meetings till 9 PM and then dinners that begin at 11 and end at 2. I will catch up on ArcticTropic Blog – keep posted !

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Waves roll in from the Antarctic. The Humboldt Current keeps water temperatures in the 50s year-round.

Pichilemu is one of the world’s top surf hotspots. It’s about 3 hours from Santiago. The town has the ambiance of California in about 1960.

The picture will be upright later.

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Before surfing, I biked throughout the Pichilemu countryside – which is almost totally devoid of human population. You can bike for miles on these roads and never encounter a car.

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Yesterday afternoon I flew from Buenos Aires to Santiago. I had hoped to take pictures from the plane, but the view was obscured by clouds. I do have some pictures of the Argentine pampas that I’ll put up later today. The photos were taken in August,2004 – the middle of winter – hence the thick snow cover. Now at the end of summer, there is only snow on the highest peaks.

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Tonight I board LAN Argentina Flight 4521 from Miami to Buenos Aires. It’s the start of a twelve day trip to both Argentina and Chile. The main focus of the journey is to meet adventure travel operators throughout the region. I will be posting several times daily , with many beautiful pictures.

The world’s largest trout are caught in the streams of Southern Chile in the Andes of Patagonia.ArcticTropic has nearly sixty destinations in Chile.