Tamarindo is a a beach on the pacific side of Costa Rica and one of the most americanized places I've been to during this trip. I think there were actually more americans in Tamarindo than actual local costa ricans. It's packed with American fast food chains and american food. There's only one single place in the whole town that serves local costa rican food and caters to the local. All other businesses are mostly for the american tourists and dollars are accepted everywhere.

As most of the pacific coast, the surf there is excellent and many people come there for the good surfing. I thought about taking some surf classes, but then got lazy and decided to just bum around the beach.

One good thing about Tamarindo or mostly anywhere in Costa Rica is the abundance of wildlife all over the country. In the hostel I stayed, every morning, we could see/hear howling monkeys on the trees just by the hostel, see huge iguanas roaming around in the yard to catch some sun and by the beach I saw a sea turtle and some great colorful crabs and numerous species of birds !

                           

Some other miscellaneous pictures from Valparaiso and Vina del Mar. In Picture no 2, you can see one of the numerous elevators the city of Valparaiso has. Valparaiso is built on hills and the city offers paid elevators to climb up on some hills rather than doing the stairs. Depending on the  slope, location, the elevator prices vary. In Picture No 3, is the famous Reloj del Flores, the flower clock of Vina Del Mar.

               

Santiago is the capital of Chile and it's the most modern city that I have been during my entire trip. Many other countries in South America are definitely categorized as 3rd world, but in Chile, you definitely feel it's different - very modern metro fleet, clean city, great architecture (earthquake proof) and metro in general.

All this come at a cost - Chile has been the most expensive country out of my trip. Chile is not cheap. A lot of prices are similar to prices in the US and money goes by very fast.

I was there in the middle of the winter and it was extremely cold !! At nights it got down to 2 or 3 degrees celcius on some nights.

Whilst all its modernity and all 1st world facilities, I just felt that I was in any other big city. I did not feel a different identity for the city as such which distinguished it from others as such, but it's a nice city in general with all the big city amenities and stuff to do.

                     

As I had left San Francisco in the middle of the ski season and did not get my whole fill of winter season, while in Santiago, seeing that it was peak skiing season, I decide to go skiing in the Andes. Pretty different experience from the Lake Tahoe Slopes, but great in overall !

           

Continued from this blog post - http://blog.dosooye.com/valparaiso-chile , I am adding some more artwork from the city of Valparaiso, Chile. I loved how they decorated their doors and entrance ways with some great art !

                 

Valparaiso is a coastside city about 1 hour from Santiago, Chile. It's known for it's bohemian culture, great art and one of the hilliest cities in Chile. The city is build on hills and there's not much flat land. Hence, the city has ascencors all over the place to actually climb up the hills. You pay a little fee to get in the ascensor to bring you up, but there are always the stairs if you prefer to climb it up.

But what I liked best about the city were the numerous art work all over the city. Anywhere you go in Valparaiso, there's art and that too, great art. The city commissioned artists I think to paint up all the alleys, houses and every ugly piece of blank wall into the city into great pieces of art.

It was fun walking around exploring the so many different art in the city. The artists in this city are very talented ! Really enjoyed visiting the city which is an art museum in itself !

                           

I had decided to take the chicken buses that the local people take rather than direct tourist buses.. from San Salvador, El Salvador to Antigua, Guatemala. Chicken buses are just old recycled US School buses.. called chicken buses koz the locals carry their chickens in it as well. Each chicken bus is individually painted in bright colors and basically each is it's own individual piece of art by itself.. rather than the dull looking yellow school buses they used to be.

I travelled by 6 buses and 1 tuk tuk and reached Antigua after 8 hours.. for only about $7.. compared to if I took a direct tourist bus, it'd have costed me about $35 and maybe 6 hours.. But money was not the issue.. it was a great adventure travelling by the chicken buses and mingling with locals and eating the local food the numerous vendors come to sell you while on the bus.. The buses are kind of crammed and not much space for legs etc.. but still worth the trip.. as they say.. "When in Rome, do like the Romans.. and when in Guatemala, do like the Guatemalans.. " :)

• Bus 1 : from my hostel (Ximena's guesthouse) to Terminal de Occidente  - $0.25
• Bus 2 : San Salvador to Ahuachapan - $1.25 (2 hours)
• Bus 3 : From Ahuachapan to Las Chinama (Frontera) - $0.55 (1 hour)
• Tuk Tuk 1 : Tuk-Tuk from El Salvador Frontera to Guatemala Frontera - $0.25
• Bus 4 : From Valle Nuevo (Border) to guatemala City - 25 Quetzal (3 hours)
• Bus 5 : from Terminal to other terminal to go to Antigua - 2 Quetzal ($0.25)
• Bus 6 : from Guatemala City to Antigua 12 Quetzal ($1) (1 hour)

Buenos Aires which means "Good Winds" in Spanish is the capital federal of Argentina. As with all other South American Capital City, Buenos Aires is a big metro with a few million inhabitants and several neighborhoods each with it's own flavor and style. While in Buenos Aires, I stayed in the Palermo neighborhood, which is more of an upscale neighborhood with lots of nice restaurants, bars and clubs and I also stayed in the San Telmo neighborhood which I loved much better. San Telmo is more of an older neighborhood which thrives on it's excellent Tango - many milongas (Tango schools) and tango clubs all around.

Many people told me that Buenos Aires is much like Europe and that Buenos Aires is the Paris of South America. I have never been to Europe. So can't know as such. but I definitely imagine that's what some parts of urban Europe might look like - with all the great architecture, the numerous chic restaurants and great public transportation.

While Buenos Aires thrives in culture and architecture, I think it lacks seriously in gastronomy. Food choices are pretty limited. Argentineans eat mostly Beef, Beef and Beef... They are very proud of their beef and eat it every day. Other than beef, the other options are Pasta, Pizza and Hot Dog.. these are the main food you can find in Buenos Aires in most places..but if you look hard, there is of course a few places you can get other style of food, but not too easy to find.

                                 

La Boca neighborhood in Buenos Aires is one of the most colorful areas of Buenos Aires and also the one with the most gypsy and European feel to it, with all it's outdoors coffee shops and restaurants set out on the street, and all the street performers. Most of my pictures are from the Caminito street, which is a pedestrian only street with all the colorful buildings, outdoor restaurants and tango street performers.

La Boca is also home to the Boca Junior team of Argentina which is one of the most famous teams in Argentinas. At the time, I visited though, it was not football season and hence could not watch a game, but it's one of the great football experiences that one should experience to know how passionate Argentineans are about their football.

               

I looked up Glacier in Wikipedia and it says "A glacier is a perennial mass of ice which moves over land. A glacier forms in locations where the mass accumulation of snow and ice exceeds ablation over many years... Glacier ice is the largest reservoir of fresh water on Earth, and is second only to oceans as the largest reservoir of total water"

Perito Moreno Glacier in Patagonia,Argentina is one of the  few Patagonian glaciers that is not retreating. It's a couple of hours from El Calafate, Patagonia and I took a tour to go and visit it. The day I chose the visit it, we had pretty bad weather condition - it snowed very hard the entire way there and while I was there trekking around the park to see the Glacier from different views, we had a mini snow storm. I was not geared properly and i froze myself up. Was among the coldest I ever felt while there.

The glacier is a spectacular sight and it was amazing to see it up close and to gear the thundering noise of the ruptures of ice from the glaciers. It happens al day long when huge pieces of ice from the glacier break off and fall in the adjoining Lake.

There are tours to actually go and trek over the glaciers, but in the time I went, the weather did not permit such trekking.