Watched fireworks in 15 towns at the same time, from Flight Level 330 (approx 33,000′), over northern Argentina and western Paraguay (New Year’s Eve, American Airlines 908 from B.A. to Miami).
Stood at the top of the world’s most powerful waterfall, Iguazu, where the Parana, a river second only to the Amazon in volume, drops nearly 100 meters.
Ate dinner at 10:30 pm at an outdoor cafe and watched families arrive, with their young children, after I had sat down (very comfortable T-shirt temperatures in December evenings in Buenos Aires).
Walked to Chile from the Tierra del Fuego National Park, just west of Ushuaia.
Took a ferry boat across the Rio De La Plata, world’s widest river, to Colonia, Uruguay.
Observed Rockhopper and Gentoo penguins and the Southern Sea Lion from a luxury catamaran in the Beagle Channel.
Received a friendly welcome from all of the staff at a $7/night hotel in Bariloche (northern Patagonia).
Got two bent wheels repaired with a sledgehammer on Christmas Eve and put back on the comically tiny Hertz rental car for US$6 in Tolhuin, Tierra del Fuego.
Took a flying lesson in a Piper Archer in a region of the world where it isn’t legal to fly unless you speak Spanish or have an interpreter in the airplane (over mountain passes in Tierra del Fuego and low over a lighthouse and sea lion and penguin colonies).
Saw a Chevy Chevette 5-door hatchback, circa 1976, in excellent condition with a Bush/Cheney ’04 bumper sticker on the back (Northwest Washington DC, near my cousin Donna’s house).