Fernando López Arbarello wrote: > > Yes, for sure. Most of it virgin and plenty of wildlife, we even have whales > in Patagonia. Argentina has every landscape or geographical region you can > imagine, from deserts to rain-forests. We have the vast plain PAMPAS and the > amazing ACONCAGUA. And I also dream on paddling our "backyard", but just an > advise, never let CHILEANS know you referred to their country as ARGENTINA´S > BACKYARD ´cause they´ll never forgive you !!! Having spend Junior Year Abroad in Chile some 40 years ago but also lots of times in Buenos Aires in Argentina when I was a business journalist specializing in Latin America, I heard it from both sides. Typical exchange involved the Christ of the Andes statue high up in the mountains at the border between the two countries. The Christ figure is positioned facing Argentina with his back side toward Chile leading to Chile being the butt (pun intended) of many Argentine jokes until the Chileans said "That's okay, Christ knows that Argentina bears watching." > Chilean Fjords are maybe the last unexplored paradise on earth, but permits > to access are almost impossible to get. The Navy in Chile (and their > militaries in general) are very restrictive about it. But I will do it some > day, we can even do it together ... I was not a kayaker back then. But I now see many of the places I had been to in terms of paddling possibilities. Such as the possibility of crossing the Rio de La Plata between Argentina and Uruguay, preferably a shorter crossing further to the west. Also the Chilean coastline near big cities like Valparaiso, Vina del Mar or Chile's colonial capital, the town of La Serena. Same for Havana and Cuba, but not while there are gunboats cruising around and a paddler might get mistakened as part of an escape attempt. ralph diaz -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024 Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com "Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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