Of the preparation;

In Just about two days I will be here! Viña del Mar, Chile.

But until then I still have a lot of packing to do.  I have already been surfing around Google Earth and around internet travel guides and I have found hundreds of places I want to visit. I know I'll at least see some. The country is so big there there are sure to be things I'll miss and other things I'll just stumble upon.

This post is a few about the things I want to see on my travels.

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I've been collecting Google place marks of cities, sites, and museums I want to visit in Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay. I've spent the most time looking at Valparaiso and Vina del Mar since they will be my first main attractions after flying into and getting out of Santiago. I won't be in Argentina and Uruguay for about another four months, but I'm already getting excited about checking out that area. Soon I'll have a collection of my own photos of Chile and won't show picture from the net I have found.

An 1880 shot of the Valpo/Vina area. I love looking at the old photographs of Chile. I hope some of those buildings are still around.

Valparaiso is also a city of hills. I probably won't be doing the Valpo downhill mountain bike race, but it could be fun finding a bike for a day.

I'm excited that I'll be calling this city (Valdivia) my home. I hope that water isn't much colder than the Sound.

Chile has flamingos? I guess it does. There is so much more to learn. I better see a penguin down there.

I want to see the forests of monkey puzzle trees for sure.

There is so much to see and do. Good thing I'll have till August to enjoy this section of South America.