It's Not The End of the World ... Well, Actually, IT IS The End of the World

So We're Off On Another Major Journey - Hopefully Epic

As I write this blog post, we have just arrived at the End of the World.  It is the very bottom of South America, in a place known as Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire).  It is also known as El Fin del Mundo (The End of the World). 

--------------------------------------------

The great explorer Ferdinand Magellan named this place "Land of Fire" - in Spanish - when he sailed through here for the first time in 1590 and saw the fires of the local indigenous people burning on the shoreline.  

-------------------------------------------- 

It is as far south as you can get anywhere on Earth, other than Antarctica, which you can see from here (just kidding).  Fiona and I will travel north all the way to Oregon. It's gonna take around three months.  We're gonna drive.

This whole idea was hatched a while back, and we've been planning it for the last twelve months.   The goal was to wake up here on New Year's Day, January 1st, 2017 and begin the journey all the way up through South America, Central America, Mexico, and then home to Oregon.  

We want to do this on the ground, by driving, or using buses, or taxis, trains, horses, camels, donkey carts, or maybe the occasional boat.  The only rule is that we won't leave the ground.  No flying.  It's our very own No Fly Zone.  

Every Trip Needs a Name 

I even gave this trip a name:  "Santo Fuego".  Here is how that came about:  We will be driving from .. 

South 

America

North

To 

Oregon

So you have Santo, to which I added Fuego, the Spanish word for fire, since that's where we are starting.  

Hence, Santo Fuego - which, loosely translated into English, means "Holy Fire!"  Bwa Haa Haa Haa! 

This is gonna be fun!  Our plane landed in Ushuaia, Argentina, at around 8:00 pm and the sun was still shining.   We went for a walk in the evening and captured some interesting views. 

We are starting out in Patagonia, the bottom of South America.  Patagonia is a real place, not just a line of clothing.  It is a land shared by Chile and Argentina.  

It is a long way down here.  And since the seasons are opposite in the Southern Hemisphere, it's the height of summer.   The days are very long. 

Flowers are blooming. 

We left the snow and cold of Oregon to arrive here where the sun went down this evening at 10:30. However, because it is so far south, it's not exactly warm.  

This trip is a major undertaking.  It will encompass several thousands of miles.  It is expected that we will pass through 14 countries.  I will expand on a lot of this in the near future, and fill in some blanks.