South America took a bit of extra juggling from a timing perspective since I had a wedding in Brazil as well as had to catch my ship to Antarctica from Ushuaia, Argentina.

So my travels through both Central and South America were a bit more rushed that I would have liked in retrospect. But what can you do - I left a lot to see on my next trip, although I hit a lot of the highlights that people think of like Machu Picchu (left) and the Galapagos.

I travelled a few legs by plane to get over the Amazon Jungle, but took my time on the West coast by using local buses along the way. The real 'second world' nature of Chile and Argentina come as a pleasant surprise after the poorer Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador experiences.

I also got a real chance to reimmerse myself in Spanish, which I studied for three years in high school

and picked up after a few days. I'm convinced there is a foreign language part of the brain but you can only have one lingo in there at a time. When I was in China and tried to speak Mandarin, out came mi espanol; initially here in Latin America, I kept speaking in Chinese!

I was able to take in two of the largest waterfalls in the world in South America, Salto Angel, Angel Falls is the farthest descent of water, some 3,000 feet in the Venezuelan jungle. Iguazu Falls, on the border of Brazil, Argie, and Paraguay, is the widest set of falls in the world. I also saw Victoria Falls in Africa, the greatest volume of water. Niagara is only known for being misconstrued as big.

Argentina would be place that I definitely plan to return to, with such diversity of places to go and things to do, from wine country, to waterfalls, to windswept steppes, to 21,000 foot peaks, to vibrant cities. Truly a magnificent country. But get over the whole "Islas Malvinas" thing already! You lost, deal with it!