// ARGENTINA

// ARGENTINA This is where it all started. I was fresh and inexperienced, but having left New York and then having visited some friends in Canada, I booked a flight to Buenos Aires. I didn't speak the language, and I knew precious little about the country. But it's where I cut my teeth, where I learned the joys, and a few of the pitfalls, of the road. I rented an apartment here for nearly eight months, so you can understand how my trip around the world ended up taking nearly nine years. But I studied Spanish here, went on a few adventures here, had a few misadventures tossed my way here, including getting mugged for the first and only time on my trip. It was traumatic, but it did not deter me from continuing on. In the end, I traveled thousands of miles through South America, through more than half a dozen countries, all by land and even quite a bit by river boat. I'm proud to have entered Peru, Colombia, and Brazil — each by many days journey by cargo ship down the Amazon River. But more on that later. For now, enjoy Argentina.