Pictures: Because I´m still working on the thousand words...part one

So, since I have not been able to pull together a satisfactory text entry for the day, or a newsletter entry for the month, here are some shots taken from mid-March through my trip to Santiago and Mendoza a few weeks ago...enjoy!
1. Claudio showing the new kids how to use Microsoft Word.
2. Walking with friends in the Uruguayan countryside near Minas.
3. Dorothea and Juliocesar (better know as Tiví) had a bit of a hammock war...
4. Old cars and old buildings in Colonia on St. Patrick´s Day.
5. The riverside in Colonia facing the ferry port - those boats have taken me to Buenos Aires and back on multiple occasions.
6. A street in the colonial-era Ciudad Vieja in Colonia.
7. Plaza de Mayo and the Casa Rosada, Buenos Aires. Plaza de Mayo is ground zero for social protest, and with a tax hike on soy farmers in the works, there´s been a LOT of that going on lately on the other side of the river.
8. A green, pleasant spot at Plaza San Martín, Buenos Aires.
9. This could be the stock newspaper shot of the Argentine flag...
10. Parque O´Higgins, Mendoza. Even though this is in a park, the rest of the city is just as green and shady.
11. A lake in the foothills of the Andean cordillera between Mendoza and Santiago.
12-14. Scenery along the highway through the mountains; it follows the Mendoza River for much of the time.
15. ACONCAGUA, the tallest mountain outside of the Himalayas. Or another really tall mountain near it; I´m still not sure.
16. The valley that surrounds Santiago de Chile is great farm-and-ranch land, AND even has a nice view of the mountains that surround it.

Part 2 is coming in the next day or two - photos from Santiago and more from Mendoza. I´m taking the camera to work on Wednesday, too, so I will soon hopefully have some good shots of work and daily life here to share!