My second trip to Latin America, following my pre-university gap year to Peru & Mexico in 2003.
I lived in Santiago, Chile, for 8 months before moving to Itajubá, in the Minas Gerais region of Brazil. During this 1 1/2 year stay in South America, I traveled very extensively, finally achieving my personal goal of visiting all 12 countries.
Anywhere on the diverse continent, undertaking any amount of hiking, will expose you to unique scenery, but the dry, red mountains of the northern Argentina's Salta region probably steal my vote for Landscape Photography; jagged rock formations under hard light, casting long pristine shadows across the sand really made for something out of a dream.
The Canon ix800, my first digital point-and-shoot, documented my trip. Whilst being a basic camera, it was light, discrete, and served me well (despite nearly dying on me following a trip to the Angel Falls...).
