Where in South America are we going?

This map shows in yellow highlighter the places we will be exploring for 3 months this fall (actually, spring and summer in the southern hemisphere :)

In blue I marked the places we visited in 2006 in Chile and in 2007 in Argentina. Just click it to enlarge the view.

Basically, we are looking to explore boths ends of the Andes, having spent time in the middle. That means Patagonia way south and Peru (Cordillera Blanca), Bolivia (Cordillera Real) and Atacama Desert (Chile) to the north.

Distance from our location farthest north (Huaraz, Peru) to farthest south (Ushuaia) as the crow flies: about 5,100 km
Distance from Ottawa to Ushuaia: 11,150 km
Compare distance across Canada (St John's, NFLD to Victoria BC): 4,900 km
Needless to say, a good portion of our travel budget goes to air fare.