Having wasted far too much time watching the Copa America over the past couple of weeks my desire visit the wonders of South America has been well and truly rekindled. I then realised I could save myself a lot of money and a long, boring plane trip by ‘doing’ the continent on my PC. That, in turn, prompted me to set myself the mission of travelling the whole world in 80 days – on Google Earth.
On the first leg of insideTonic’s epic expedition, I’m taking in some awesome sights. On the way over I looked down on Jesus’s head above the mountain of the Cristo Retendor in Rio De Janiero. Then I gawped at the world’s largest hydroelectric power plant at Itaipú on Brazil’s border with Paraguay, where I zoomed in in amazement at the powerful gush on the slipway.
Next it was on to Argentina for a spot of whale watching. I managed to stumble upon these beasts in the South Atlantic, which I’m reliably informed by big fish expert wildslide are southern right whales. Back on dry land I visited some very interesting Incan geoglyphs in Chile’s Atacama desert. For the benefit of the uninitiated, these are massive ancient stone scrawlings of people, birds and animals – and they’re quite wonderful. Fuelled by a new love for all things Incan I journeyed to Peru to check out the lost city of Machu Picchu, before enjoying the incredible rock formations of the Galapagos Islands. What a trip! See you in North America soon for our next adventures.