“Hey Sis, Note To Self: Don’t try to visit every country in the world during a pandemic.”
Wow, Kim, 2020 was a hell of a year! Today is day #311 in Corrientes, Argentina and I couldn’t be in a better place to ride out this Covid19 shit storm.
My birthday present was a white mask and purple rubber gloves from the doorman at discount grocer Supermercado Impulso. In mid-March 2020, the pandemic caught up with me in Corrientes exactly on my birthday. I call Corrientes my Pandemic Paradise.
I’m not stuck here in Corrientes anymore—I could get my permiso to travel from the provincial government and go to Paraguay or Brazil—but I’m not in a hurry to leave, either. I love Argentina, this country is fascinating.
“On the surface Argentina looks modern and prosperous, but they’ll soon dethrone Greece for the gold medal in the defaultathon.”
Corrientes’ strict quarantine gave me a chance to deep dive into Argentine culture. How did their Peronista leaders drive their economy into the ditch? Surprisingly, I found myself engrossed in articles about monetary policy, black market exchange rates, tax evasion, and junk bonds. The way I see it, Don’t Cry For Argentina’s Peronistas.
We’ve honored you since December 2003 and scored at least one international Kim’s View every year since. During the 2020 pandemic we only created 3 Kim’s Views in 2 new countries – the fewest since our single Kim’s View in 2012 at Winnifred Beach in Portland, Jamaica.
My First Travel Guide
The 2020 pandemic gave me the opportunity to update our Kim’s View website and write my first eBook—the West Africa Tourist Visa Guide—that I self-published on Amazon Kindle in July. It’s getting some Pulitzer buzz.
My next eBook will be another visa guide for tourist hotspots like Libya, Venezuela, Congo, and Somaliland. Keep an eye out for it on the New York Times bestseller list.
New Kim’s View Photo Galleries
Check out our new Kim’s View Galleries webpage with photo albums of weird places, world wonders, and our coolest experiences over the past five years.
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- North Korea
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- Dogon Country
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- Death Road
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- Namib Desert Horses
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- Asia
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- Borobudur
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- Africa
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- Cappadocia
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- Ha Long Bay
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- Cerro Dragon
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- Great Barrier Reef
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- Victoria Falls
Kim’s View at Torres Del Paine, Chile
2020 started off great; I rang in New Years in Alexandria, Egypt then took a smooth-as-silk flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina. I celebrated my best friend’s birthday in Patagonia and scored two killer Kim’s Views at Perito Moreno glacier and the peaks of Torres Del Paine.
Kim’s View of Perito Moreno in Argetina’s Patagonia
With so many of the world’s glaciers melting away, Perito Moreno—or “expert” Moreno named for Argentine explorer Francisco Moreno—is a unique glacier because of its continuous advancing and receding. The natural spectacle of ice falls, called calving, sound like thunder or an explosion!
Kim’s View at Casapueblo in Punta Ballena, Uruguay
You would appreciate the writer/painter/sculptor Carlos Páez Vilaró, Sis, for his wide variety of paintings and murals around the world. Kim’s View is at Casapueblo—his funky studio, home, and guesthouse built to resemble the native hornero nests—overlooking Punta Ballena.
Kim’s View 2021
That’s as far as we got in 2020. My original, pre-pandemic plan was to travel overland from southern Brazil all the way up to Suriname and Guyana. I’m still formulating plan B.
Kim's Views End 2020
There are still 56 countries without a Kim’s View. This pandemic made our mission a lot more challenging. But, as you would say, Sis, c’est la vie. KV
