December 14, 2007 by Lei.

Punta Arenas lies on the western shore of the Straits of Magellan, in Chile’s southernmost region of Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica. Punta Arenas means SandyPoint. With a population of approximately 125,000, Punta Arenas is a small city with remote and frontier character.

The view of Punta Arenas city from a hill:

The sea port at Punta Arenas:

The green land that divides traffic on avenida:

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December 12, 2007 by Lei.

I’m en route to Punta Arenas, Chile, from where the flight to Antarctica would take off.

Current schedule is to depart from Punta Arenas on Dec 16 to climb Mt Vinson (4897m, 16,067ft), the highest peak on the Antarctica continent. It may take 2 weeks, depending on weather condition. Then I will ski the last degree to reach South Pole, and return to Punta Arenas on Jan 10. But obviously, weather is a critical factor here, delays of 1 or 2 weeks is not unusual.

After getting out of Antarctica, I will make my third attempt on Mt Aconcagua, the highest peak of South America, before I return to Boston in February.

The past few weeks have been very busy and stressful — leaving a job, keeping up with training, and pulling together the finance and logistics for all the upcoming expeditions for the next half year. I really appreciate the many friends who devoted so much time and energy to help me on fund raising, publicity campaign, training, and cheered me through hard times. I’m feeling kind of sentimental to take on such a long and hard journey, but I’m going with warm thoughts of all the heart-felt wishes from friends all over the places. Thank you!

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