A day of sewing, uncharted territory and and erupting volcano!

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So this may be a long one - apologises!!

Firstly lets get one thing straight. I have had a few comments about me cruising around south america on the back of a motorbike. I would like to point out I don´t only sit on the back!! I do occassionally drive! Daisy turned 5 the other day and out of those 5000km I have probably driven about 500km (even share I think!). I can only really drive the stright tarmaced bits with no traffic and minimal bends so this means aaron drives all the dirt, bendy, busy and scary bits which generally means most of it!!! He doesn´t seem to mind though as apparently sitting on the back whilst your driven around by a slightly dodgy girl driver does nothing for your masculine image!!!

Since last time daisy has gained a few accessories! I have just put down my beer and cotton and needle to come in and write this! She so far has been covered in masking tape (to protect her paintwork!), has an old siutcase aaron bought in england on one side and a tailor made bag on the other all tyed on with cable ties - oh yes she looks good. Who needs to spend money on proper motorcycle boxes when you can make your own with some material, masking tape, bamboo and a needle and thread!!!All those BMW 650cc motorbike drivers just look at her with awe!! Our exploits also means our spanish is getting better for use in material and argentinian DIY stores (its seeing all aspects of local life that count!!)

Anyway since last time we´ve probably made it abut another 3000km (1000 of those we covered in the last 2 days and my arse knows it - as a result daisy also now has a tailor made cushion!!! - photos I promise to come!). We´ve visited glaciers, mountains, weird back water towns,driven some stunning roads and passes, seen condors and had some great cups of tea and coffee!!!
We also climbed a random mountain we picked the other day - all went well till we lost all paths and hit cliff edge (aaron had to carry a stick with him at most times to pull me up the mountain and then we slid down on our arses!) Interestiing!!
The other main thing we did was accidentally end up in a site of natural disaster! We had heard that the road up north may be closed due to a volcano but thought it was a bit further up north and figured someone would stop us if it was! Well we approached Chaiten in chile and decided to camp for the night. Found a nice campsite somewhere off the road by a river. First problem we found was the river was full of sediment (problem and unusual!). Pitched our tent in the very dusty environment and then went to get water through the forest from another stream. Only then did we notice that all the trees were also covered by this white dust!! Strange we thought but managed to get water and had a nice night sleep. In the morning packed up campsite along with half the dust and carried on into town. Stopped to tell the checkpoint policman in our limited spanish and sigh language that we planned to stay in town for a few days and do some walking before continuing north. He said something we didn´t understand and let us in.
So rounded the corner into town to to discover a ghost town covered in white dust (literally cars covered up to their windows in dust!) and a volcano in the near distace smoking away!!! Unsurprisingly we saw no other tourists in town!!Sadly having no petrol we had to spend 3 hours there waiting for the petrol station to open. The few locals around just looked at us when we asked if there was a cafe open and the chance of a coffee!! Apparently there is no water in town so coffee is low on the agenda!! Its was an interesting 3 hours spent sat on the curb by the totally collapsed road (yes I think its lack of presense may be its reason for closure) playing cards watching a volcano bubble away!! All ended well though as we managed to get petrol and not see the policeman on our way out who was probably laughing his head off at these 2 stupid tourists!!!


Anyway now in wine growing area in argentina so off to try some of that tomorrow and then to santiago before we spend somemore sore arse time trying to get to boliva!! Mum and dad i´m out of time but i´ll email soon

Love to everyone

A slightly more ash covered me!!!!

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