Down in Patagonia and already through Chile

It has been a long time since I last wrote a blog, and a lot has happened in that time, so I don´t even know where to begin right now or what to write about. Right now it is cold outside though so I have some time to pass in the warm internet cafe. Lets see...

Well I am in Argentina right now, but after Bolivia I passed through Chile. When Talia was living in New Orleans she met 2 guys there, Cristian and Javier, visiting from Santiago, Chile. They are now back in Santiago and we got in touch with them there and we all had a great time hanging out in the city together for about 4 days or so. There was not much to do during the day, but at night things came alive. We also met Cristian and Javier´s parents which was great because they were some classic characters. Having friends in the city definitely made our time there a lot better because otherwise it is just another big city.

It was a shock to be in Santiago because everything was modern again-- I could drink the water from the tap and the bathrooms had hot water and toilet paper and soap in them! I could even flush the toilet paper down, which is rare in Latin America. Haha, if you can´t tell, when I am traveling I really come to appreciate a nice bathroom. Also the city itself was very modern with tall buildings and malls everywhere. Being in Chile and Argentina kind of reminds me more of being in Europe than the rest of Latin America. People here you can tell are a lot more educated and there are more jobs-- and less people harrassing you to by things in the street.

After Santiago we took a bus down to Pucon which is a great little mountain town in the Lake District of southern Chile. It was absolutely beautiful there! The sun was shining bright every day and there was hardly ever even a cloud in the sky. It is Fall here now so the air has an extra fresh, crisp feel to it and the leaves of the trees are changing colors. Also the flowers are in bloom and the produce harvests are still coming in. The produce here is fantastic and it is great that the water is safe to drink because then I can eat and wash whatever I want without having to worry about it. So far at the fruit stands I have tried the apples, peaches, plums, pears, and bananas and they were all so tasty... oh yeah and the grapes too-- they have the biggest grapes here that I have ever seen. But the topper of them all is probably the tons of fresh raspberries everywhere.

One day in Pucon it was beautiful as usual and I spent the day alone exploring the mountains and lakes and rivers in the area. I came across a man on the street selling bushells of raspberries for only 1,000 pesos, or 2 dollars. I bought a bag full and munched on them all day. I was in heaven... skipping down the dusty country roads, following random paths through the woods until I couldn´t go any further, hanging out by the river with snow capped Volcan Pucon towering above, and my hands and face were stained red from raspberry juice since I ate so many and they were getting warm and gooey in the sun-- I had a huge smile on my face the whole day and I couldn´t stop singing to myself... life really doesn´t get much better than that.

I am in love with the Lake District! Bariloche is in the Lake District but on the Argentinian side, and it is beautiful as well. It helps too that we have lucked out with the weather and it has been warm and sunny pretty much every day (until yesterady) and then it cools off nicely at night. There are lakes everywhere spotting the landscape and they are the most glorious shades of blue, surrounded by the greens and yellows and oranges of the trees, and the slate gray and brown mountains, many of which are capped in white snow. It really is a natural paradise here. I am maybe getting a little carried away in my description, but that is mostly because I no longer have a camera (which I will probably write about later) so I won´t be able to post any pictures unfortunately.

Talia and I have been going on lots of wonderful hikes, visiting different national parks, and we have picnics everywhere (we have become masters of the veggie sandwich) and we just hang out and enjoy the outdoors. The other day we rented a car with Marie, a girl from France we met the day before on a hike, and David, a traveler from England. The four of us spent a whole day cruising along the camino de los siete lagos (the road of the 7 lakes) that had breathtaking scenery (I highly recommend visiting) and we could pull over and stop where ever we wanted which was a huge bonus you don´t get on the bus. Marie and I were the drivers and I had a lot of fun driving in Argentina, except in the city there are pretty much no rules and people drive all over the place, so I had to be really careful. But driving down the mountain roads past all the lakes was very enjoyable.

Oh yeah I just remembered on Sunday we did something really exciting-- we went puenting, or I guess it´s also called a swing bridge. We went to a river outside of Bariloche where there was an old railroad bridge over the gorge. There was a rope tied to the middle of the bridge and then we were in harnesses on the side of the bridge attached to the end of the rope. We took turns jumping off, we each went twice, and right after you jump you free fall down into the canyon for a little and then the rope gets taught and you swing really fast out to the other side and then you go back and forth like a human pendulum. It was such an adrenaline rush! The first part jumping off the bridge was really scarry for me but I loved it! Afterwards I was on top of the world and I felt like I was floating around.

Two other great things I have to mention about this area are the good cheap blottles of red wine and the chocolate shops. A bottle of decent wine only costs like 2 to 3 dollars here, which is hard to beat. And the chocolate shops are on about every corner and they are all so quaint, like grandmas wood cabin with chocolate baking inside, that you just have to go in and try some.

Another way that Chile and Argentina are similar to Europe, well Spain mostly, is in their eating schedules. Talia and I have been having trouble eating recently because we are not on the right schedule-- we usually have a little something early for breakfast and then a picnic lunch and then I am ready to eat dinner by 6 or 7. But yesterday we went to eat something at 6 and they asked us if we wanted lunch!?! I don´t get how it can still be lunch time at 6 in the evening. But people don´t eat dinner here until at least 9 and then around 11pm all the restaurants are packed. I have a hard time eating that late at night, but I am trying my hardest to adjust. Also in the afternoon everything closes down for siesta time and the only food you can find is pretty much chocolate and ice cream. It is a mystery to me how the people are all so skinny when for most of the day all there is to eat are sweets... I have decided it must be in the mate. I am now officially in mate territory and people are always hanging out drinking mate everywhere, I love it. I got really into mate when I lived in Paraguay, but that was like 8 years ago now, and I have missed it. No drink can really compare to a nice mate session with some good company.

Well that´s about all for now because Talia and I are going to the market for lunch, but I will try and come back and continue later-- we are stranded around town until 8 tonight when we have to catch a night bus to Puerto Madryn on the coast. I realize my blog was pretty brief about everything, but I almost gave up completely and didn´t write one at all because I felt too far behind to even know what to write. So I guess this is better than nothing, at least it gives you an idea as to what I have been up to recently, but I know I left out some great adventures and people I have met along the way, so sorry.

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