A week off backpacking

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After a week of winter camp, Dana, Brad, Ari and I decided to bacpack our way south to Coihayque instead of suffering through another day of cancelled flights. Our first stop was Temuco in the Los Lagos region. We stopped here because of awesome hiking recommeded by people and travel books. One problem: its winter in Patagonia. This means the park near Temuco was full with snow and inpenetrable. Instead, we decided to explore the city for the day. While wondering around we found the Mercado Municipal where tons of artisans displayed their work and salesman displayed their meat. It was colorful. On our way back to the hostel we ran into a protest by several labor unions. In Chile, unions are still considered taboo and so are protests so we got away as soon as we could as did a lot of locals. Our next stop this afternoon will be Pucon, a town by the edge of the Andes full with outdoor activities such as hiking, white water rafting, horseback riding and bathing in hot springs.

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