Good bye Chile

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I was forced to spend a night in Santiago due to the revision of my flight back from Easter Island courtesy of LAN Airlines. It was not all bad as my friend Brian now works at a hostel in Santiago. I stayed the night there kicking it with him, Jay, and some other forgieners.

The night of the fifth I bussed down to Chiloe. It was a seventeen hour ride. I must have slept well, because all went smoothly. I woke up in time to see our bus board the ferry to take us onto the island of Chiloe. I forced myself to stay awake to appreciate the scenic drive. It was not difficult. Chiloe is amazing. I was constantly reminded of England. There is a lot of European influence in Chiloe. Also, it was a foggy, overcast, rainy, morning.

I found a hostel in Castro, one of the main towns of Chiloe. The further south I head the more apparent it becomes that it is not tourist season. From looking at the hostel sign in sheet I saw that I was the only guest in over two weeks. It was just me and the hostel owner, an old man with mumbled speech. Despite the mumbling I managed to understand a decent amount of what he said to me. Now that I am on my own with English rarely being an option I am realizing that my Spanish is better than I thought.

After a fairly uneventful day touring Chiloe on foot I headed back north. My plan had been to go to Bariloche, Argentina. If I were to go from Castro I would have to wait until Sunday. I decided to see a new place. I had heard good things about Puerto Varas.

Today ended up being a tranistion day. I awoke in Castro, missed the first bus (I do not believe this to be my fault. The only bus that could have been mine was mislabled), headed to Puerto Montt, over to Puerto Varas (failed to get off the bus), took another bus back to Puerto Varas, and this time got off the bus.

After buying food and doing a quick walk of the town I strolled by a bus company office. I popped my head in the door, and bought a ticket for twenty seven dollars to another country. Just like that I will be in Argentina tomorrow. I love my current freedom. I have no day to day plans. I am spontaneously going where I wish, when I wish. This is the type of thing that I have dreamt about for a long time. The only bad news is that I only have this freedom until May 26th. On that date I will meet my parents in Cusco, Peru. I will still be traveling, but the individuality and freedom will be gone. Fortunantely I am still young. I have plenty of years ahead of me to live freely and travel the world!

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