I am Home

The end has come. I flew home last Monday after five months of being abroad, after traveling through six countries, after over 20,000 kilometers without a plane, over 250 hours on buses, after countless hostels, beautiful waterfalls, foreign friends, and too few empanadas. I am home.

Anyways, I said goodbye to my host in Cusco, the same New Yorker who got stung by a freshwater ray in Paraguay, and got on a 18 hour bus to the Chilean border. After almost getting my trail mix taken away, I crossed into Chile and onto another 18 hour bus to a small beach town in Northern Chile. La Serena was a small town with a beautiful square and tons of churches. I used it to recover from Peru and prepare for Santiago.

My host in Santiago is a guitarist, an amazing one. I met him in Southern Chile as we got off a ferry onto a bus, amidst the Andes, beside the Futeleufu. He was playing the guitar, adding music to match the mood. After coming around and contacting him, he remembered me and offered a place to stay with him and his father.

I arrived in Santiago after a short six hours on my last bus in South America, the same bus which broke the shoulder strap on my backpack. With the directions Alvaro gave me, I came to his house with only his father home. After a broken conversation and an amazing meal, I took off to meet Alvaro, who I found in a jam session with a cute drummer. I sat in on these two as they played a collection of American Rock, Chilean Folk, and everything in between.

After a relaxed night, I was up early to see the city. I started in Museo Bellas Artes, Chile's National Museum of Art. It was a beautiful building, loaded with beautiful art, though portions were still closed off because of the earthquake. Same problem as always, it's an old building celebrating 100 years this year and it was a tremendously strong earthquake. Next was Cerro Santa Lucia, a garden with a view. I was able to take various paths to the top of a hill, then back down to a statue of a dog and a huge fountain.

Deciding on the central market for lunch, I needed to walk a ways to get there. The central Plaza de Armas lay in my path, and I enjoyed its eccentricities immensely; the standard tourist knicknacks, the beautiful Catedral Nacional, a man painting an excellent portrait of a completely nude woman (life size, out in the open, unfortunately from a photograph), and a group of comedic street performers, whose Chilean accents were lost on me. Lunch turned out to be delicious.

The afternoon was spent ascending the ascensors to the peak of Parque Metropolitano, giving a smoggy view of the city; LA is a lot worse though. The hike down was very pleasant, with a tree covered trail to the river followed by a crowded subway to Alvaro's. After a recharge, we head out to watch some Jazz at a club with some amazing harmonica. My host and the drummer from the day before were friends with the group and played on stage during the second set; again, they were incredible, she even stayed up for an extra song. A party followed that lasted till 5am, when I ended my last night in South America.

The next day, I woke up (relatively) early in order to be tired for the plane home. I had breakfast in a random cafe, and tried to visit another museum and was thwarted by closures due to the earthquake. I made it home to hang out with Alvaro and his father until leaving.

I spent my last Chilean Pesos on a yogurt, got on a plane, and came back to the United States of America.


Somethings Interesting:
--Things I missed include friends and family (obviously), flushing toilet paper, successfully eavesdropping, not carrying my passport with me, Mexican Food, Peanut butter, Sushi, Cayucos, my dog, news and information, and going to the Cinema. This list, however, is far from exhaustive.

--Things I did not miss include having a cell phone, schedules, obligations, waiting for the crosswalk guy, most of popular culture, and having a general feeling of security. Again, far from exhaustive.

--The entire process of coming home took 15 hours; my record for a single bus trip is 51 hours.

Patagonia is Cold

It has been awhile since the last post, mainly due to the fact that I have kept so busy. I have been to two Parque Nacionales, experienced a 25+ hour bus ride, trekked for four days, and lost my debit card to a cajero automatico.

After crossing the Argentine border, I got my first of the two PN with Parque Nacional Los Alerces. It is a beautiful park in Northern Patagonia with several lakes and the South American equivalent of the Sequoias we have in California. After a glassy boat ride between peaks and glaciers, we got to the old forest with our guide. He spoke only in Spanish, but my abilities have progressed so that I could at least understand what plant or animal he was talking about, and sometimes what was interesting about it. Boat ride back, and a bus ride back to town ended a long day the night before an even longer bus ride.



25 hours is a long time on a bus, but I got through it with the help of lots of food and surprisingly good movies (personal favorite was a ripped copy of Sherlock Holmes). I arrived in Esquel, leaving myself only enough time to let an automatico eat my card before traveling back in to Chile to prepare for a trek in Torres del Paine. I made this trek with Ben Birnbaum, a friend of a friend from the Melville, and our base camp was Puerto Natales, where we enjoyed a night of partying with some locals met through Couchsurfing before taking off into the Parque.

The Parque Nacional Torres del Paine is arguably the Yosemite of South America. It has incredible views, challenging and rewarding hikes, and lots of people. We completed the "W" a hike which doubles back on itself three separate times, forming the shape of a "W" on the terrain. We took our time, completing the entire trek in four nights, and ended with a spectacular sunrise giving amazing color to the Torres. Some happenings of note include several moustaches meeting up, Ben's backpack being chewed into by mice, possibly a dead man in the drinking water, and amazing dinners (salmon with rice, pasta with red sauce and hot dogs, ravioli soup, and macaroni with three types of meet).



Returning to the "real" world, we enjoyed some amazing lamb and chicken barbecue that was near impossible to find. We took the weekend to recover, with laundry and personal cleansings. A second night of partying with the Couchsurfers saw us getting VIP access to a club opening. We shared the night with only locals as we danced and stared from our lounge on the second floor. The next day, I said my goodbye to Ben and got on a bus to Punta Arenas, where I am now.

Somethings Interesting:

--Patagonia is Freezing cold.

--While the continent is large, all travelers are heading in the same direction, going to the same attractions. I run into friends previous all the time.

--Penguins are too expensive to see, sometimes costing $70. Hopefully I can get some cheaper up north.