Poetic Wax

The Potable Pull

Wind whipped and sand blasted.

Glaciers, mountains, and clouds collide...

rather they wrestle.

Their struggle carving canyons...valleys.

Blue hued glaciers groan thunderously,

perpetually losing themselves...

yet growing.

Patagonian stars paint night skies,

Patagonian sheep paint landscapes,

Patagonian wind paints your face,

Patagonian peaks tower...demanding contemplation,

they come complete with aqua-marine reflection pools.

This is where umbrellas go to die.

This is where tents go to shred.

Freshwater potably pulls you to your knees to fill your Nalgene,

Or fill your face.

Difficult to access,

harder to leave...

this land and its magnetism draws an ever increasing flood of humanity rushing...

the south pull swelling the riverbanks,

which struggle to contain many waters.

Good news. Bad news. Old news.

Good news is we now have a camera thanks to our miles Dustin and Ashlea-Ann, we were able to replace everything from cameras to credit cards and leathermans. Bad news is we cannot post photos with it due to a lack of a key cable abiding safely in So Cal. Old news is the time we had in Chile. The following post follows our misadventuring until the end of January. We hope to do two more picture less posts...one over Patagonia and one over Argentina. Then, when we get back to the North, we will make and share some slideshows. Here is what happened in Chile!

First of all...everyone keeps asking me, what was your favorite question you had while you have been on this trip? The answer to that question...rather the question to that answer..? was asked by my three year old nephew Simon...or my brother Casey (it is hard to tell who is doing the asking these days.), "Uncle Andy are you and Uncle Dud eating chili in Chile?"

Is that not the best question ever? Sadly, we didn´t get around to eating chili in Chile (but we did in Argentina, sorry Simon...or Casey). But we did get around to the following!

• In Santiago we met up with two of our favorite people in the world! My brother Dustin and Brigitte´s best friend Ashlea-Ann. 
• Dustin and I were especially excited to make the long overdue pilgrimage to Valparaiso...Chile. This is because we are from Valparaiso, Indiana. After visiting the other Valparaiso we can definitively say the following. Valparaiso, Indiana has better pizza, corn, and Buchers. Oh and Valparaiso, Indiana also has an incredible business called Bucher Technologies that can Plan IT, Deploy IT, and Secure IT. But when it comes to views of the ocean. Culture. Brightly colored pastel houses. And random characters...Valparaiso, Chile is the Valparaiso of choice. Dustin, Brigitte, Ashlea-Ann, and myself all agreed upon leaving that we could have spent much...much more time there simply enjoying the view of the harbor from our hostels patio or getting lost and wandering its streets.
• We hopped on a tour bus called Pachemama which allowed us to see a lot of Chile in a little bit of time. What we liked about Pachemema was our driver who taught us that there really is no such thing as "going the wrong way" as well as the people we met like our buddy Frank from Montreal (we long to drink deep of the maple syrup from his parents farm). With Pachemama we hydrospeeded through Chili, stopping at a different town every day for five days straight. We saw fairs, drank blueberry beer (thanks Dustin and Frank...who doesn't love a good fruit beer? Said nobody ever) went down class three rapids with nothing but a piece of foam and a prayer (I still cannot believe we didn't have to sign any liability paperwork...seriously doubtful that hydro speed will ever make it in the lawsuit happy USA), camped, watched the best marionette this side of Gepeto (seriously, you should have seen this guy make his puppet dance like Elvis! Dustin lost it when he had his John Lennon puppet look in the money bag to see how much money people had donated. The puppetteer somehow had the puppet take off his glasses to peer closely in the bag and shook his head disaprovingly. This blew Dustin´s mind!), Ashlea-Ann and Dustin kind of surfed (insert picture of Dustin surfing here) and we perfected the art of cooking for large groups! We had a great time with them both and cant wait to see them when we get back!
• When we said good bye to Ashlea-Anne and Dustin, Brigitte and I were in southern Chile on an island called Chiloe. We tried for a full day to figure out the logistics of getting to Patagonia. We looked into 32 hour buses. Airplanes. Helicopters. Horses. Canoes. Motorboats. Tricycles. But entering Patagonia by way of Chile was not meant to be. So instead we had to change plans. We took the long slow way down to Patagonia by way of Argentina! And we lost a brother and a best friend...but inherited our aformentioned buddy Frank as a travel partner!

Leaving here. Arriving there.

Two Caveats. 

1. We have been without a camera. Please forgive the lack of photos!

2. This blog was written on a keyboard that does not believe in a variety of different punctuation marks, numbers, etc... Please indulge our poorly written post! If you are brave and patient enough for reading, by all means continue!

Reasons that we like Chile so far...

• Pedestrians have the right of way! This crazy idea is not adhered to in either Peru or Ecuador. In fact, whilst crossing the street in Lima, we had an awkward exchange with a car in which he yelled at us for walking across the street when the light was green...and we yelled at him from driving when the little man was green. We exchanged pleasantries and I finished with a real zinger...something like, It is hard for foreigners to understand your culture...where we come from you go when things are green. I am nearly certain that this was a real life changing moment for this Liman. But seriously, in Chile the drivers practically pull over, get out of the car, hold their hands up to stop oncoming traffic, hold your hand and give you a personal escort accross the street! Increible! Or for those of you who do not hablo espanol, Incredible! 
• Wine. Five dollars or less buys a primo bottle of wine. We all know that wine helps the heart. So Brigittes personal goal here is to drink a bottle a day between us. I told her that is crazy and it needs to be more in moderation...but she seems really determined. 
• Toilet seats...at least so far. Fun little fact about Peru and Ecuador is that often times the bathrooms are clean and great except for one small inconvenience...the absence of a toilet seat. A toilet seat is one of those things i think that we take for granted. And making things happen in the bathroom sans toilet seat can be a challenge. Almost to the point where i would prefer a squatty potty or a hole in the ground to a seatless toilet. My dad had a good idea though. He said one person should hold the extended arms of the user of the bathroom while they lean back over the toilet. Great idea. Wish we had learned of during Peru or Ecuador. Its like trust excercise meets intimate marriage. That kind of wisdom is why they made my dad a preacher. Did you now that? Time Bucher is now a preacher. Far out! You can here him Sundays at the Valparaiso Apostolic Christian Church at 1030 and 1230, I think. There is also a free lunch, which my mother often prepares. So get to highway 49 just south of Valpo this weekend! 

Visitors!

• We were so blessed that Brigittes family came to see us! David and Cindy joined for Christmas. After two days of flying and making connections we greeted them on Christmas Eve with hugs...helped them with their bags and gave them a glass or two of coca tea...and then we did not stop for the next week! From Machu Pichu to hot springs to a million sets of ruins, we thoroughly enjoyed our time with them. A highlight for me was when we had our post Machu Pichu pizza meal in Cusco, feasting on things we know..pizza, salad, micro brews...so fun! We miss you guys! 
• A day and a half after David and Cindy left us, our buddy Reb joined us! With Reb we conquered canyons, befriended Swedes, crossed borders, and drank wine. It was incredibly fun to spend time with Cap Hill Small group memeber. She even took us to a very nice dinner where we tagged teamed teaching how to use a credit card to technologically challenged Chilean! We said goodbye to Reb this morning..we already miss you Reb! 

Reasons we have been sad at times...

• Not sure if we ever shared this information via this forum, but we lost our camera when we left Ecuador. It was in the move. It could have fallen out of a pocket. It could have remained in the back seat of a taxi. Not sure. It was sad but we bounced back alright. Brigittes mom picked up a new camera and personally flew it to us, she also went to Machu Pichu and Lake Titicaca with us! It was so nice to have a new camera! We took photos...photos of people...of lamas...of Machu Pichu...all kinds of really cool stuff! But guess what happened next? We lost it! Or better said...I lost it! I was taking photos of Lake Titicaca from the roof of a boat snapping some Cavalari esque shots of the Peruvian flag with a sunset meets storm in the distance. I had mini fantasies of winning a national geographic photo of the year award...shaking hands with the president...my family crying and hugging me for my cultural contributions...all this was happening in my head when I went back down to the bottom of the boat. There are two options for what happened to our camera then. Either I left it on the top and when we docked it gently kerplunked into the bottom of the lake...or a nefarious tourist took it! Not sure which. But the discovery of the loss was probably worse than the loss itself. I still was not aware that I had lost camera number two. We were sitting in the boat waiting for an opportune time to disembark because it had started raining. We waited 5 to 10, then began filing out of the boat. We had to hop from boat to boat until we reached the dock. As soon as my foot hit the dock I turned to Brigitte and said, Wheres the camera! We became frantic, panting like desert dogs. Just as we opened our backpack to search through it, the sprinkles changed to latter day judgement hail that pelted our heads and sopped the inside of our backpack and the contents. We were screaming at each other attempting to communicate. I decided to run back to the boat and look for the camera. I ran back down the dock. Hopped boats. Looked on top of seats and under seats. No camera. Forgot all my Spanish and tried to mime losing a camera to the captain. He said no camera. I left the boat hoping that Brigitte had found the camera in her bag. She had not. And our bus was gone with her parents. We discussed camera finding strategy in the hail and rain. My pants were now completely wet. Jump in a pool in your pants wet. I decided to go look one more time in the boat. They had to move the boat to a more hoppable location. I waited wetly on a neighboring boat. When it got close enough boarded, looked again, and came up empty again. I left the boat and found Brigitte taking refuge on a nearby boat. We sulked our way down the dock where we tossed our soaked bodie into a taxi and returned to our hostel...camera less. 
• Flash forward a week and a half and I got out of a taxi. But my kindle did not. This story I will keep brief. Kindle down. 
• For those keeping track at home, that is now 2 cameras, 1 kindle, 1 panama hat, and a few articles of clothing...and a bracelet that we have donated to the continent of South America. Good news though. We found the bracelet! 
• Brigittes eye was puffy and gunky. Then we met our friend Reb. Her eye was gunky and puffy. Guess whos eye is now puffy and gunky?