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!
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!
