Castro for Halloween

Did I plan this? Well, sort of. I am in Castro (Chile) for Halloween. Very appropriate though I am not sure that the party will be the same.
(FYI The Castro neighborhood in SF is where the huge Halloween parade-street party is..)
I took the bus to the island of Chiloe, of which Castro is the capital. The island doesn´t have a bridge so the bus went on a ferry for about 20 minutes. It was the only 30 minutes of sun I have seen in days, so that was good timing. There were actually some seals playing around the ferry too!
The houses here are built on stilts near the water and painted various bright colors. Maybe this place is more like San Francisco afterall. I´m going to meet another gringo for a Halloween beer tonight. I plan to dress up as an obnoxious American which doesn't take much effort.

Have fun and get lots of candy everyone!!!!!

p.s. just made a $9 phone call home to Dave! He is worth it :)
p.s.s. ClearChannel has brought it tentacles of greed down to the remote areas of Chile with their stupid billboards. I saw a bunch on the bus ride.

Alerce trees

I am staying at a German hostel and not hearing much Spanish this evening...
I rented a car with the guy that I met through friends. It was actually really nice to go with him because he is really into birds and checking stuff out along the trail. The drive was much further down dirt roads than we had anticipated. I think we screwed up in going to the south end of the park instead of the north, but this was discovered much past the point of no return. It is called Parque Nacional Alerce Andino. It is relatively small and encompasses a good chunk of a peninsula just east and slightly south of Puerto Montt. If you are keeping track on a map you'll find Puerto Montt rather easily. The park is probably too small to show up on most maps. I am actually staying about 20km north of Puerto Montt in Puerto Varas. This was highly recommended and after todays trip, I know why. Puerto Montt has very little to offer and we spent about 30 minutes there walking around and deciding that there was not much keeping us there.
So back to the park...
These alerce trees are thousands of years old and super tall. Not Redwoods by any stretch, but getting close. We hiked in about 4 miles next to a river and saw all sorts of crazy plants. That area is so lush!! There were mosses and lichens and liverworts growing on the rocks on the trail. There were also tons of bryophytes and some Chilean proteads - long red flowers that the hummingbirds were braving the rain for. Dont be fooled by the fact that I am in South America, this place is much more like Washington than it is a tropical forest. There are not hundreds of species. You see the same trees and plants and birds over and over...it is just that they are jam packed into this beautiful little sanctuary with super steep hills and lakes galore. The alerce trees are conifers, similar to a cypress. Our mistake in going south was that there are more and bigger alerce trees in the north, but I am not complaining. It pretty much drizzled the entire time. The songs and calls of the birds and frogs there were so bizarre. They need to make a tape and sell it.
I think I am heading to the island of Chiloe, just southwest of Puerto Montt, tomorrow. The bus schedule is up in the air because Tuesday is a national holiday and I don=t want to get stuck on a rainy island when sunny Argentina awaits.
I have the dorm in the hostel all to myself tonight. I am heading to a warm bed and a good book.

Puerto Varas

Hello
I took the bus this morning from Pucon. A few things of note... The clearcutting in Chile is even more of an eyesore than what U.S. or Canadian companies are capable of. After clearcutting hillsides, they plant row after row of eucalyptus trees. It is horrendous. Not only does it look weird because the new growth is red compared to the intact forests, but I imagine the trees then invade the surrounding forest that hasn't been cut yet. Crazy.
The bus ride went through some very rural areas. The most common bird species I saw in the pastures was a super colorful ibis!! Bright red legs and all. I forgot to mention that I also saw a caracara chilling in Cani when I was there. It isn't uncommon for people with small farms to use plows pulled by cattle.
It turns out that Pucon is more like the Steamboat of Chile and now I am in the Aspen of Chile. If it is possible, everything here is more expensive. The tours to the surrounding parks are at least $60. Right off the bat I met a guy who runs a guide company. He gave me good advice on where to stay and told me that it is cheaper to rent a car in order to visit the parks.
After some lunch in a cafe with veggie sandwiches, which this fine gentleman also recommended, I ran into some people I had met in Pucon including my buddy from Seattle. They had befriended a German guy who is actually staying in my hostel and was trying to find someone to rent a car with him tomorrow. Perfect! We only have to pay $20 for the car and we have it all day.
The park was established to protect alerce trees which are almost as large and definitely as old as redwoods. It was established during the Pinochet era which is remarkable that anything pro/environment happened then. Ill report in once I have some more info.
I plan to stay here tomorrow night and then hightail it to a cheaper locale.
p.s. I changed the setting for comments to only allow registered users because i am really tired of all the spam. If you don't want to register, just email me directly. I check all of my accounts regularly.

Leaving Pucon

Not much to report. Thursday night being bar night here, I pretty much laid low today. I had my last spanish class this morning. It didn't work out to have coffee at my teacher's house because it was raining all day. It would have been a cold and wet ten miles.
I hope everyone is well!
Tomorrow morning I take a bus to Puerto Varas. Near Puerto Montt but a bit nicer.
I just checked the weather and it looks like more of this cold rain where I am headed followed by a sunny vacation in Argentina.

Monkey puzzles

It is hace frio en Pucon ahora. Yesterday and today have been really cold and cloudy. Which means I didn't choose the best day to hike around Cañi nature reserve yesterday (but I did pick the best day for the volcano- people today were rained out from going to the summit).
The reserve was really cool. We were literally the only people there. There are so many similar plants to California - especially invasive ones. Tons of gorse, broom, eucalyptus, Monterey Pine, etc. The reserve is pretty much without invasives at this point but there is grazing all around it. The lower elevations have all sorts of South American oaks, laurels, gaultheria, fuchsia and others. The higher elevations is where all of the monkey puzzle trees grow. These things are older than dinosaurs and look amazing in the fog. We hiked up another snow-covered mountain to the top which has a scenic vista. Unfortunately we couldn't see any of the tops of surrounding mountains and volcanoes, but the surrounding valleys were in full view. It had rained the night before which actually meant a light covering of snow on the top-most monkey puzzle trees. It was a winter wonderland.
This stupid computer isn't recognizing my camera, so I can't upload photos just now...bummer!
One more day of Spanish lessons and then I'm leaving Pucon on Saturday morning. My spanish teacher has invited me to bike to her cabin outside of town tomorrow after class for coffee. She reminds me of Renee for some reason... I really like her.
More later! Keeping this one short as I try to make the camera work....

Calendars don't work on vacation

How embarrassing. I didn't actually forget my anniversary date, I just thought that yesterday was the 25th. Oops!
Thanks to everyone for the well wishes on the blog and by email. Thanks to Jack for the heads up on blood suckers in the rivers. I will use toilets exclusively now that I have this information.
I can't wait for mi esposo to arrive in Chile. 18 days!!
I will definitely try to post some photos soon. I finally found a fast computer with an obvious USB port. I am going to a private nature reserve tomorrow with tons of monkey puzzle trees, so I will post afterwards. I really picked the right day for the volcanoe becuase Sunday has been the clearest day since I arrived. Once you are on top you are above the clouds anyway, but it is nice to have views of the lakes and surrounding area.
Last night some people I met at the hostel and I caught a taxi to some hot springs up the road. The driver waited for 2 hours while we soaked. There were 6 pools built up next to a river. We couldn't see much of the river because it was night. The pools were pretty natural (just built up with rocks and not made into hot tubs or anything) and had some cool little cabins near by for changing. You could walk down a staircase from the cabin straight into the pool. The stars were amazing. Tons of shooting stars - especially when we worked our way down to the less crowded and darker pools. We saw the Southern Cross. Tt one point on the drive home we think we saw a reflection of the lava on a cloud over the volcanoe. Muy muy bueno!!
I really like Pucon despite the prices. I am learning to eat less and buy food at the supermercado. Unfortunately this hostel doesn't have a kitchen because it has a mid-priced vegetarian restaurant with people working in it all day. I've only had a piece of quiche there so far, but plan to have a proper vegetarian slurge before I leave. I have heard great things about Bariloche in Argentina which is just two short bus rides away. I'd stay in San Martin in between buses. It is apparently similar to Pucon but cheaper because of Argentina's economy. The Spanish (they call it castallena) is really different there, but I understand so little anyway that it won't much matter. I will likely leave on Saturday.
It is so weird how many people I have met from Seattle and San Francisco here. One guy lives in Fort Mason (and is from Ireland). Another lives in Seattle but used to live in the Mission. I met another guy on my first day while I walked through the common area wearing a Jerusalem Gardens t-shirt. He went to U of M. Now he is living here but subletting his apartment in San Francisco which is about 10 blocks from our old place. The craziest part is that he is here writing a book about Pablo Neruda (famous Chilean poet and activist) and I had actually heard of his first book of translated poems called 'Essential Neruda'. It is published by City Lights. It is so crazy! Then I met the owner of Ecole hostel and the private nature reserve who also used to work in the Marin Headlands. He is trying to hook me up with the half-working, mostly run down native plant nursery at the Cañi reserve. If it seems worth it, I might stick around to volunteer, but there might be a serious language barrier.
p.s. sorry about the weird spam messages in the comments sections, but that is what happens if people don't have to sign in.... just ignore them.

Ring of Fire

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!
Two years ago today most of the people reading this were shaking their money maker on the dance floor at our wedding. 2 years!!! And my hubby and I are on different continents :(
Sad, but true. We plan to postpone this year´s anniversary to November 12 when Dave arrives in Punta Arenas.
So, yesterday was the highlight of the trip so far. I climbed Volcan Villarrica. It was awesome. The top is literally a crater with lava churning and spouting down in it. From one point on the outside of the crater you can actually look down and see the inside of the earth. It was fantastico! It took forever to get to the top because I went with the guiding company that my roommate at the hostel chose. It consisted of us and a group of American exchange students. They had some major difficulties and didn´t know what they were in for. My new friend and I kicked all of their young butts and made it to the top easily while almost a third of them abandoned the mission. This is the trouble with tv and video games apparently. We were definitely the last group to the top due to these slow 19-year-olds and a late start. The climb was about 3800 feet up and not technical or dangerous at all. It was all on snow and parts were steep, so we used crampons and ice axes. Then to come down we slid down using the ice axe as a controlling and breaking mechanism. It was so great! I definitely won´t splurge on many more things like this, but I couldn´t pass this up. The volcanoe is just staring at you from outside of town asking to be climbed. In hindsight I should have paid the extra to ski up and back down but I wasn´t sure what the snow conditions would be like - or the ski equipment for that matter. The guides made us wear these terrible plastic boots to fit the crampons because they didn´t have the kind that fit over regular hiking boots. Blisters were a serious problem. Imagine spending a day in plastic, used, larger versions of bowling shoes with other people´s sweat in them.
The hostel doesn´t have the volunteer forest restoration program I thought it did... oh well. I did start my spanish lessons today with a great local woman.
Some other info on Chile:
In Santiago, a cafe is sometimes a coffee shop and sometimes a skin show. You often can easily tell the difference, but the rule of thumb is to determine if you can see inside the cafe from the street or not.
I can´t wait to show everyone the lava pics! So cool!

The Aspen of Chile

I am now in Pucon. It is very resort-y but cute. It is on Lago (lake) Villarrica. Chileans come here in the summer and there are lots of cabins and summer homes. Tons of tourists come here too because there is skiing here in the winter and trekking on the giant snow covered Volcan Villarrica. There are tons of guiding companies for rafting and trekking around the area. I´m here during the shoulder season. It is starting to warm up but there is still a serious nip in the air and not yet too many people. It is fairly pricey, especially for South American standards. My hostel is the cool eco vegetarian coop-run deal called Ecole! (the exclamation is part of the name, I´m not that fired up about it.. yet) I´m signed up for Spanish lessons starting Monday.
The train ride here was interesting. Everything was fine and I´m safe and sound, but there was a little scare. Not sure why I´m telling people this because worrying is so not necessary... Anyway the train came to a weird skidding stop about an hour into the trip. Turns out there was some lumber on the tracks...? I´m still not sure because the work that they did to get us moving again (only about 45 minuts later) was under my car which was the third one. The scary part was that the lumber turned up a bunch of dirt and dust which came into the car through the vents. At first I thought it was smoke until it actually had a texture to it. I was starting to freak out and get my backpack on. Luckily a nice guy behind me spoke English and filled me in on what was happening. Unfortunately his English also served to scare me for no reason. Example: I look out the window and it is pitch black so I freak out and ask him if we are in a tunnel. He says yes. The panic rises until I walk around and see lights from another window. Turns out he just says yes to most of my questions whether he understands them or not. It was pretty funny because people literally kept sleeping during this entire ordeal. There was a group of 10 year old girls that chatted with me early on and I figured their parents would keep them safe so I tried to follow their lead. They proceeded to sing Chilean children´s songs while their dad went outside the car to check things out. I went out too. It was the railroad guys, some male passengers and the gringo girl who was about to go through the emergency exit :) My services were not needed so I went back to my seat and read.
The girls were so cute. I tried to speak Spanish and they tried to speak English. One of them asked me how we say the name of the town Temuco in English. I told her that we didn´t have our own word for their town. Her friends thought it was hilarious.
Anyway, the bus ride from Temuco was much less exciting. Probably no more trains for me :) I did manage to get some sleep after the brief hold up. The real bummer about yesterday was leaving my sunglasses at the hostel... ugh!
Thanks for all of the comments on the blog. Hey, who is my landlord - Tim or John? I am not sure what to say when people ask where I am from due to my homeless status. I say California since that goes over better than Estados Unidos and I´d have nothing to say if people asked me about Seattle.
The views here are awesome - I´m off to take them in.

Santiago day 3

I slept in today due to my new room resembling a cave. It was great. I was successful in locating the correct store and purchasing an electrical adapter for my camera charger. In the US they are not cheap and here I paid one dollar. Sweet. I also tracked down Huelgo which my guidebook calls the continent's best vegetarian restaurant - I'm guessing there isn't a lot of competition. It was yummy. I am starting to do the Chilean giant late lunch and a little snack in the evening. The siesta here is basically an excuse to shop in the middle of the day. The subway is packed between 1 and 3 as are the restaurants and stores. I went with my Australian museum buddy to the Museo Bellas Artes. They had a Worhol exhibit and some other cool Chilean artists. The building itself is really beautiful. The foyer looks like a greenhouse with a glass roof. The hostel is nice enough to let me chill here on my down time since my train doesn't leave until tonight. It helped that I booked a room for Dave and I when we come back through at the end of November. This free internet thing is great. I'm thinking my entries will slow down once I have to pay for the internet and once I am away from the big city. On to the Lake District AKA Sur Chico... It is at least 20 degrees colder there so I'm thinking I might need to purchase a sweatshirt. I have some warm stuff but it mostly consists of that wetsuit-looking thing. And while it could pass as fashionable here due to the tight Euro look to it, it just isn't comfy. More later.

Santiago day 2

So the first night of the hostel was a bit rough. Loud dance club across the street that opens at midnight and some less than thoughtful roommates. No details necessary at this time. I've since moved downstairs to a quiet room.
Last night I went to a lovely dinner on a patio with an Irish girl...a vegetarian one at that. And this morning I befriended an Ozzy to check out the Museo de Natural Historicas. It was nice to have buddies to get lost with. The metro (subway) here is really nice and cheap and easy to navigate. We found the museum and it was a funny mix of displays not updated since before the Pinochet era. Complete with plastic figurines of dinosaurs. Other exhibits were brand new. Apparently copper is a huge export here and the copper people fronted the money for an enormous and new exhibit on the wonders and history of copper. They should include the new de Young museum in it...
The rest of the day pretty much involved hanging out at the hostel, meeting people, watching tv, wandering around the neighborhood and reading in a cafe. Nice and relaxing.
As we were flipping between Laguna Beach and the Simpons in Spanish this walking guidebook of a human appeared at the hostel with tidings of Chilean information. It was nuts. He was talking to a guy about a tour to the mountains this weekend. I started inquiring about some things and the next thing you know he is highlighting maps of the Lakes District and writing down the number of nights I should stay in each place and what hostels are the best. It was two days of internet and guidebook research boiled into 15 minutes with this local specialist. He is also planning a day trip for Dave and I when we come back through Santiago - either the coast or hotsprings in the Andes... awesome!
I bought a train ticket for tomorrow night to head south. I'll end up in Temuco after an overnight train ride and then take a bus a short distance to Pucon where the vegetation-tree hugging hostel awaits. The Natural History Museum today made me want to leave the city and see some things like the famous monkey puzzle trees.

Santiago day 1

So the thing about Santiago being safe apparently doesn't take into account wild dogs. Not mean ones but yes wild dogs. They sort of just hang out and sleep in the shade and I give them wide berth. I walked around all day and saw the Chilean History Museum at Plaza de Armas. It was mostly in Spanish but I caught the main points. The Spanish school wants me to start on Monday with a group or pay out the nose for some private lessons this week. I think I'll continue to use my phrase book and look like an idiot for the next couple of days. Then I'll head down to Pucon in time to start a proper group lesson on Monday. There is a rock outcrop/fortress/church in the middle of the city that must rise up 750 feet in a quarter mile. It is a city park and the top has great views of the sprawling city and the Andes. This city is seriously enormous, especially in comparison to my little 7x7 town of under a million. There is good stencil graffiti and other street art. I have seen "vegetarianos" on some signs but so far I've just had a cheese empanada and some fruit which can't be screwed up through poor communication. Tomorrow I'm going to find the Natural History Museum and attempt to purchase a power converter for my camera. Hey, seriously don't worry about the dogs. I'm not hanging out down by the river. Which, by the way, is a madly flowing brown swirl of snowmelt and upstream pollution. The dogs are simply a sign that I am indeed in South America. p.s. this keyboard is whacky so don't judge the lack of punctuation at times.

Titulo

I am here! The blog page is now in Spanish so we'll see how this works.
Europe is so overrated - this is it! Especially for West Coast people. The flight is the same amount of time but no jet lag. I just got to the hostel and I'm not even in need of a nap yet. The hostel is great. Info for worryers:
Hostel Forestal. Street address = Coronel Santiago Bueras 120 in the Parque Forestal neighborhood of Santiago. Free internet, it is clean and not many people which is good for sleeping but bad for making buddies.
The smog here is really bad but you can still make out the Andes in the distance. The city is incredibly clean with amazing architecture from what I saw on my shuttlebus ride from the airport.
One of my guidebooks says that this is the safest country in the hemispheres - West and South! I'm going to checkout some museums and a language school in case I decide to stick around here for a while.

Post poned

I am one week late in my departure to Santiago due to being a total airhead during the move - and catching the bird flu which I then gave to Dave. Don't believe the hype people, it has already jumped to humans and it is the worst.
Tomorrow I get on the plane to Santiago and the trip begins :)
This is just my test page for how the blog will work to cut down on writing e-mail messages to everyone from Chile.