South ho!

We got off the boat in Chaiten, Chile about a week ago. What I saw was something undescribable, somthing i have never seen before and certainly somthing i hope to never again see in my life. The city is filled to the brim with ash. I strolled through as many streets as possible during the few hours we had before our bus headed south. Homes were filled to there roofs, and lives were stopped in place, and removed from that location forever. After the clouds burned off, the volcano, still eerlily pouring ash, stood tall over the town. There will be no official recuperacion until it stops errupting.

We caught a bus to Villa santa lucia and found a nice little campsite on the river. The next day our hot sunny weather continued as we road in the back of a truck down south arriving in La Junta. We camped next to a large river the color of the caribean and enjoyed the sun as we swam. The next day after a nice hike down the road, we shared the back of a truck with a lamb. We made it to Puyayapi on the fjord. After camping a few more days in this location, we again hit the road and put our thumbs in the wind. A few days later, after camping in the nonstop rain, we walked hours only to finally roll into a little bump in the road and find one open room. After a night warming up and drying out, we beat the streat again, and after 4 hours walking and a few hitch hikes, we arrived to our current location of coyhaique. We will again stay under a dry roof tonight as we look for our next romp into the wilderness.

Patagonia is filled with glaciers, its amazing! Its quite an experience to swim in the ocean, in the shadow of a glacier and then drip dry in the middle of december.

Hope all is well on the states side, we´ll be keeping our thumbs in the wind!
Salud and happy new year!

Fast Finish

Hello all. This is going to be quick. I finally finished school a week ago. wheh. done forever. A ten page final exam and a 20 page ressearch paper and its all in the books. Imediatly afterward my buddy Jesse arrived in Concecepcion. I showed him aruond and we also climbed Volcan Chillan. We camped at the confluence of three hotwater rivers streaming from the volcano. Later in the week another buddy, Jerad, arrived and we headed out of town. We have spent the last week camping and hitch hiking through the island of Chiloe. Yesterday we were at an amzzing secluded beach we walked 4.5 hours to arrive to. I have never seen the pacific ocean be so beautiful.

Tomorrow morning we are getting on a boat to Chaiten where the volcano erupted earlier this year. We will be hitching and camping our way down south, taking it as it comes.

Its a crazy sensation to go from resident to tourist in a day, but I have two of my best friends with me, and we are kicking ass. I hope all is well on that end. I hope to update when the technology is available.

Dan