La Jac Goes to South America.: Boom, baby.

SUMMER BREAK UPDATE:
     It´s 5 a.m. I´ve been on a bus all night. I would like to be sleeping, but the gentlemen in front of me would like to be listening to their travel radio, and freezing me out by keeping their window open. The Peruvian woman next to me seems warm and unbothered in her thick stockings, a very full gathered skirt and bowler hat three sizes to small. (She is in the height of fashion around here, I might add.)

     So, instead of sleeping I´ll write my overdue blog.   The last couple of weeks in Valdivia were a swirling craziness of final papers, friends and goodbyes. The morning after our last final my friend Erin and I started our Patagonia adventure off right with a 12 hour bus ride, followed by a flight south.   5 a.m., in the Punta Arenas airport (after spending a very florescent and drafty night there on the floor) we got down to business: my first cribbage lesson. Then our first view of the Strait of Magellan and we met up with Siena.    After getting all supplied up by crazy Eduardo, a kind-hearted and somewhat loony hostal owner, he took us to catch our bus to the Torres del Paine launching pad town of Puerto Natales.

     Torres del Paine is an incredible national park in the Chilean Patagonia. It is BREATHTAKING, and not just for all the hills. Erin, Siena and I set out with all our best worldy posessions (mainly wool, Gortex, and chocolate) strapped onto us with twine and bungee cords. We kept meeting up people who looked like serious hiking business (mainly handsome Israeli men), but we successfully brought "serious hiking business" down a notch or two.

DAY 1: Lovely! A beautiful meadow, gorgeous weather. Hardly ran into another person. I don´t imagine I could have felt more carefree (except for the enormous backpack full of carrots and apples... maybe Eduardo was right about that.)
DAY 2: We just hiked up to have lunch at an enormous glacier, no big deal. We started noticing that the wind was insane.
DAY 3: Morning rainbows, incredible blue-green lakes, baby avalanches, and incredible panoramic views. Parted ways with Siena. (Also, a long nap on a rock in the middle of the river.)
DAY 4: SO many terrain changes, just so many of them. Rocky lake beaches, the surface of the moon, meadows, insane rivers to cross. Wind that threw us to ground.
DAY 5: Hot, hot. All uphill. Made it to the campsite right below the famous Torres (towers) de Paine. Had tea and a bird watching discussion with the camp hosts, received the stink-eye from all the other freezing campers upon our exit of the cozy cabin. (Sorry guys, benefits to learning Spanish.)
DAY 6: Up at 3:30 a.m. to get to the Torres at sunrise. Then we began our descent, with the wind and the rain chasing us out.

     Midnight found us in Punta Arenas again, looking for a hostal and a shower, and except for the stinky bunkmates we found a pleasant little place. We kept running into people we´d met in the park... Argentians, Spaniards, and of course, the many Israelis. The next morning we visited the Strait of Magellan and hung out with the penguins there. Those little guys are really funny. Same day we saw a condor, flamingos, ñandu (kind of like an ostrich), among others... bird watching triumph.

     From there began the journey to the U.S. where I spent Christmas and New Years. I hung around the house with the family a lot, and managed NOT to dance... we´re going on 5 months now, and this is becoming a problem. No bingo, either. There was lots of snow, though, and everything was the same and different all at the same time. It was fantastic to come home.

     Early January and in the Seattle airport, waiting for my flight to Santiago: a kind, weirded-out soul let me use his computer to e-mail Erin. I had realized we bought tickets to San Pedro de Atacama for the wrong date. Bummer.   Our last minute "change of plans" took us on an overnight bus to La Serena, a pretty beach town. We spent the whole day there napping on the beach and exploring, and took another overnight bus headed to San Pedro de Atacama. Chilean buses aren´t half bad, and it all worked out.

     San Pedro de Atacama sure is a desert, and really doesn´t seem SO different from the outskirts of Yakima. Our days in the desert included the Tatio Geysers at sunrise, INCREDIBLE night skies, a sunset over the Valle de La Luna (incredible), and my first bed after 3 nights of travel. The last day we went out into the Salt Flats of Tara, just zooming over the wide-open orange-colored desert for hours. The guy driving told me there was "no right road." I think he meant "no road at all." It´s so fun to be able hang out with Spanish speakers all day and be just fine. Travelling here would be different, otherwise... that´s for sure. Our hostal owner Maria had some insightful UFO/government conspiracies stories for us. All in all, it was perfect.

    Another night bus to the Chilean border. Crossing into Peru was pretty painless and we very quickly noticed we weren´t in the same country. It´s crazy how much difference a border can make. We spent hours driving through a barren desert in a slightly smelly bus with nothing to divert us but Spanish-speaking Zach Efron on the mini television screen at the front of the bus. (This was not one of my better bus trips.) A fews hours exploring pretty Arequipa and we headed onward to ancient Cusco!

     Cusco. So cool, and so OLD. In fact, the oldest continually inhabited city of South America and the old Incan capitol. We met up with Rob and Eitan, two guys that were in the program in Chile with us.   Saw a ton of ruins and amazing Spanish architecture, but they really did fade a little in comparison to what we saw a few days later: soaked, freezing and extremely happy, we reached Machu Picchu at 5:30 in the morning. It was really, really crazy. Jungle above and below and fog rolling all around it, it was just so big, and the architecture of those loco Incans was INCREDIBLE.

     We headed back to Cusco for a few more days, and while I´m writing this we´re on our way to Puno, Peru for our first sighting of Lake Titicaca. The future brings us to Bolivia, except for Eitan, who we´re losing to Colombia.

     My life is surreal right now. More to come, but until then, I offer you pictures...