Hotel Bayern Temuco

... age is 18 makes 21 just another number. I made the mistake once of saying cuando era joven (when I was young) just to have them stare in disbelief at me and say what are you talking about, you are young! I don’t know where I’m going with this, just I guess that I’m now 21 and (as of yet, because I’m not in the US) it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be. Childhood is definitely socially constructed.

... about 3 bucks, a small pizza (enough for two barely hungry people) about 8 dollars, bottled water 2 dollars, you get the idea, U.S. prices. So we try to stick to the market and make sandwiches in our room. Remember those department stores I mentioned? All crammed slap full of people who shop like they´re going to war. Two for one sales were on in earnest, (the aforementioned liquidacion) and I tried to run ...

... bus I kinda gave up being too attached to the outcome of the day and just resolved to enjoy the experience, which was not too hard. I was lucky at least to have boarded the bus at the terminal and so get a seat. Not long after we left the terminal, the bus got packed. People got on and off but closer to the end it was filled with school children who had just finished school for the day. I had a lady sit next to me for the last hour or so of the trip, by which ...

... We got there late at night and had to take a cab even though we didn´t know where we were going. I wanted to stay near a railroad museum named after Neruda. Two other passengers shared the cab with us. I asked a woman in the front about cheap places. Not much doing near the museum so we went downtown. She instructed the cabbie where to go and he left us in front of a dilapidated mansion and drove off. A gentle man belonged in the present day world even less than I do was hosing ...

Time to start discovering the thin country! I popped to see my new Finnish friend Salla in Temuco. I had my first taste of pisco (Chilean drink) and colectivos (sort of taxis with planned routes). Learning some Chilean Spanish finally: ¿Cachai? Planning to dye my hair dark at some point - I really do stand out with my super blond hair as my friend pointed out.

... Sam kept collapsing into a heap at every opportunity and I too felt as though all the energy had been drained out of me. German grabbed my arm and dragged me. He kept pushing us and finally 6 hours after we had started climbing, we reached the top! What an eerie but exhilarating feeling! It felt unreal, there we were walking on the crater of an active volcano! We had to put our gas masks on as the smoke coming out the volcano was ...

Ce lundi matin, je jette un regard désemparé vers le ciel: il pleut des cordes, à nouveau. Je comptais passer la journée dans le parc national Huerquehue, mais la perspective de le faire sous la pluie ne m'enchantait guère. Sur le coup, j'ai décidé de quitter Puerto Varas et pousser vers le nord, direction soleil. Après le petit déjeuner, je dis au revoir (toujours pas adieu) à John et Rachel, et pars prendre le bus pour Pucón. Je ne manque pas de remarquer que les bus sont ...

Miles traveled: 42234 We met up with our traveling companions today. There's 23 of us again, another full truck, though it seems a bit bigger so not quite as crowded as in W. Africa. We're the only 2 Americans, though there is a woman with Irish citizenship who went to Stanford and lived ...

Saludos everyone!! It's been a busy, busy last week around here. Today marks 4 months in Chile. It's really hard to believe that its ending. I'm already missing it. Plans are starting to fall in place for our 2 month trip. We bought tickets to Quito for Jan 4th, and should be buying tickets into and out of Brazil this week. Last week was fairly routine, though it's starting to get into the talking about final papers mode and stuff. I'm only worried about ...

After Alma left for Ireland, I decided to take Spanish lessons for a week under the opinion better late than never and that every little helps :-) Well the Chillans are noted for speaking fast and that fellow South Americans have difficulty understanding them. So in reality what I did was akin to asking a Corkman to teach me English :-)When I arrived at my language school, I was greeted by a sign that read "Please knock the bell", suddenly I ...