Well, I went back to Santiago for a few days, to get just a bit more time with Cesar and relax a bit. I needed that last bit quite badly, got super sick and spent my birthday doing unspeakable things. But, Santiago was great. Cesar´s mom took care of me during the day while Cesar tortured himself with the first month of grad school (pobrecito). I got to meet a lot of Cesar´s family, they were so nice to me!
On friday night we went to a concert in the park, Carmina Burana no less. It was chaos getting a place to watch. Everywhere we tried we got chased out of, till we just sort of sat and pretended like we didnt get it (and I really didnt ;) till the music started and they left us alone. It was funny, the power went out halfway through, the musicians did an amazing job powering though that particular song, but we had to wait for them to fix it before the concert really continued, all of us sitting in the dark. Odd. Then, a novel experience for me, though pretty normal here I guess: they did an encore. I´ve never been to a classical music scene where they do encores. Another odd.
The night got more adventurous though. We went to a little hotdog stand that Cesar had raved about in our previous travels. Keep in mind that Chile is by far the safest county I´ve been to on this trip. We are hanging out, with two of Cesar´s friends, and in crew waving swords and guns comes running and holds the place up! We got away perfectly fine, if a bit shaken up, though there was a few moments under the table stuffing the crucial stuff down socks (or in my case with flipflops, very uncomfortably down underwear!) There were a couple of unfortunates who lost some stuff along with the restaurant, but no one got seariously hurt, so all´s well. It was one hell of an adventure! I still dont really belive it happened. Seemed too much like a movie or something.
Life calmed down after that. We went with Cesar´s mom to this great little town for lunch. But, remember how in the beginning I was laughing about how my trip to Chile was tracing the path of my previous trip? Totally unknown to me, this town was the same one I went to with Petra before! Argh! But, it was still fun, no complaints. Cesar ate a giant 1 kg empanada.
I got my last pastel de choclo, love that stuff!
It was hard to leave, but work called (ugh). The flight was horrible. I left on a late night from Santiago, got to Lima at 3 in the morning. But, I had to leave the terminal with all my baggage and recheckin. Unfortunately for me, all the checkin stands are closed at 3, shockingly. I spent the night in the McDonalds eating area, paranoid with all of my junk, in an airport famous for theft. Finally, at 7:30, they let me check in again. Another fun thing, the customs guy that night didn´t stamp my passport cause I wasnt really going to the country. But, the customs guy that morning wasn´t so cool with the fact that I had been there for 6 hours unprocessed. It all worked out, but it was unnerving. Then the airline needed volunteers to take a different flight, passing through Bogota. I got a $200 voucher for it, so why not? The rough part (other than the addition of another flight and airport layover) was that as we flew in to Bogota, I saw TONS of my plant out of the window and could do nothing about it. ARGH! The airport was interesting as well. got very thoroughly patted down (think, whoa! only my boyfriend can touch me like that!) Fun. Ha. Made it to Guatemala though.
I got pictures from Cesar! I do oh so miss that boy, sigh... but emailing him is helping me practice my spanish, and if this Easter Island thing actually does work out, I may get to see him! Wouldn't that be lovely? Anyways, here are some pics he sent me of his nephew Tomas. Cute, no?
On friday night we went to a concert in the park, Carmina Burana no less. It was chaos getting a place to watch. Everywhere we tried we got chased out of, till we just sort of sat and pretended like we didnt get it (and I really didnt ;) till the music started and they left us alone. It was funny, the power went out halfway through, the musicians did an amazing job powering though that particular song, but we had to wait for them to fix it before the concert really continued, all of us sitting in the dark. Odd. Then, a novel experience for me, though pretty normal here I guess: they did an encore. I´ve never been to a classical music scene where they do encores. Another odd.
I got my last pastel de choclo, love that stuff! 
It was hard to leave, but work called (ugh). The flight was horrible. I left on a late night from Santiago, got to Lima at 3 in the morning. But, I had to leave the terminal with all my baggage and recheckin. Unfortunately for me, all the checkin stands are closed at 3, shockingly. I spent the night in the McDonalds eating area, paranoid with all of my junk, in an airport famous for theft. Finally, at 7:30, they let me check in again. Another fun thing, the customs guy that night didn´t stamp my passport cause I wasnt really going to the country. But, the customs guy that morning wasn´t so cool with the fact that I had been there for 6 hours unprocessed. It all worked out, but it was unnerving. Then the airline needed volunteers to take a different flight, passing through Bogota. I got a $200 voucher for it, so why not? The rough part (other than the addition of another flight and airport layover) was that as we flew in to Bogota, I saw TONS of my plant out of the window and could do nothing about it. ARGH! The airport was interesting as well. got very thoroughly patted down (think, whoa! only my boyfriend can touch me like that!) Fun. Ha. Made it to Guatemala though.
Guanacos! 
Quite windy though 
We hiked up to the base of las torres. It was one heck of a hike, but incredable. We started pretty late though, almost didnt make it back to the tent. thank goodness for long antarctic days!
Sunset, with a long way to go to get to the tent!
Katie and I went to Puerto Montt and rented a car to look for my plant. I had my first real conversation in spanish with the guy that got us the car to rent. We talked about my plant, which is really the only thing that I can be coherant about in spanish. It was pretty cool. But, my comprehension didnt last. That night,we camped and the owners of the campground talked our ears off. They fed us breakfast because they were curious about us and we sat and ´talked´ for 2 hours. It was so much fun, even if we couldnt follow a word they said! 
And you have to admit, it really isnt a bad place to work with a view such as this! 
Two days ago, Eliska, Marcel, and I went on another search for my plant. We had a beautiful day, and eventually quite successfull... but it was also rather full of trials and tribulations. 
First, and not unexpectedly unfortunately, there was an issue with the car...
Then, Eliska and Marcel were exhausted because the had to pick up Honza from some random place in the woods where he had walked down from his reseach site at the top of the mountain. Not suprisingly, they got very little sleep. So, short nap by the river, ah.... 
We kept driving and searching... just a few km more, just around this bend... we found this ferry which was kind of cool, but no totora.
Then, the crowing achievement of the day... we lost Marcel. He went to a meadow 
to do his work while we went to out mucky spot (finally found one, 3 Km from the end of the river!). When we got back to pick him up, he was nowhere to be found! He speaks no spanish, and we are off in the middle on the Chilean counryside, 60 km from the nearest paved road. But, we had help, a quite handsome man (on a horse of course!) showed up and didnt laugh too hard at our bad spanish and silly predicament. He organized a search and we eventually were all reunited. What an adventure!
I had a free day today so I decided to go for a walk. Since this is a complete and total tourist town and everything costs money, I decided to take advantage of Eliska´s property and walked up the hill behind their house. There was a logging road to follow for a while 
(I mean an oxen trail with a big ditch in the middle where the logs ripped through). Going up was hard, I am way out of shape, but it was beautiful views to look at while you caught your breath. I made it up into the trees that I have been admiring from the lower levels all week. Going down was a bit tricky though, I knew where I was, and where I wanted to be, but lost a bit of the way for a while. Yippie! Try climbing down a cliff through a bamboo thicket someday, fun stuff. 
My plant is everywhere here!!! 
This momma cat was very hungry, she ate our leftover breakfast. 
My beautiful plant 
The next day, it was a tease 
Then the little hat of clouds that lite up at night to the accompanyment of the giant comet streaking across the sky. Yes, this volcano is definitely live. Smokes during the day and glows at night... wow 
Here are some views from the house. 
And this is Eliska, enjoying a stolen plum (as did I, yum!) 
Pretty stuff 
Doing laundry. Yep, Eliska carried wet (from the muddy work we did) laundry down to the neighbors, then carried wet (but clean!) laundry back up. What a hike! 
