I'll tell you what, this seat is hard. Been sitting hear far too long answering emails and now me bot has gone to sleep. But thanks for all the messages and comments they are much appreciated and they have in no small way contributed to the sense of homesickness which decended on us earlier.The fact that we were in the middle of nowhere was also a contibuting factor. Feel much better now except I cant find much punctuation on this keyboard.
Anyway, last time I wrote I was about to go rafting. Now this was going to be extreme I thought. So I bowl up to the office where I find that my companions are a family from Columbia who are in one boat and Don, John and Hans in my dinghy.........Don was 70 John was 67 and Hans was in his late 50s. Dudes.
The rapids were big enough for a beginner like me and the two english boys were hysterical. We are going down through the white water, Hans and I paddling for all we are worth and they are happily singing Sailing Down the River on A Sunday Afternoon. And they knew all the words too, to all the verses! I think we'll have a nice bit of cake after this Don, don't you, says John. Splendid company.
On our return we met Naomi who had come to check her gear for the climb the next day and then the two of us headed for a beer. We got chatting to a couple called Matt and Joy who lived in a commune in Yorkshire. I got all Socialist Worker after the second beer.
We got up at 7 for the climb but as we had feared the weather was too bad, so we couldn't go. Instead we made a quick getaway and drove through the backroads to get a good look at the lakes of the Lake District. They were stupendous, but as the clouds were so low the we couldn't make out the volcanos in the distance. We then went to the phonetically spelt POO YEH WAY National park, took a hike into the clouds to get a view of the white then took a dip in a thermal bath. Just like Budapest.
On down the Panamericana to the ferry to Chiloe Island. 30 min crossing then more road to Acun and on to Castro the capital of the island. To get there we went through the longest traffic lights of all time. The road works were 20km long and the lights stayed red for 15mins. The people on a bus infront got out and started doing a Conga round the vehicle. I had to restrain Naomi from joining in
We styed in the Blue Unicorn hotel which was surreal and ate great seafood.
So this morning we drove to the Chiloe national park and took a long windswept walk on the beach. I felt really at home and a long way from home. It was a bit like Braunton Burrows. We then returned through the island lookoing for the international heritage sites that are the wooden churches of Chiloe. They were all closed or had collapsed. So back through the road works and across on the ferry to Puerto Montt where we dropped the car off. In the last 5 days we have driven 2500km and didn't get one speeding ticket.
We are now staying in a ROUGH hostel opposite the ferry port where tomorrow we get the car ferry for 24 hours to Puerto Chakabuko. I wonder if Don and John will be singing on that one too.
