The beginning of the end of the world

Hola! Jon and I have just stuffed ourselves with some fine Chilean cusine. Jon ordered the ´´poor man´s feast´´. A feast fit for royalty complete with steak and greasy fries. I stuck with the really unique paila marina, a soup crammed with all bits of sea life and a few sausages to help fill you out.

We deserved these meals after a 30 hour ferry ride (meant to be 24) along the coast of Chile. We left Quellon, a rough little port town, complete with drunks and bored teens exchanging kisses and cigarettes in the only park Jon and I called home for an entire afternoon. We have had a busy couple of days. The ferry was meant to leave Quellon, on the isle of Chiloe at 4pm, but this being Chile we are of course on ´spanish time´´. 4 really meant 7 which actually saw us leaving the port at midnight! Thank goodness Jon and I splurged on 2000 pesos extra to pay for beds! We really lucked out and had the cabin to ourselves. The views from the ferry were totally romanitc and atmospheric. Misty hills thich with old growth forest, with the tiniest fishing villages popping out along the way. Beautiful views! After 30 hours, and 3 books (one on Nazis and the other about a prostitute), we were going loco and ready to reach land! One French man, riding his bike through South America threatened to get off at one of the villages only to realize that there is no possible way out! These woods are thick!

So yah, 4pm turned into 4am the following day...we arrived dazed and exhausted, and starving (we only brought so much food and had to snack on cookies for dinner). Luckily, the gringos all stuck together and hopped in a broken down taxi whose driver brought us safe and sound to Coyaqhue, the little town where we rest our weary heads now. Tomorrow we head to do some camping in the hills on an organic farm and then we´ll make our way to ARGENTINA to continue our long journey down Patagonia to the end of the world.

I have to mention camping on Chiloe...sorry these mails are so long! It takes forever to upload photos so I have lots of time to kill....

Jon and I hopped on a bus to the national park of Chiloe. We did a 7 hour (supposed to be 5) trek along the coast of the south pacific, saw as penguin in the wild, went up and down the hills, got lost on cattle trails, almost collapsed of thirst and heat exhaustion, meant wonderful locals, and finally arrive the to refugio (beautiful wood cabins in the middle of nowhere), which was closed!!! Luckily we have tents and set up camp on the beach...BEAUTIFUL!!! so remote save for the 2 Californian couples camped next door. We got water from the river, read, wrote, chilled with the pig, 3 cows and 2 horses who kept us company. Jon was awesome after the trek he pulled out 2 surprisingly still chilled beers from his pack!! What a celebration that was.

5 new things I´ve disvovered about Chile...

1. the teenagers are really respectful and helpeful. Especially Santiago from Santiago who set us up with a campsite when we were stuck.
2. When Conaf, the underfunded park administration of Chile promises a site is free they really mean bring money because the farmers who rule that bit of remote land will hunt you down and charge you mucho pesos!
3. The girls here love ´´americano boy´s´and feel encouraged to take photos of Jon.
4. toilet paper really shouldn´t be flushed down the toilet.
5. cold showers rule!!!

Ciao amigos! Thanks for reading and enjoy the photos!