In light of the terrible earthquake (8.8 magnitude) that shook central Chile this morning, I thought I’d write a post to let everyone know that we are fine.  We did not feel the earthquake here because we are about 1200 miles away in Punta Arenas.  Punta Arenas is located on the Strait of Magellan between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, on the southern tip of mainland Chile.  Our hostel is inland and up a hill.  We don’t think we are in danger of the tsunami here, but we’ll be sure to pay attention to the news. 

The earthquake and aftershocks were really scary to hear about.  Since we are relatively close, it feels more personal.  Concepcion and nearby Santiago are the two largest cities in Chile, with more than 10 million people in the earthquake-affected areas.  Everyone here has friends or family in these areas.  Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Chile affected by this quake.

Painting courtesy of French cyclist Anne Buisson. Thanks Anne! Check out her and partner Stephane’s website by clicking here

Hi everybody!  Ana and I are in Puerto Natales, Chile and doing well.  The weather has been awesome lately, and we’ve been enjoying the sunshine and warm weather.  We’ve been in Puerto Natales for a few days now, and are using the time here to catch up on a few projects.   I used the good weather to give Mango some TLC.  She’s running great but needed a few tweaks after all the bumpy, dirty roads.  I replaced her burned-out headlight, rewired two side-marker lights that shook loose, cleaned her tailight bulbs, regreased the sliding door, put a new fuel filter in, and cleaned the air filter.  Total cost for everything $7.  I love this car!

It’s been good relaxing in a “big” city like Puerto Natales (pop. approx 20,000).  We haven’t been in a city this big since Coihaique, about 2 months ago.  The Banff Mountain Film Festival was in town, and we enjoyed 2 nights at $3 each of watching short films about rock-climbing, skiing, and mountaineering.  They had some really beautiful films, although I must say that some of the rock-climbing stuff was a bit too crazy for me (free-climbing with a parachute - no thanks!)  Their website is here if you want to see some of the films or dates it might be in your town.  We also watched the opening ceremony of the Vancouver Olympics at Baguales Bar with some fellow Northwesterners from Vancouver, Bremerton, and Portland.  Since my family lives in Seattle, it was nice seeing TV from back home and feeling a bit more connected with family, friends, and the rest of the world.

After many weeks of mainly free camping, we are “splurging” and staying at the Hostel and Camping Josmar for $7 a night each.  The hostel is nice because it has cute little wind-protected camping areas in the back with lots of grass.  It also has a nice, warm common area with one free computer for internet that everyone hangs out around.  We plugged our laptop into the modem to make this post.   It also has several dogs and cats that mainly hang out in the sun and occasionally attack Ana’s pant leg.  I especially like the hostel because it’s name is a combination of my parent’s names, Joe and Marlex.  Mom and dad, you never told me you started a hostel in southern Chile!

We also used the time here to catch up on a few cosmetic and hygiene “special projects.”  One warm afternoon I dyed Ana’s hair black, and the next day she put highlights in my hair. No one was around to laugh at us if it went awry, so it was a good time to experiment for us.  We both look exceedingly spiffy now.  I am also still trying to get my pair of jeans to last until Ushuaia, and today I ironed a 6th patch onto the inside of one of the knees.  Additionally, Ana pre-washed some of our nastiest laundry from the Torres del Paine hike in the bathtub of the hostel.  The laundry stench was starting to eat through its plastic bag, so we decided something needed to be done.  All in all, we’ve been quite productive here in Puerto Natales.

Tomorrow, we’re driving to a penguin colony north of Punta Arenas (Pinguinera Seno Otway)  We’ll probably free-camp by the colony if the penguin smell and noise isn’t too great!  Thanks for the emails the last few weeks while we were in Torres del Paine.  It’s nice hearing what everyone is up to.  If you get a chance, leave us a comment or send an email.  We always appreciate hearing what is new in your lives.  Take care and see you after the pinguinos!

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I was bit by a horse at summer camp when I was a kid.  It was the last week of summer and all the horses were pretty ornery from having kids climbing all over them the past 3 months.  I’d spent most of my week at camp shooting bows and arrows, carving my spork, learning how to read a compass, and various other things you do at summer camp.  My day finally arrived to ride the horse and I was pretty excited.  Unfortunately the horse wasn’t as excited as me, and while I was learning how to groom him, he turned his head and bit me.  The bite left a big purple welt on my chest, and a lifelong hesitancy around future horses I’d meet.  I got off pretty easy though, as my horse wasn’t the only grouchy one at the camp.  My friend’s horse trampled him.  He was fine however after several weeks in the hospital (he was actually fine after a few minutes)

So, with my uneasiness around horses always present, I saw a really majestic horse today and thought I’d take some photos of him.  This horse was grazing just outside our idyllic, peaceful camping spot in El Chalten, Argentina.  He was munching away happily on grass and seemed “like a very nice and well behaved horse.”  I was wrong.  A few seconds after I started snapping photos, the horse reared his head and took off running towards the river bank.  Once he reached the bank he promptly turned around, leveled his gigantic head at me, and came running back at full force.  My bad-luck attraction to ornery horses was in full effect today.

I’m trying to become a better photographer, so initially I held my ground and kept snapping pictures.  However, at a certain point my own self-preservation took hold, and I ran away screaming hysterically like a 2nd grade school girl being chased at recess.  The “terrifying” horse ran past, almost grazing me, and disappeared in a cloud of grass and dirt up another hill.  I’m not certain, but I think I heard him snort my name as he ran past.  I kept glancing uneasily in his direction to see if he was coming back to finish me off.  Ana provided no help for my desperate situation other than to laugh at me.  And I thought we were a team!  We got some good photos though, so here they are.  The last one was when I bugged out.

On a happier note, the offending horse was caught and eaten later that evening.  He was delicious.

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Sometimes it can be really windy here!  As an example of how strong the Patagonian winds can be, Mango was physically blown across the parking lot today.  It happened while we stopped to say hi to a German couple with a VW Eurovan in the trailhead parking lot of Torres del Paine National Park.  It was my fault for leaving Mango out of gear and not putting on the parking brake.  I never expected the squall that sent the Germans scrambling to shut their sliding door, and me turning around to see Mango rolling away.   Luckily, I was able to catch up with Mango and jump in the driver’s seat before she rolled into anything.  The German lady, to her great credit, jumped in the passenger’s door to help just as I was applying the brakes.  Catastrophe averted, and the spontaneous good-will of strangers experienced yet again.

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After a year and a half living in a Volkswagen van, we are in desperate need of some new music.  Ana has been attempting to keep me entertained by singing her Romanian car trip songs, but they are only bits and pieces of what she can remember from childhood.  Help me!  If you have some favorite MP3s, please send them our way.  We like just about anything.  You can attach them to an email (10.0 Mb or less) and forward them to the address below.  Our tastes are pretty eclectic, so don’t hold back - send us whatever you’re listening to and like.  It doesn’t matter if it’s old or new - we’d love to hear it.  Thanks.  Here are a few songs we like that we started listening to here.  They may take a few minutes to load once you click on them.

Mana - Manda Una Seña

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Manu Chao - Radio Bemba

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Manu Chao - Bienvenida a Tijuana

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Manu Chao - Clandestino

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Manu Chao - Mr. Bobby

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Manu Chao - Raining in Paradise

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Green Day - 21 Guns

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Hi everybody!  Sorry it’s been such a long time since our last post!  We’re still on the road and doing well.  We are currently in El Calafate, Argentina.  Mango is cruising along as dutifully as ever.  We spent 3 weeks driving from Chaiten, Chile south on the Carretera Austral (Chile’s southern highway) to Villa O’Higgins.  Chaiten was the site of a destructive volcano eruption a year ago.  The town is still struggling to recover, and is in a battle-of-wills between the remaining citizens and the government that wants to relocate them.  Aside from the destruction of Chaiten, the scenery along the mostly unpaved Carretera Austral was absolutely spectacular and we met a ton of great people.

The Carretera Austral is a bit isolated, so we enjoyed the company of several hitchhikers along the way.  A lot of the hitchhikers here are from Israel.  Most of them are in their early twenties and just finished their mandatory three years of military service.  They scatter to all corners of the world for a few months of adventure before heading back to Israel to look for jobs.  We met Max, Kobi, Adan, and Gil from Israel, Stefano from Italy, and Olivia, Thomas, and Mary from Alaska.  Ana was getting worried because previous to our new company, I was apparently getting lonely and starting to talk to Mango like a crazy man!  We also enjoyed a great New Year’s with a wonderful family in Villa O’ Higgins, Chile.  Thanks to Audina and Omar for their hospitality and for including us in their family’s holiday celebrations.  Thanks also to our hitchhiking visitors for the company and good times over the last few weeks. 

Here’s some recent photos.  We’ll try to post more after we visit the Perito Moreno glacier tomorrow.  It’s one of the only glaciers in the world still growing instead of shrinking.  We hope you can make it here to southern Argentina while it’s still around!

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