Lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lollapaloooooza

Really great two days at Lolla here in Santiago. I saw a lot of great bands starting with Dillan Frankenwriter spanning from the Kooks to great Chilean bands including Los Tetas and Astro, Back to dillon Francis, chet Faker, and Kings of Leon, Kasabian, jr gong marley, the Smashing Pumpkins. Bands that absolutely killed it were Alt-j, who played at a smaller stage as the sun began to descend into the late afternoon, perfect vibe for their sound......the forerunners of Ska, the Specials, Cypress Hill in a indoor stadium, packed to the third deck, Robert Plant, one of the guys who made Lolla a possibility to exist, and an absolute maniac and true genius on the stagee, Jack White. Here are a couple pics from the festivities....

Pucon and Concepcion

Here are somepics from Pucon and Concepcion.  Concepcion was great, i stayed with Luca, a friend of a friend, who lives in Concepcion and he showed me a great time.  There was a 9.2 earthquake in Concepcion in 2010 andthe city pretty much was an everybody for themselves situation for a week.  But the structural engineering is so good here in Chile that thw city looked in great shape. You couldnt even tell there was a major catastrophe here just five years ago.  Concepcion is a great city, full of young people, it is a big college town....not one that many tourists frequent, so it was very sweet to stay and hang.  I wish i could have stayed longer.  Anyways here are some more pics.  Last one is us eating the best empanadas in the world! From a small shop on the side of the road about a half an hour outside of concepcion, whole in the wall or ______ as they say here.

 Villarica volcanoe, that exploded a week ago, from outside my hostel, in Pucon

The center of campus of universidad de concepcion, a private and very high regarded university

Art gallery room inside art exhibition

Inside the art exhibition at universidad de concepxion...mural in the background was a gift from mexico to the chileans to represent unity of all of the american countries

Me at a secret laguna outside of concepcion

The country flower, a very rare find, but one that my friend Luca was able to spot

Puerto Varas and Myststerious Chiloe

Less than a week until Lollapalooza in Chile! The countdown begins and im super stoked for this upcoming weekend, but there is still more slated and lots that has happened since last post..... I am in the town of Pucon, the base camp sitting under Chile's most dangerous and active Volcanoe, Villarica, which exploded hot creamy lava last week over the surrounding area. I got here after spending the we,kend in Puert Varas, an old German town just west of the Andes and north of the port town Puert Montt, which is also sanwhiched between a lake and two volcanoes, you can see that in one of the pics.  Yesterday, i took a full day tour of Chiloe, the magical and mysterious island just off the coast in the Pacific, and also the end of the great intercontinental highway we call in San Diego "The 5". On the island they have really cool buildings, the houses one one side of the road are built on top of the water. Guess they like to maximize their space. After that tour I immediately jumped on a red eye bus up the five to Temuco, from where I had to ditch the bus at 3:00am and hacer dedo (hitch hike) into Pucon. I realized after a while its probably quite creepy/horror filmish to be hitchiking in the middle of the night, so it was a quick power camp next to the interstate and catch a ride 100km into Pucon. On tap for today is some level 5 rapids and a hot springs sesh in the evening with the hostel. Then onto Concepcion tomorrow! Here are some pics of the last couple of days. Puert Varas tops, Chiloe bottoms

Good Morning Chile!

I made it into Chile after waking up in the uncontroolled middle land between argentina and Chile to one of the most spectacular scenes of nature, a lake below the cliffs i slept on, with the river valley flowing from the east, and the forest, and high mountains way in the distance with the morning light streaming through the scattered clouds across it all, it just felt like i was on the right path.  2 hours later i was at the Chilean checkpoint with another four hours of trekking along another series of high lakes forest and then to a road and civilization.

I am now there at llanada grande, a small pueblo along a new unpaved road waiting to take a bus through to puerto Varas.  I did not expect to make it this far, however i was picked up almost immediately along the road by a vacationing couple in their later years who brought me to this little town strip.  After buying a pisco from the convenience store to celebrate  i was stopped outside of town by a topographer, as i was looking for a suitable place to camp alongside the road.   After talking for several minutes in my broken spanish with him he took me to a friends house farther up the road where they were happy to let me camp alongside their crystal clear and amazingly fresh flowing river.  I slept great apart from the rooster who thought the sun was coming up and 330 in the morning, and happened to also be a stubborn rooster at that.  But i am super stoked to start day two here and am very excited to spend my last month in chile, hopefully it will be just as fun and interesting as yesterday.

Yesterday, being the day that this journal is about was just as good as the first to start.  After catching the jankiest bus in the world, piled high with luggage from all the locals traveling to the port city from deep in the Chilean forest the bus came to an abrupt stop at a lake.  It turns out, part of the bus trip included a necessary boat travel across a Patagonia Lake to get to where the road picked up again!  Total cost for the boat was two dollars, and the views were incredible.  Truely a great suprise.

Nos Vemos, Quisas Gaucho Vida

Back on the omnibus again!  Heading down to Bariloche the final city in Argentina before i cross the border into Chile.  My time at the ranch is over now.  What a fun place, i was able to install the infamous jacuzzi hottub and firebox, my main project given to me upon arrival.  But not only that, there were so many great things i did there including working with Gauchos every day, riding horses, leading two pack trips, camping, cow wrangling, horse round ups, goat butchering, making bread from scratch, fires, and lots of wine and whiskey.  Just finished a three day hike out of there, Ranquilco.  Most people take a taxi after an easy two hour horse ride,after some talks with Ashley an old route out was the way i took.  Left based upon the directions of the Patron of the ranch, Ashley, "Just follow the Trocomon (river) and go South.  Turns out the Trocomon leads to the west and into Chile, not to the destination i was headed, Caviahue, a small ski town.  But with a handy "food drop" and after several talks with Gauchos along the way and their inconsistent directions along with my Logistics amigo Ethan we made it to the town.  No map needed!  Here are some pics from the trekking adventure.  And a map of our path.

Pics of El Chalten, the Eden of Patagonia