Happy Easter!!!

Hia All,

Just wanted to wish you all a happy Easter and also fill you in on what has been happening over the past week or so....

The drive through the Andes on the 22nd was not as dangerous as expected and the chances of falling off a cliff to certain death were rather thin but none the less it was still a spectacular drive (although I faught off sleep the whole time as our bus left at 6am). We arrived in Pucon that morning and found the best place ever to stay, we shared a whole house between five people, Nick, Myself and three English people we meet on our travels Alex, Emily and Abbey. The change from hostel living to share house living was very welcome, we even had a fire on our first night and cooked up a storm!!!!!

The next day we climbed the volcano Villaricca.... and I just have to say WOOOWWW... it was so good. The hike up was a reasonable effort but nothing could prepare me for what I was to see next, definately on my list of have to do things in my life and now it's done, that leaves only swimming the English Channel and eating fifty pies in a pie eating contest ;-) Seriously though, if you can see such a thing before you die.... DO IT, check pics http://lucas.intercate.net/gallery/pucon/DSC01505_Small

Hmmm just realised I don't really like this recounting things event by event so I will summarise the rest:
Wednesday 23/3 - After volcano went to hot springs, really nice where Nick and I went from hot springs, cold shower and back and forth a fair few times;
Thursday 24/3 - A bit of bumbing around during the day, good sleep in and cooked our roomies the best brekky (at 12pm...), then caught over night bus to Santiago;
Friday 25/3 - Met up with Edwin (a Dutchman living in Santiago who we meet in Brazil) and got the tour of Santiago. Then went to gym and went out for dinner with our English friends. Afterwards we meet up with Edwin again and drank in a little pub filled with goths who looked like they were plotting the next revolution.... Then went to another pub with Edwin, then Edwin went home and Nick and I went back to our revolutionary pub and got in a big discussion about what we wanted to achieve with this trip..... As a bit of background: The lonelyplanet is the bible of travellers so tourists are everywhere on the lonely planet trail... The decision is that should one get off the track of the lonely planet or does one accept that what is on the track is really good that is why it's the track. Well Nick and I decided to throw caution to the wind and get of the track, but as we woke the next morning with sore heads when returned to the track and hence we are in Mendoza and not Timbucktoo...... A topic of discussion we will revist soon enough I am sure...
Saturday 26/3 - Went to Viñe Del Mar, a beach town about two hours from Santiago... Layed on the beach, chilled out but our friend Pablo who was with us got his bag stolen ;-( so we went home...
Went out that night.....
Sunday 27/3 - Slept in..... then I went to church that night and walked through the markets in central Santiago... lovely stuff...
Monday 28/3 - Travelled to Mendoza and saw the biggest mountain in the Andes...
Tueday 29/3 - Now here in Mendoza.

Argh that was a summary....

Well I am not sure what I want from this trip... the further into it I get the more I realise that this is only the first step on a much longer journey. I feel that I have grown up so far on this trip... but without objective peers available it really is hard to know. Been thinking about home a fair bit of late and miss everyone one a great deal... Some a little too much I think. But am resigned to go through with the task of becoming independent.... even if it takes me forever!!! But sometimes I just want to return to 1996, year ten at school, everything complicated was organised for me and I was innocent, now 9 years later I am almost 24!!!! I can hardly believe it. I am thinking about the type of family I want to have.... argh!!!! When I was a kid I could hardly concieve being an adult, like I would think ¨no way!!! I cant be an adult and be responsible!!!¨ but here I am an adult and responsible for every action I make. No one is here to help me, totally alone, but after the initial trebidations this confronted me with I feel much more in control of myself and most importantly my destiny..... Still wish someone would tell me what job i should do and who I should marry and all that, always my fear of making the wrong decision leading to my continuing indecisiveness.....

Well that was a ramble as always....

Check new photos in chile gallery http://lucas.intercate.net/gallery/Chile

Take care and keep in touch....

Love and hugs to you all!!!

Into the Andes....

About to make that dangerous journey into the Andes... may be lucky and get to visit the characters from the movie 'Alive' and eat the flesh of another human.... Can't wait for it all!!!! Well maybe not the apparently chicken tasting flesh of a human but most definately the crazy steep roads of the Andes. I can hardly believe that at 7am tomorrow I will be in the middle of the second highest mountain range on Earth! Wish me luck.

Tomorrow we head into Chile and go to see a Volcano which is active so hey tomorrow will be my most dangerous day yet! Possibilies of falling off a cliff and being killed by the poisonous gas of a volcanic eruption... Mum you must be loving it ;-)

Seriously though..... Currently in San Martin De Los Andes which is the most lovely town i have been in yet. Like Bowral but ten times better and on the shores of a lovely clear lake and surrouded by mountains. Nick and I went canoing on it this afternoon... so warm and calm.... This town has the most lovely roses and given I really have no place special to be I did manage to 'take the time' and smelt every rose i could and managed to find the most lovely smelling rose ever. Now I know where those toilet fresheners got the idea from, but in thise case God has the wood all over Glade...

Left Bariloche this morning (took 33hrs by bus to get there!) which was a nice town by another lake (seems to be the theme around these parts!). Time there involved eating chocolates and ice cream, the town has the best of both for all Argentina which is saying something as Argentina has the best ice cream in the WORLD!!!! Also went to the movies which is a bit of an event for me given i dont get the chance much over here, but got my coke and popcorn and saw the Aviator so all was smiles for me. Except went a hole in the ceiling let water from the rain outside fall on my head... But still all good after a well place seat change....

Besides that I have been meeting fellow travellers and eating heaps of food and doing some site seeing. Feeling healthy and happy. Also starting really grow I am thinking. Was siting on the bus this morning and realised that I have become so much less stressed and more independent over here. Like this morning I woke up late and we had 30min to get packed and to the bus station, but unlike me I did not stress... I organised a taxi, paid our outstanding rent, managed to find someone to split the cab with us and still had time for a coffee. I couldnt believe it was me!!!! Good to know that underneither this person a man is starting to grow.... who knows I may be an adult by my 25th Birthday... I hope so!

Take care all and keep in touch...

Torres Del Paine - Back from Beyond

Back from beyond and have to say that clean clothes and a warm house have never felt better..... The park (Torres Del Paine) was amazing and I am not saying that in a things were good hence they were amazing way; I mean that everytime you looked around you would smile to yourself and think I am in heaven. You know when you´re in those perfect moments and you pause and think to yourself 'this moment is perfect....beyond anything I will ever experience'. It is such an odd experience being in perfection and realising it for what it is and then the subsequent realisation that the moment will soon be over and normal reality will return and the time of being in heaven, if you will, is gone forever. But that moment of being there is what it is all about. I think I will most definately start to look into the monestry retreat thing for say a month or so. I think with the tools to really focus on the present moment you will be able to extend those perfect moments further, like eating an apple with only the seeds left at the end you suck everything you can out of the moment. As it is those moments we spend our whole lives searching for why not make the most of them.....

It was hard though, with 30kg on your back trekking up and down hills is no mean feat and given I had spent the previous 5 weeks drinking, smoking, eating and doing no exercise made it that much harder. But the pushing of my body through pain was also part of what made it an amazing experience. Water melted from a glacier cupped from a stream next to the track never tasted so good after you had just spent the past two hours trekking with no break. Pain and pleasure so closely aligned you would be hard pressed to separate the two.... And in a strange way pain itself became pleasure, seeing what the body could endure as you run up and down mountains drenched in sweat and out of breathe, craving water but not giving yourself the time to lower your body to pick some up..... True pain is true pleasure (well maybes anyways) but getting to the top to see a view that blows your mind is most definately pleasure.... Hmmmm but isn´t pleasure bad according to the buddhists? From pleasure comes like jealously and pain etc doesn't it? (Hmmm see the link to pain above). But then pain is linked to destruction and hence creation and the circle of life continues...."blablabla" I say, but interesting none the less.

Well we did the 'W' hike in four nights and three days and it is meant to take four nights and I don´t think thats with 30kg in your back packs... So rest assured we were both happy with our efforts esp given our poor preparation. Also we just got the catamaran on the last day, like we ran down the hill (mountain) for about 2 hours (should have taken more like 3.5hrs) and the catamaran (which is the only way out of the park for us) was just leaving the jetty. Nick ran to the jetty as I ran to sort our packs and they came back to shore.... if we missed it we would have been there in our tent in the rain surrounded by about 30 Isrealies. Now I am not sure if I have mentioned this earlier but Isrealies SUCK! Like totally most tourists (even nice Isrealies) think that the big groups of Isrealies are total crap and you would travel like extra days on buses just to avoid them. So yes we were very happy to have avoided them all.....

Our first day was the windiest I have ever experienced, like about 90km winds with a massive pack on. Dust storms almost falling off cliffs (being blow off anyways) and failing after several attempts to put our tent up.... A great start and climbing up this massive mountain in the wind and rain was hard work let me tell you. Then day two we 'ran' up to the Torres with day packs and then 'ran' back and trekked about 5hrs to our next place. I thought Nick was about to die as the reality of his first hike dawned on him. We made it and collapsed and listened to a Chilean play guitar and sing cool tunes. Woke up (in the tent this time as wind had left) with it raining so we slept in and waited for the rain to leave, then hiked through wet paths and I got totally soaked. Got to our new base camp and put on day packs and ran up to a new view of the France Valley and saw an avalanch and then ran back. Were (me anyways) annoyed by noisy Isrealies until 1am and then trekked to our final base camp and trekked up to the glaciers and ran back and just got our boat out of there..... Fun, hard and so beautiful I can hardly describe......

Now off to sort tickets to go to El Calafate and see more frozen rivers....then maybe some volcanos later in the week. All good for me, no injuries, just sore knees and a few blisters, besides that all fine and have to say I am tougher than I give myself credit for :-)

Take care all and keep in touch, oh and check the photos out they have been updated. Please note that I have resisted the urge to include too many rock pictures (although there are a few) I learnt from my US trip that a rock can only have so many angles for a good photo ;-)

Chao

Off to the wilderness

Well I leave in 2 hours for the wilderness of southern Argentina and I can´t wait! No more pollution, crowds and so many people.... I will be in little contact for the next few weeks as Nick and I try and trek hundreds of kilometers in the windswept plains of Patagonia. Who knows what will happen down there?? All I know is I will be having few showers and will have a pretty mad looking beard by the time I return to civilisation... Maybe Jesus will be coming sooner than we all think...hahahaha

Just finished up in Puerto Madryn. Hired a car with a few other travellers yesterday and smashed it around the 400km drive to and around the Peninsula Valdes. I topped at 140km/h on sealed roads and 110km/h on dirty/gravel roads, like driving a rally car I have to say. VW Golf will be my car of choice once I return to the ´real world´ . We swam across a river and played with penguins and almost got attacked by an elephant seal... Great day. Ended a bit annoyingly though as we got a flat tire which cost us an extra $AU55. But the American guy with us would not stop hastling the car rental guy saying we shouldnt pay for it etc etc. Bloody Americans, no wonder why the whole world hates them, they have to argue even about a few bucks!!! They´re rick but also a bunch of pricks!!! (Like the generalisation of 290m people from an encounter with one person??? Hahaha sure most of them are cool.... Afterall Tool comes from that place...) Check this photo of me with penguins... http://lucas.intercate.net/gallery/Puerto-Madryn/DSC01205

Last night got harassed by the 48 Argentinan lady who wanted to argue about the cost of flights to Spain and then wanted to dance and then continue drinking into the night..... Ella es muy loco! Rest assured I escaped from her..... But managed a free lesson of salsa with another lady, Nick and I carved up the dance floor....

Hmmm well I am well still which is great but Nick is not... Seems that he has caught a lingering bug so he started antibiotics this morning so hopefully he will be 100% for the trek. Think of us during the next few weeks as the winds are meant to get up to 160km/h where we are going and the weather is meant to be the more dramatic and changable in South America (possibly the world...). Us in our little 2 man tent...should be an experience no doubt.

Take care and keep in touch.

Sentimental....Who? Me, sentimental???

As I sit here for the last time in Buenos Aires listening to Something for Kate I have to say I feel really strange about it all. Not strange in a bad way... far from it in fact I am so excited about going down to Patagonia and facing a whole new challenge. Rather it is probably my first realisation of where I am and the fact I can start to see the future of this trip pan out...... And all I can do is smile and feel an incredible warmth and happiness (no doubt the moodiness of Paul Dempsey´s lyrics are adding to this feeling J Song for a Sleepwalker...nice one..... I love music so much. As some of you would know I was never a lyrics man but more and more I listen to what is said in the songs I love so dearly and it is amazing how much I can relate and connect to what is contained in these pieces of art. Kinda leaves the simplicity of Christian songs for dead (although I do note there is a place for the simplistic child like worship of the devine....) as the intricasy of human emotion is described complete with awesome backing music. A world without music must be like toast with no butter nor jam (something I have experienced a number of times here already) dry and difficult to swollow...

What can I say but the process of learning about myself has made a few great leaps forward over the past few days (the catalysts of this will be left unsaid in this forum...). Although I have not as of yet worked out what I want to do.... but I think more and more that working out this is not the goal rather the goal is more like realising that what one does is far from important and it is who you are rather than ´what´you are that matters. A bit of a clichque you may say but analyse the statement and it becomes apparent that clichque or not we still haven´t realised what the clichque is getting at. But the way the world works makes it difficult .... how are people valued? We are valued on what we can offer others and it is as simple as that... Shame I know but the fact that we can sit on our hands whilst 2 billion people live in poverty is proof positive that they have nothing to offer us and hence we do not care about their fate.... Close your eyes take a deep breathe and pretend that it´s all okay...... But this is an issue I will explore more later in my journey as I have to say poverty is not so much of an issue here. Standards of living are not ideal but abject poverty is rare and relative poverty appears to be little worse than at home. Maybe it´s all just fate anyways and in our next life we will be born in a rubbish dump in the Phillipines.... (I hope not!!!).

It´s hard to believe that I have been on the road for almost four weeks now.... Thinking back it´s amazing how much has been packed into that time. I could hardly have experienced as much in six months back in the ´real´world. And amazingly enough I doubt that the cost of the past four weeks would even compare to the cost of a similar period of time at home. God bless the good old conservate Government of Aus for ensuring low interest rates, low inflation and steady growth to ensure a strong $AU.....

The square in which I lived in is starting to expand and I am starting to see ways one can live the life that they want rather than be resigned to some life that is unavoidable or expected. Not that hard work will be avoided (to tell you the truth I love hard work and travel is hard work trust me!!!) but rather life will not stagnate into the mundane day to day existence which from my experience destroys relationships, turning people against each other and stifles creativity.

Enough ramble from me as I dare say it makes little sense to me let alone any of you.... I am off tonight for Patagonia and look forward to the sleep on the bus as last night involved zero hours of sleep and this morning involved about 3 hours of which half was disturbed by a massive fight between the hostel owner and one of the guests here.... Scary stuff have to say he was lucky my Spanish is not so good yet as I would have given him a piece of my mind for his loud voice..... Nature is on the way....Finally I say!!!! I miss the clean air of the country, staying in BA is like smoking a pack a day, so many cars and so much pollution... Fresh air will do my body and surely my soul a great deal of good. I may be in touch a little less over the next few weeks as I am unsure of the level of internet availability and its cost. So keep well and pray for me on this next leg as it will involve a lot of hard physical work as well as some hitch hiking, hopefully some motorbike riding, camp fire making, camping and everything that tests ones ability to survive without a maccas around the corner....
Chao!