driving away

okay, let's give this a shot. there is no coffee in this country, and so i went on a personal quest to find some. i went to the other side of Pucon, the more expensive side, and i sat down at a cafe and all the waiters laughed at me (they did) because I ordered every kind of coffee on the menu.

The cappucino had two inches of thick whipped cream on it which i ate too fast. i regret that. the cafe con leche was laced with SALT. who does that? the rest of it tastes like nescafe sludge.

on the other hand, i've been running some rivers. a few swims, one nasty one. but i must be improving, I haven't reached for my skirt in a few weeks. what i learned on this valentines day is that i can take a beating. The entrance rapid on the Palguin was obviously feeling hungry as it chewed at me and swallowed the gal who went behind me, and then swallowed her boat after they yanked her out with a rope. It worked me, worked me, and I'm hanging on thinking 'just wait, it will spit you out eventually right??' well it's a double drop. the hole is halfway through. it did eventually release me, i rolled up, wobbled towards the 8 foot drop and went off sideways, a deranged ballerina. then i take an easier but longer rocky section on my head and hold on thinking this (bash! bash!) is (bash!) getting ri (bash!) diculous! (bash!) I WANT A CREEK BOAT! my star is a frikken squirrel. all the time. Also, I wouldn't mind acquiring a skill set on the river as well. i'm sick of being upside down. on the upside i do have a solid roll because of it.i'm sitting at one of the nicest cafes in all of Pucon maybe all of Chile and i'm wearing a dirty white wife beater, should I perhaps be a trifle embarrassed? no, I'm moving too fast. drinking a lot of coffee (OR IS IT COFFEE??) who knows. really.

we spent the weekend in the Andes. David and I took the truck, filled it with expedition gear bags and put some boys in the back and bumped them up some washboard roads. we past the place where a few days ago we saw a comet rip across the sky.

the biggest falling comet, burning indigo, slashing the night in two, illuminating the sky. Speaking of, Yonton look what i've got everyone reading:back to the truck full of gear and boys (here is a visual)we hiked up up up, to find a land of blue and green lagoons. this we found to be the perfect place to eat chocolate (where isn't eh?) well, that and sometimes the hamburgers are a little sketchy. what are they, anyway, and what is constantly dripping out of them?

but you can't love everything about someone or some place, can you? i'm not sure. maybe you can. Spending valentines day on the Palguin hucking and shaking the boats dry from swimmers, watching the sky blow up with the comet, driving into the Andes on washboard roads, telling stories late into the evening, sleeping by embers, waking up to smoke.