Hola all! I´m in beautiful Pucon, south of Santiago... the night bus was the most comfortable trip yet and lasted about 8 hours. I did manage some sleep but the moon is always very distracting... nice to look at and think.
The countryside is so beautiful here... lush and verdant... looks like good farming land. That´s probably got something to do with the volcanos... and there is one very beautiful one here (I think it is Volcan Villarrica). It´s covered in snow. We have the option to climb it tomorrow (did I mention it´s covered in snow?) and I was going to... but now I´m having second thoughts as I´m fending off another cold and it isn´t the cheapest trip ($80 US). So maybe I will explore the countryside another way.
The town here is small and very dainty... but like everywhere so far in South America there seems to be an awful lot of dogs roaming around. The ones here look healthy enough but they do tag after you alot. In Santiago it was kinda funny, the dogs were like an escort or like guides. Here though we were just at a cafe, soaking in some sun (very chilly in the shade) when 3 dogs came up a-sniffing. They settled in also to enjoy the sun and we started naming them (names along the way have been Pisco and Sour, Kanga and Roo, Blanco...) but then a fourth came along and - whamo - a dogfight! That pumped the adrenaline that´s for sure. They nearly knocked the whole table over. It´s the first dogfight I´ve seen though on the whole trip, which is surprising considering all the dogs I´ve seen. The dogs rolled down the street a ways knocking over a few blackboards and the like before someone managed to catch the instigator. No one injured!
Food is good here but expensive... well anything is expensive when compared with prices in Bolivia, but service is really good, usually. I think I will be dining more often at the supermarket in future though so mum, you can stop eating two minute noodles and tuna on my behalf. Thank you though!
Righto, well I´ve not done anything really interesting as yet but I did get the poetic juices a-flowing the other day on our day bus trip to Santiago. I still have to live up to my nickname of Poetic Oink. (please excuse mispellings, squished syllables and my deteriorating English!)
So here ´tis: 04/05/07
Perspective
Climbing peaks where condors perch
I view the clouds from inside, out.
I breath the thinning of the air
And cast my mind about.
Seeking from my hightened state,
Perspective of the things that are,
I question all without a word,
It seems I´ve travelled far.
The mountain peaks are chilly casts,
Lonesome, stark, and haunting - bare.
Few things grow this high up,
Life in the sky seems rare.
The wind it nibbles at my ears,
Icy tendrils, numbing cold…
My eyes water, my nose it runs…
The dampness of the clouds enfold.
I speculate on ages past,
The veil of time which separates.
How has the human race evolved?
What lifestyles do we create?
On a lofty frigid peak I sit,
A little speck, a questing mind,
Contemplating all I know,
Not knowing what it is I´ll find.
But certain as the clouds, the sea…
The mountain tops, the wind and sun,
The world has many mysteries
And I am surely part of one.
Ciao...
