So now I am a looong way north since I last wrote. Its about 30 degrees south of the equator and super warm. In contrast to all you guys back in UK and Norway battling the snow its sunny here and almost too hot to be out at midday! I arrived and went straight to the beach with the famiy Im visiting and saw loads of pelicans swooping around past the palm trees and edge of the sea as the sun set. It was great! Yesterday I went out on some fieldwork at the edge of the desert and then joined the ecology group here for a BBQ. The plants here are like nothing Ive seen before- lots of spikey bushes and thorny catci.
The last 3 weeks have been spent moving northwards- hiking in Torres del Paine (in hot sun and also driving snow and rain), Navimag the slow boat through the Patagonian fjords (in the rain), learning salsa in a native cloud forest at Parque Katalapi near Puerto Montt, and a belly dancing class in Valdivia after watching sea lions noshing leftovers at the fish market. The last stop was Villarica by the lake and the volcano with a huge number of Mapuche stalls selling roughly made wooden trinkets and an acrobatic air display by 5 local pilots.Ive met 2 people cycling from the South of Chile- Anthony is going to the North of South America, Oliver is heading to Alaska. Ive spent days and days in internet cafes working on manuscripts and these must be the most frustrating places to try and work: noisy, cramped and with pretty poor connections and non-functioning keyboards..
