yu-en-me ´a man who leaves home to mend himself and others is a philosopher, .. he who goes from country to country guided by blind impulses of curiosity is .. a vagabond.´ - oliver goldsmith

..here you´ll be able to take advantage of our amazing
tours: one day you might be trekking through
awe-inspiring volcanoes, the next, you might be eating
a curanto with the locals..´ - thanks to my
call-centre experience, i´ve got the stereotypical
voiceover effect down pat, and you might soon be able
to hear my voice doing the introduction to patacam´s
webpage!

let me explain: i arrived in chile about a week ago
and stumbled across a new up-and-coming touring
company here in puerto varas, chile. (where i still am
now.) to skip the boring details: i´ve been adopted by
the group, and am helping them with translations,
website, and painting the new bathroom. and wow, am i
loving being able to cook in a real kitchen, and for
more than one person - making tortilla for them the
other day, a lasagne tonight.. it´s like a sharehouse
but i get the liberty of camping in my own ´house´.
(see the psychology of tenting below.)

otherwise, chile´s leaves me amused and bemused at the
same time: you´d think accents would be the same
between countries - cross a few km between borders and
you go from an italian intonation to a
german-influenced up-and-down sing-song spanish. just
when i thought i had the argentine accent under
control, i now feel i have to wear lederhosen. (come
join me mark!)

sign in a local bus: ´the radio of this vehicle is
permitted to be switched on at all times with moderate
volume; passengers are not allowed to complain´.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TENTING.
a bit of insight to my day-to-day life: it occured to
me that many of you probably haven´t ´lived´ in a tent
for an extended period, - just like me before this
trip. a couple of days ago, a travelling pal told me
that there was a hostel for 5000 chilean pesos near
where i was camping and he suggested that i go there
since it was a good deal. we got to discussing the
psychology of camping: the few times i´ve travelled,
i´ve done it in hostels, like the majority of
backpackers, and i have to say that i found it quite
disconcerting to be moving hostels every few days.
it´s not uncommon to hear travellers say that they´d
like to be in one place for a while, and i expected
that i´d feel the same after a few months of doing
this. but NO, my dear friends, i´ve found that
travelling with my trusty tent, i haven´t experienced
this feeling of disorientation at all. unlike
travelling between hostels where the set-up is
different from place to place, every time i set up my
tent, i know exactly how to position it to avoid the
morning sun (the pleasure of sleeping in will always
exist wherever i go and sun on a tent in the morning
makes this impossible), and how to orient it to
minimise the effects of the patagonian winds. i know
exactly where i´m going to put my toiletries;
precisely where my food is going to be stored; how to
position my backpack to get the most comfortable
pillow. every morning when i wake up, i don´t have to
worry about disturbing people who are still asleep; i
have my routine of washing my face, having a cup of
hot tea (i love my stove almost as much as my tent),
and thinking about what i want to do/see that day. so
many people have asked me if i don´t feel a bit lost
changing my location every few days, but the truth is,
my tent is my fixed address - it´s just my garden that
changes. sometimes i have a lake in my backyard; other
times i have a spectacular view of the mountains from
my front porch.. i usually have a pet dog as well,
since most campsites have at least one local stray,
and they seem to like me (usually encouraged by me
rough-wrestling with them whenever i can - the downer
of me being on the move all the time is that a dog
would not be feasible AT ALL.).. so anyway, just
thought i´d share this ´Turtle effect´ with you.

THE PROS AND CONS OF TENTING.
last night, one of my pet dogs came under the fly of
my tent and slept right next to me, with only the thin
material of the tent separating us. kept me nice and
toasty. a nice compromise seeing as a few days ago,
another of the dogs peed on my tent, and i had to
suffer the aroma for a while.

i went to visit chiloé which is one of the main
islands of chile, and witnessed a literal
house-moving. a timber house was literally pulled up,
put on logs and pulled by 6 bulls (absolute beasts -
the brute strength was amazing..) to move it to
another location (see photos). it was the funniest
thing i´ve seen in ages!

one of the guides in this company is absolutely
beautiful. i´m not in love, i´m not in lust (well, not
more than usual..), i´m just in ´appreciation´ - he´s
got the most beautiful eyes, hair, facial structure. a
latino Adonis, if ever i´ve seen one - quite possibly
exceeding The Most Beautiful Boy in The World (a guy
who used to take the same bus as me when i was at high
school - remember ´daniel´ Rene?). i have to keep
telling myself to stop staring at him because i think
i´m starting to scare him.

the icecream isn´t as nice here in chile as in
argentina. i´m starting to show withdrawal symptoms.

ps, individual replies to emails ARE coming, i promise.. i need
time! - it´s hard enough adjusting lifestyle and
accent without falling asleep exhausted at the end of
the day...