It's very early to have a certain view on the trip in retrospect, I'm still bewildered from being back, but it's a trip that has changed my life, and my view upon life, but then, all great changes in your life do exactly that.
Certain people on the trip have made a bigger impact than others, of the most important I can mention: Mike Gasson, Jimmy, Dave, Sarah, Carl, Miguel, Anne Dorte, Stephen, James, Johno, Karin, Flavio, Julian, Magte, Tono, Antonio, Heather, Lisa, Moni, Bob and the star of the show... Gilbert.

I have also had a lot of help from the homefront: Hanne (mother), Jesper (father), Anne Sophie (sister), Bo (stepfather) and Anette (friend). Especially without the help of these individuals, the trip never would have been or it would have failed while I was underway.

With a disregard to all that I have just written, I would like to extend a thank you, to everyone on this list:

Family, friends and everyone who has been reading the blog!

Uruguay: Those 5 Danes

Colonia Del Sacramento: The Brit and the Aussie

Puerto Madryn: Sarah and Kyle

Rio Gallegos: Timo, Jonah and Fred

Ushuaia: Andreas, Uri, Layden and the 4 Israeli girls

Punta Arenas: Carl, Tamar, Adina, Keenan, Irish couple, Jack, Roman, Mike and the two Aussie's in their 50's.

Puerto Natales: Bill, Kat, Bo, the guy from Punta Arenas, Monty (the cat), Britney, Jenny, German girl, Vicky and Sophia

Torres Del Paine: Urs, John, John, Susan, Katy, Rafael, Natasha, Albert, Nick, Whitney and the two Irish guys.

Calafate: Edward

Chalten: Mike

Futaleufú: Eyal, Rachel, Dave and Eddie

El Bolsón: Lucia

Bariloche: Patrick, Reut, the Israeli twins and Jimmy

Bariloche -> Valdivia: Lindsay

Pucón: Everyone at hostel Etnico, everyone who went up the volcano with me (in particular Yong)

Santiago: The staff at La Chimba hostel and Mike (of El Chalten fame)

Rapa Nui (Easter Island): Miguel, Chen, Kieran, Melissa, Larry, Jimmy (From Bariloche),John, Emma, Brian, John (Montana), Alejandra

Buenos Aires: Eddie (of Futaleufú fame), Anne Dorte, Jon, Karen, Elena, Jane, Becky, Eric, Madoka, James, Steve, Stefan, Darren, Deborah, Chris

Puerto Iguazu: Two German girls, Canadian girl and the two Danish girls

Ciudad Del Este: Dan and Rommi

Santa Cruz -> La Paz: Lorgio

La Paz: Patrick (from Bariloche) and Danny

La Paz -> Cuzco: Florian

Cuzco: Steve and James (from Buenos Aires), Karin, Anna, Heather, Ley, the 3 Norwegian girls, Ingrid, Johno, Maria, Charlotte, Mike Gasson (from El Chalten and Santiago) and the Kiwi girl.

Inca Trail: Flavio, Julian, the porters and the cook, Rob and Dee Ann

La Paz: Nadja, Yasmin, Heather, Uval, Maud, Jonathan, Ivan and Macro

Potosi: Cameron, Monica, Allan, William, Anaïs, Angela and Aaron

Uyuni: Angela (from Potosi), Declan and Judy

Sucre: Andrew, Tamsyn and Trevor

La Paz: Jimmy

Pampas: Jimmuy, Laia and Tono

Jungle: Jimmy, Antonio and Jesus

La Paz: Jimmy, Heather, Roly and Anita

Copacabana: Jimmy

Habana: Lisa, Amasa and Lily

Santiago de Cuba: Lisa (from above)

Comandancia La Plata: Moni

VIlla Santa Domingo -> Camaguey: Shane and Steve

Cuba: All the family's I stayed with, ate with and talked with; you showed me the best side of Cuba.

Washington, D.C.: Hiro, Carlos, Rachel & Eyal (from Futaleufu and Bariloche), Bill Colburn, Jackie, Rick and Rav Shmuel.

New York: Tony, Anne Sophie (my sister), Peter & and his son Tony as well as

Chicago: Bob, Amanda and the people on the Wicker park tour

Boston: Amelia

I'm just gonna leave you with a feeling of my trip, I know with this massive list of people above, it doesn't feel right, and I'm not saying it gives a sense of my entire trip, but you will also notice that few people are mentioned more than once (it won't work if you are reading this in an email, you have to go to the website):

[See post to listen to audio]

So before I leave you... Beyond the sky and the earth, thank you.

Back at the hostel I started reading in my new book (in fact, I had read one chapter already), The Odyssey by Homer, but after having read one chapter, a Norwegian girl started talking to me (yes, a Scandinavian!), her name is Anne Dorte, and check this... She's from Trysil. We started talking and after a little while we were joined by none other than Eddie from Futaleufú and later by another Norwegian (now it's crawling with Scandinavians) Jon, two Australians whose names elude me at the moment as well as some random people here and there. However around 22 o'clock a lot of people left for dinner (I had eaten a huge lunch), and by 23:40 it was just me and Anne Dorte again, so I went to bed (had had a long trip to Buenos Aires), only to find someone else in it, so I had to find another bed, get new linen and then go to bed (that did annoy me endlessly).

I got up at 4 in the morning and did my stuff, at 4:50 (surprisingly accurate for South America) I got picked up by a minibus, it then drove around for a little bit before finally heading to the airport. When I was driving around Santiago, I saw the nightlife of South America for the first time, and well to me (I was sober) it just seemed like a bunch of idiots trying to walk around, but maybe that what it is all about.

However I made it to the airport, checked in and waited for the plane. When I got onto the plane I sat down in a big nice business class chair, now why business class? I won't go into details here, but I got a business seat somehow, and it was pure luxury. The stewards and stewardesses are very nice, you get different choices for breakfast, all of which are very nice, a big comfy chair with built in massage, and seats that are very adjustable by use of a remote control and a BIG screen for viewing movies. More then that the seats also had built-in internet (I don't have a laptop with me) and a power plug, probably meant for a laptop, it was amazing.

Before the plane landed, the plane circled the island and I almost wept at the serene beauty of Easter Island. However the flight came to an end and I arrived in Hanga Roa (capital of Rapa Nui or as it is also called, Easter Island), got picked up by the hostel owner, got a tour of the city and settled in my hostel with my 2 roommates, Chen from Taiwin (who lives in Los Angeles) and Miguel from Santiago; I had met them waiting at the hostel bus (we had some more people to be taken to another hostel), Chen's English is okay, although he speaks rather slow, he understands me fine, whereas Miguel understands just a little bit of English and speaks none, however my Spanish is rapidly improving so we can in fact speak, helped by some guessing and gesticulating.

On this first day I didn't do much as the island is in complete lockdown on Sundays, I just cooked some of the food I had brought with me (a bit of pasta for lunch and porage for dinner). Later in the day Keiran from Guernsey arrived, he is traveling the world as his job, taking pictures for some big fancy race, colour me jealous.

I also meet an Australian/Canadian couple, Melissa from Canada and Larry from Australia, among other things they taught me how to play domino, and like most Australians and Canadians they were very kind, their major goal on the island was surfing, something very big in Australia and more or less never attempted in Denmark (proper surfing, not kite surfing or anything) due to our incredibly small waves and cold water.

In between landing at the airport and eating lunch, I walked around Hanga Roa to get a feel of the place, and to learn my way around it (it is quite small, some 3300 residents), I came past a football game between the islands two top teams (yes the island has several teams); Armada de Chile and Tara Ra Ina, I only saw the first half, where Armada de Chile took a 1-0 lead.

But honestly, the teams were crap, most players couldn't properly pass a ball, shoot at a goal or anything; it made it very entertaining, but I respect that they have a league and everything, and truthfully both teams did in fact have good players. The Armada de Chile goalkeeper and one of the central mid fielders were in fact very good, whereas the Tara Ra Ina defense was quite good, although not good enough.

In the evening, I went together with Miguel to see the sunset, there is a place near Hanga Roa where the sun sets behind 5 moai, it is really amazing, I plan to go there every evening. There I met 4 slightly elderly Canadians who were also taking pictures, and we struck up conversation, it was really nice. I have definitely noticed that tourists here are quite different, they are better travelers, they care for the beauty of the island, and know that it isn't just there for them to enjoy. I guess the steep price-tag of coming here, really sorts people depending on how much they want to go here, and know what they are in for.

17th of March:

At 10 o'clock, Chen and I picked up our rented scooters and Miguel his rented quad bike. To put it simply, this was the most fun I have had in South America so far. We raced along the coast of the island, stopped to take pictures of the moai's, ahu's, the coastline and the volcano's. The hard jagged coastline, with the crashing waves being shot vertically into the air, the toppled and standing moai on their ahu. And the racing we had in between us; I know my parents are reading this, but I topped out at 105 km/h (on a highway) but 90 km/h on the coastal road, although we didn't consistently drive that fast, it was more like 40-60 km/h most of the time. On the far backside of the island the road turns into gravel (it is also gravel on the first part when you turn off to see the different sites), but by now I had gotten the hold of the bike, and was able to go fast on gravel as well. I really have difficulty explaining just how much fun I had, the dust being shot up in your eyes hardly sounds fun (thank you for that Miguel by the way), but the wind in your face, the boyish desire of going fast, the extreme beauty of the island, the companionship of 2 friends; this was my best experience so far, better than

Torres Del Paine and anywhere else, the only downside to the day... Well you will read about that in a moment. On the backside there is a fantastic beach, and check this out... I actually went into the water; I normally hate beaches, but this place was just so picture perfect, I didn't have a choice; the water was just so clear and perfect, lovely cool and beckoning. There I also met the 4 Canadians from the previous day, one of them sporting a 3D camera, which would take two pictures at once, with two film slightly apart, quite clever.

This was about when I noticed that my brand-new tripod had fallen off my scooter, so I jumped onto my metal-steed and backtracked all the way to where I had last used it, but I couldn't find it. It was my fault not to notice that it had fallen off, sure enough; but I don't feel like that gives someone else the right to pick it up and leave with it. While I am bitter about that, I still feel that this was a fantastic day, I just wish I hadn't lost my tripod.

There was a certain place on the far north of the island, where we had an impromptu race to the top, which was quite far, and given that Miguel was driving a quad bike, there was no room for overtaking him (Chen was quite a defensive driver), which meant going off road off the off road dirt track, it was funny, incredibly funny. Miguel won in the end, as he could go much faster (my strength was solely in acceleration and being mental enough to go off the track) and had much better traction.

Rano Raraku is a sort of kindergarten or Moai, it is where they were carved and then dragged around the island, it is literally littered with Moai, most of which make for great pictures. This is also the most famous ones, as all other standing

Moai on the island have been raised up in modern times by scientists. These Moai were never toppled in warfare as they were not finished, and thus had no significance. Most of them are done or near completion and so look fine; they are special because they are semi buried in volcanic ash, and it is therefore not possible to see the bottom part of them, only the upper torso, shoulders and head in most cases.

Rano Raraku is a volcano, today an inactive one, and it is therefor safe and problem free to go to the top (which we did), although this is one of those places where the view wasn't as spectacular, however the Moai up here looked even better, and there was a nice little lake at the top.

Back in Hanga Roa, I relaxed at the hostel, went to see the sunset just as the previous day; my intention is to see the sunset every day, and eventually get a really good sunset. So far I haven't had much luck with the sunsets, but I have 7 sunsets, so hopefully one will be really good.

Chen and Miguel showed up a lot later, Miguel's quad bike had had a tire blowout, it cost him 15000 extra pesos, and a lot of trouble getting the quad bike back to town. This had happened after I got separated from them. It was rather unfortunate, but such things always are.

The driving around had taken 8 hours (that was also how long we had rented the scooters for), and when I had gotten back, I went down to book my diving for the 19th of March, I had been hoping to do it on the 20th, but that is the day Chen leaves, and I would like to go diving with him.

18th of March:

We all slept in today, none of us got up before 10, and around 10.30 Chen, Kieran, Miguel and I were eating breakfast together. After breakfast, Chen, Miguel and I walked to the Sernatur to check if anyone had found it (and returned it) and got a message sent out that it was missing; we also got some information on some activities such as horseback-riding around the island which Miguel and I might do on the 20th, and we got diving sorted out. Chen and I are going diving together on the 19th, and Miguel is going the same day, but with a different agency as he does not have a license.

The three of us took a taxi to the top of Rano Kau, walked around the top and went to the ancient village of Orongo there, which hosted the famous birdman ceremony before the adoption of Christianity. Every year the young men of the island would race to an offshore island, grab an egg and come back. The person who came back first would be birdman of the year, a sort of acting king. Orongo is the left in ruins, with some buildings restored and some still in ruin, to show the difference. Orongo is located on the top of a volcano, which is inactive and has a large lake in the crater, home to a plethora of plants, trees and animals, most of them unique to the crater.

The three of us (still Chen, Miguel and I) walked back to town, past a big cave with crushing waves in a small sort of inlet, very beautiful, you sort of felt the force of nature there; but that of course didn't stop a local from doing some fishing.

Up on Rano Kau I also met two women from Jutland, and back at the hostel later that day I met two guys from Denmark, although I don't know specifically where. So after 2 months with no Scandinavians (except Yonghui), I suddenly meet 4, 2 of which are staying at my hostel. But who did I also meet back at my hostel? None other than Jimmy from Eindhoven, the selfsame Jimmy as the one I had been hanging out a bit with in Bariloche.

I went to the quay to take some pictures of the surfers, and of course ran into Kieran, but also Miguel and Chen. I had gone down there with Jimmy as well as other new additions to the hostel, John (from Ireland) and Emma (from Australia). They (Chen, Miguel and Kieran) told us that there was going to be a barbecue that night at the hostel, so the seven of us (Chen, Emma, Jimmy. John, Kieran, Miguel and I) went to the supermarket to buy meat, vegetables (for the side dish) and charcoal.

The barbecue was massive, 2 kg of meat and a good deal of chicken, so suffice it to say, we were all full. Miguel, Chen and Kieran did the cooking, and we all did eating. Around 23:40 Jimmy noticed that in 20 minutes it would be Kieran's birthday (looking in his passport), which was much to his surprise (he really had forgotten). So at midnight we sang happy birthday etc. and then found out that it was Chen's birthday as well!

Sunset pictures: 1, 2 and 3 (they are really good)

19th of March:

I got up early as I had to be at the harbour by 10, as today was the day I was going diving. So together with Chen I walked down to the harbour, got geared up and sailed out. The dive was simply amazing, Easter Island is famous for its incredibly clear water, a claim I can do nothing but support, the visibility was at least 40 meters, it was incredible. So when we dived down, there was a huge coral reef with, not an abundance of sea life, but very beautiful sea life, as well as a beautiful submerged moai. It had been placed there sure enough (what, uncovered and leaning up against a coral reef?) but it was still quite special, swimming around it and how natural it looked. The trip unfortunately wasn't long and was only one dive, but oh what a dive; we went down to about 21 meters and swam around for 40 minutes.

Back on the surface we went back to the harbour, where I bought an absolutely delicious ice cream with chocolate and coco; before heading back to the hostel for some serious reading in the new book I'm reading. Aside from the diving it was a very quiet day, but I figured it was enough spending of money for one day. For dinner, the cleaner/everything guy at the hostel baked empanadas, they are 1000 peso each and provide a damn cheap dinner (you need 2 though), and they are very tasty.

Sunset: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5

20th of March:

2 months in South America, who would have believed it?

In any case, the day came and went quite easily; except for Chen leaving, he had only left LA for a week (spring break), and I would have liked him to stay longer, he was really a nice guy. On this dayI had no activities going, but I did have an ice cream with Jimmy and Miguel in the harbour. During the day we also played a bit of tabletop football, with me losing one game to Jimmy (who has an incredible ability to score with his midfielder as the first move), but beating Jimmy and Miguel together with John and beating John and Miguel together with Jimmy.

A new arrival was John from Montana; on this trip I am trying to meet an American from every single state (I have done so before), and Montana was a state I hadn't met anyone from previously on this trip, so that was good. More then that John is a really nice guy, and I look forward to talking more with him.

For dinner I had wonderful empanadas (1000 peso each, like last night) cooked by the cleaner at the hostel, on this night they came in tuna and seafood (other than tuna) flavour, very delicious.

21st of March:

Just like the 20th, I didn't have anything planed for this day (well originally I had a horse trip planned, but I had to skip it for a lack of money, the ATM on this island doesn't take VISA, which I knew, but I still didn't manage to bring enough money), but Emma, Jimmy and John were going to the Anakena beach, so I got a ride on the back of Jimmy's scooter. Now Jimmy is quite tall, 196 cm to be more accurate, which left me with more or less no seat (he extended far back to make room for his legs). But I haven't this much fun since my first (and until now only) scooter trip on the island, especially Jimmy also managed to have fun with it (he would often suddenly accelerate, which would surprise me and I would cling on to him tighter as a reflex). But we went mind numbingly fast (there are few things as wonderful as hitting a bug with 80 km/h), and eventually got to the beach. The beach was one of two places I hadn't been to that I wanted to go, the other I am going to the following day.

The beach is very beautiful, scenically placed near palms and several moai; so I sat there in the shade with Jimmy writing postcards and in my travel journal (besides writing here, I also keep a handwritten account of my travels in Danish). However I finished a good while before Jimmy, and borrowed his scooter and played around with it for a while, driving fast and going off-road... I have a hard time underlining, just how much fun driving a scooter here is. The difference in Denmark would be huge. Driving in Denmark, there would be plenty of traffic on the road, and speed restrictions (boo).

On the way back from the beach, We (Emma, Jimmy and I) took a side trip to Puna Pau (except for John who went straight back to Hanga Roa), the quarry where the natives of Rapa Nui would long ago dig the stone for making the moai hats, which aside from being interesting and beautiful; was an incredibly bumpy and rough off-road trip. However, this too turned out to be lots of fun (except for my kidney, and that general region); coming back out to the main road, we went back to Hanga Roa, and after reading in my book for a little while, I went to see the sunset as per usual (not as good as normally), back to the hostel for empanadas, and as it was good Friday, there was only the seafood variant, which is my least favourite. Speaking of good Friday, I did in fact go to the church on this morning, but service is at 8 here, and not at 10 as it usually is in Denmark, so unfortunately I missed it.

Sunset: 1, 2 (amazing picture), 3 and 4

22nd of March:

Yesterday (or today) I was meant to go horse riding, but I couldn't due to a severe shortage of cash (no VISA ATM on the island, only MasterCard), however I did find a shop that rents out scooters and take VISA, so guess what I did ;). With the scooter, I firstly drove the trip that I would have gone on horseback, which were the famous 7 moai followed by a cross island trip, some cave exploration (quite safe I can assure you), and a long wonderful trip along the coastline. I had hoped to find a cave which Jimmy and 4 others had visited the previous day, the so called "Cave of 2 windows", however I didn't manage to find it. I did find some good views, but that leads me onto my second point about this day.

Karma (or whatever you want to call it) struck me down, in exchange for being allowed to rent the scooter, the sky opened, and within 30 seconds I was completely, totally and utterly soaked. By the time I had reached the 7 moai, all the gravel roads had turned into mud roads, the sky was completely grey and the rain was falling so heavily, I didn't need my water bottle to get a drink (in fact, I think I saw a tuna swim by at shoulder height... Well almost). The rain did clear after an hour or two, and as I was driving a scooter, I managed to wind dry (drying your hair by scooter, really provides for the most hilarious hair) and the caves don't care much for rain in any case. But the caves is really what got my attention on this day, they were used for inhabitation by the indigenous people (besides from their boat shaped houses which don't exist today), and the care with which the caves had been turned into houses, how they had used bricks to make the walls vertical, had dugout the bottom of the cave to make a floor, or in certain cases even built several houses inside the cave (big caves). The trip down the coast back to Hanga Roa (west coast), was very rough, muddy but damn fun.

Back in Hanga Roa (it was now a clear sky with plenty of sun) I picked up Jimmy on my scooter and we went for an ice cream, but once again I was disappointed they once again only had vanilla, and not my much coveted, chocolate, coco or pistachio, what an evil world I live in (hardly)! When we returned Jimmy was going to the Anakena beach with Miguel, Alejandra and another South American girl. I followed along (they were in a car and I was on my scooter), it was fun, pulling up alongside them and trying to have a conversation by yelling (a lot gets lost at 80 km/h), but when we were almost at the beach, I met the fate that had also met Miguel, John and Brian... I crashed. I came into a sharp corner with too much speed, couldn't turn sharply enough (without falling the other way), flew off the road, the scooter did a few rolls etc. but by then I was safely (hardly) suspended in mid-air, as I managed to jump off the damn thing before it hit the ground, so I managed to land on my legs... Unhurt.

I stayed at the beach for a little while, writing in my diary and listening to Miguel ridicule Jimmy and me for keeping a diary (or travel journal). However I decided to return to Hanga Roa afterwards, but instead of taking the fast road which cuts through the island back (I had come there taking it), I took the coastalroad leading back to Hanga Roa, the same road as I had taken the first day, except in the opposite direction. It was just as gorgeous, and the fact that I had seen it all before made no hindrance to my awe for this place (the only difference was that I didn't take pictures, I already had them); just seeing the moai fills you with a feeling of something grander, like there is more to it than just natives carving statues hundreds of years ago.

Back in Hanga Roa I read in my book and relaxed at the hostel, especially Brian often provides good and interesting conversation. On this my last day on Easter Island, I missed the sunset (first so far) as Miguel told me his laptop was on Santiago time, while it was in fact on Easter Island time, and you don't notice it on the light, it doesn't start getting dark, it gets dark VERY suddenly.

Other pictures: 1 and 2

23rd of March:

Not much to this day, I walked to the airport and checked in. Returned to the hostel to read in my book (The Shadow of the Wind, really can't recommend it enough), and waited for 12 o'clock which was when the boarding was set to begin (a moai near the plane).

I watched Austin Powers's Goldmember and Proof of Life on the flight back to Santiago. Back in Santiago I caught a bus to my hostel, cooked a bit of dinner, and that was it.

When Mike came we walked up to the top of the San Cristobal, and gazed at the... dull view; although the statue at the top, was rather massive. Down in Santiago again we walked for a while and saw a demonstration before we sat down for dinner, caught the metro to the mainsquare, saw a nice reflection before I bought a very fairly priced and very good tripod, for me to bring to Easter Island (as well as the rest of my trip).

We went to get an icecream, which turned out to be extremely good, we then walked to my hostel and said goodbye, he was going to a party tonight, and I am going early to sleep, as tomorrow I am going to Easter Island for a full week, Sunday to Sunday. During this period of time, you will not hear from me, as internet is madly expensive on the island.

So what more can I tell about today? I had great fun... I always have great fun around Mike, he is a brilliant guy and I love his sense of humour, that's all I need to know about this day really.

See you on the 23rd of March.

I did find a bus though, they leave every 15 minutes and I found one that left 30 seconds later. The ride was short (1,5 hours) and comfortable. I arrived safely in Santiago, grabbed a metro train to get closer to my hostel (La Chimba).

Once at my hostel, I booked a airport bus shuttle to take me to the airport on Sunday, and went out for a long walk in Santiago, and what a difference it is. Unlike Valparaíso, I absolutely love Santiago. You get all the old grand buildings, but they are clean and fit very well into the city. It all just seems so nice, and even though Santiago is loud and in a hurry, it is at the same time very tranquil, sort of like driving down a city road at 200 km/h and noticing a nice tree in the side of the road, exhilarating yet pretty.

In Santiago I also went into the cathedral, which really is something. Within the cathedral, there are two smaller churches and a wealth of alters, shrines and tombs.
After the cathedral I went and saw the court, the main drag and the city hall.
Later that same day I also arranged to meet with Mike (of El Chalten fame; http://twaize.net/2008/02/27/20th-of-february-26th-of-february/ 20th to the 24th) again the following day (Saturday) and then settled back at my hostel for a good dinner, and some relaxation.

This was also the day were I finished London Fields by Martin Amis, one of the worst books I have ever read, but if I begin reading a book, I have to finish it, or I will forever wonder what was going to happen.

Finding my hostel "Hostel Yoyo" proved very simple as well... Once I had gotten lost a couple of times, misread my map, walked beyond exhaustion and then more or less passing it by chance. Valparaíso is built in two levels, and the difference between them is big, giving a HUGE incline in the roads going up, and of course the hostel was up such a road, but I made it. As I got there and checked in, they even threw in a free breakfast (you normally only get those you pay for), so I ate and set out discovering the city.

Valparaíso is known as Chile's cultural capital (an official declaration), but truthfully... It isn't very interesting. Yes the "ascensores" are rather amazing, but the city feels very grey, smoggy and plain dull (except for the frequent chances of being hit by a car). The place could have been so much more, big parts of the city are old buildings, but they are left to decay, and there are even incidents of buildings that have either collapsed, burned or just been abandoned, that are just left in their pitiful state. Other photographers on flickr have managed to get some great shots from this place, I just don't find this place special in any way, and I am really looking forward to going to Santiago tomorrow.

I am glad that I did indeed come to Valparaíso, it is very positively described around the internet, in my Lonely Planet book and by some fellow travelers (although others didn't like the place). If I hadn't gone here, I would always be wondering about what it would be like. Tomorrow morning I do intend to go out and see it again before I catch a bus to Santiago, hoping that the city will try and redeem itself to me.

In the evening I watched Music and Lyrics, although that wasn't my own choice, some girls were watching it. Afterwards I watched half of Master and Commander, but after a rough night on the bus, I was too tired to go on, and went to bed.

My watch roused me form my lovely sleep around 3 o'clock, and when I had gotten up I realised that there were no matches left with which to lite the stove. So at 4 o'clock I was picked up with nothing in my stomach, but fortunately I had 3 bananas, 4 apples and a good deal of chocolate. We arrived at the beginning of the trail at around 5 in the morning, and this was where I for the first time, met another traveler who spoke a Scandinavian language. Yong is Chinese but has lived in Sweden for 15 years, and speaks fluent Swedish; needless to say we spoke the entire day, it was a very interesting conversation as Yong works for Sony Ericsson. However at around 5 0'clock we started walking towards the top of Volcan Villarrica, in pitch black darkness. Around 7.30 the sun dawned, and the sheer massiveness of this 2847 meter high volcano started to form in my head, but my first concern was the amazing views, how could I ever describe them? We had been in pitch black darkness (the guides and some of us had headlamps) for 2,5 hours when suddenly the world just opened underneath us, in that wonderful red colour that only the sun can create.

But the walk up was very long and very hard, around 8.30 we made it to the snow on the mountain, where we put on our cramps and started climbing up the snow, which was even steeper, felt harder but was much slower (not really a consolation). But now in clearer daylight, we could see much further and the sun really began to play with its rays, even though I have been to Torres Del Paine, this was my favourite view of South America so far, it was just so much more powerful.

At 11.10 we finally made it to the top, and immediately started coughing due to the sulphuric acid coming from the lava, but we found a nice little spot where the wind made sure we only got fresh air. After about 30 minutes on the top we want back down, and this was where the real fun began. The trip up had been very scenic, beautiful and hard; whereas the trip down was plain old fun. We sat down on our buttocks and slided all the way down the snow, it was fast and fun.

Back in town I took a shower and ate dinner with Yong before I boarded a night bus to Santiago, with the goal of reaching Valparaíso the following day.

I arrived in Pucón, found my hostel, went sightseeing, booked my tour for the volcano hike and then discovered, that I would be back in time to grab a late night bus to Santiago, and be there the following morning. So I did just that and got a day refunded from my hostel, which I in turn spent on the barbecue dinner there.

During the day I watched Charlie Wilson's War together with Danny and Vikki from Manchester, read more in my book and nothing else really, it was really a rather uneventful day. However the barbecue food was good and I hit the bed at 22.30, hoping to get some sleep as my guide would pick me up at 4 in the morning...

The bus started at Bariloche, and so loaded on a lot of people, delaying the departure by about 30 minutes, but that didn't matter much, my destination was Valdivia, and it was only a place where I intended to find a bed, sleep and get the earliest bus to Pucon the next day. But the busride had a good factor, I sat next to a girl called Lindsay from Oregon, but who lived half the year in Alaska (not exactly sure if it was a half year) guiding groups around the wilderness, it sounded very exciting. But of all my bus trips, it was by far the best unexpected company I have had. She was only going to Osorno (a couple of stops before Valdivia), so I slept for the last part.

When I arrived in Valdivia I found a cheap hostel (6000 peso is cheap in Valdivia unfortunately), ate a sandwich and went early to bed as I had bought a 6.50 ticket to Pucon for the next day.

Today Dave, Eddie and I were supposed to go on a dayhike, but they had been invited to go to lunch at the house of a local family, so during the entire day... Not much happened.

For dinner Eddie was supposed to cook, but after the huge lunch he and Dave had had, he wasn't interested in dinner; so the 3 of us and 2 Israeli's went for a nice little dinner at a teahouse, eating a burger. As the bus next day was early in the morning, I hit the bed for an early 23 o'clock night.

3rd of March:

I got up early to cook my lovely egg sandwich for breakfast and to catch the 7.30 bus  Argentina. The ride to the border was smooth, just like the border crossing and the bus to Esquel on the other side. Once in Esquel we only had to wait 15 minutes for our 2 hour busride to El Bolsón; and there was where you really found out that you were in Argentina.
The busride was cheap, the seats were big and comfortable, and the 2 hour busride included a full free meal and drink, not even remotely possible in Chile.
We arrived in El Bolsón and traversed the entire city in order to make it to fantastic hostel "La Casa del Viajero", an organic-hippie-feng-shui hostel run as a sort of commune, which works fantastically here, especially as El Bolsón is known as the hippie town of South America.

Dave and I started out by walking about the town, finding out when and where the different buses to Bariloche leave, and when/where the buses to the surrounding areas (for a bit of trekking) leave, before settling down for an ice cream. Argentinians are very proud of their ice cream, and that's okay as it is good; but it is only the ice cream which is good, the cone is kind of like soft cardboard, so for me it doesn't quality as an ice cream, but that is a matter of definition.

Afterwards we went back to the hostel for some relaxing, I read in my book and Dave had a nap in a hammock. We then started talking to a girl called Lucia (who works at the hostel) who told us about the area (trekking) and about a really good nearby restaurant where we would eat dinner.
So when the time for dinner came, we walked to the place (which ended up being quite far away) which was closed. So we consulted the Lonely Planet and found a nice place at the complete other end of El Bolsón (walking from extremity to extremity) just to find another closed place. So we found some random street place, a little bit pricey (not a lot) but delicious. We then walked back to our hostel for a nice long sleep.

Oh and on a side note, I managed to swap my fantastic Master and Commander novel by Patrick O'Brian for The Odyssey by Homer.

The rafting on the Río Futaleufú is phenomenal... I have often read that it is the best white water rafting in the entire world, our guides who are very professional have traveled all over the world rafting, and they said that this was in their opinion the best place in the world. The guide on my boat (Christian) mentioned 3 rivers as being the best: Río Futaleufú, Zambesi and the White Nile; and of those 3 the Río Futaleufú is supposedly the best.

Now I had a fantastic time there, the rafting was incredible, I simply had so much fun going down there. We had 15 or so rapids, ranging between class 3+ and class 5; there was a single class 2 but we swam through that one (really incredible feeling). It is very hard to describe rafting, you go rapidly (pun intended) down a river skipping over massive waves and getting high sides (no tipping over though). There were just so many rapids, and they all had massive waves, rocks sticking out, extremely fast flowing water and just generally a very fun feeling about them. Unlike other people however I didn't get an adrenalin rush, that takes a bit more.

But one thing I would have loved to be possible is bringing along a camera, the scenery was absolutely stunning. The mountain background, the mountains on the sides, the cliffs sticking out, the wild river... Everything about it just seemed so perfect.

But it came to an end (although not before Rachel had fallen overboard in a rapid called "Mas o menos") and we had to go back to Futaleufú.

Instead of going to Chaíten and further on to Chiloé, I changed my mind within 5 minutes and decided to go across the border into Argentina with Dave and go to El Bolsón and then futher on to Bariloche after that, partly because I have so far not heard anything positive about Chiloé, and because I was gonna go to El Bolsón and Bariloche anyway.

So back in Futaleufú Dave and I went to buy bus tickets to the border (for Monday, there are no Sunday buses to anywhere) , and we then decided to eat out again (as it was the last night Eyal and Rachel would be there) and Eddie would then cook dinner the following day. But when we finally got around to eating time, it took forever to find an open place that wasn't ridiculously expensive, so we ended up eating at the same place as the previous day. However we were 5 people, and the chef had only dough for 2 pizza's, so Eddie and I had steaks instead.

--

I would like you to try and play this song while reading about my rafting experience, and trying to imagine what's it like.

[See post to listen to audio]

A quiet day, I knew I wouldn't be going rafting, so I took it easy... Spent a good while at an internet café, uploading pictures and writing some stuff. I bought 6 eggs, 3 pieces of bread and a small packet of butter... MacGyver style, right? I read in my book London Fields, and around 16 o'clock I went out talking to rafting agencies, and finally one of them had a trip the following day (1st of March). So I booked it and settled with the idea of spending 3 full days here (arriving Thursday and leaving Monday), as the bus doesn't leave on Sundays.

Later in the day the daily bus (except Sundays) arrived and dropped off loads of people, 4 of whom found their way to the same hotel/hostel as me. Eyal, Rachel, Dave and Eddy (you can see them all here), all of them Jewish but not Israeli. Eyal is from Israel, Rachel is from Maryland (USA) and Dave and Eddy is from Sydney. Everyone but Rachel went off with the other Israeli people they had arrived with to book a rafting trip, and they managed to make their way to Fly George Rafting service just like me.

Afterwards we went to a pizzeria together and ate pizza with tuna on it (no ham, right?) which for me was surprisingly delicious. By now it was late and the hotel/hostel closes the doors at 23 o'clock, so we hurried back, got inside, sat down and talked till midnight when the owner asked us to go to bed.

The nature also changes a lot. On the "W" (apart from heading up the valleys) you always have a view of the lakes, and you are much closer to the mountains. On the backside; there is only water near Camp Dickson (and just there), but the paths you walk on and the area around them is much greener, but then you are also much further away from the mountains. On certain (sometimes long) stretches on the backside, you are walking in forest obscuring your view, something which is really annoying. E.g. on my first sick day (day 6), I walked for 4 hours in close forest, before suddenly being thrown out in a totally unprotected area facing strong winds... To say I was surprised is to put it mildly.

It really is a magnificent place, this isn't one of those place you drop by when you are traveling in Chile (like I did); it is a place that should be the point of a travel. Had I known about it before I left I would have been psyched for ages; but I never heard about it until I reached Ushuaia, I'm just happy that I found out about it.

Monty is a cat living at the erratic rock hostel in Puerto Natales. When it first came around the operators thought it belonged to another American who lives in the area, she has an entirely black cat as well called Vladimir. After 3 days they discovered that it wasn't Vladimir, and Kat, (ironic yeah) an intern at erratic rock named the cat Monty.

The cat holds a special meaning to me as it bit my headphone cord exposing the innards, luckily for me the staff at erratic rock had some duct tape I could fix it with.

When I get a cat of my own, I am absolutely going to name it Monty; I just wouldn't get a black cat, I would rather prefer one of these red/whitish cats... 

Yamanaka Hajime:

I first met Yamanaka Hajime in Rio Gallegos, he claimed to be "above 60" but that was all he would give. As his name implies he is asian, and more specifically Japanese. I had some lovely conversations with him (he had often had a lot to drink), but the peculiar thing was our travel patterns. We both stayed at the Casa de Familia Lecira Contreras in Rio Gallegos, took the same bus to Ushuaia where we both ended up in Los Lupinos (by pure chance). After a week there, we (by chance again) took the same bus from Ushuaia to Punta Arenas. I never saw him again after that, and I unfortunantly never took a picture of him, but I vividly remember what he looks like. An elderly (but lively) Japanese man with a slightly weathered face and short white hair.

erratic rock:

If you are EVER going to Torres Del Paine or just Puerto Natales, you are cheating nobody but yourself if you don't stay at erratic rock hostel. It is a most wonderful place with great staff, good beds and the best omelet for breakfast that you can ever imagine, accompanied by freshly baked bread. Every day at 15 o'clock there is a great information meeting on hiking in Torres Del Paine, without it I would have been lost.

Mesita Grande:

Located in Puerto Natales, prepare yourself for the best pizza outside Italy, the thinnest crust, best ham/cheese/tomato/salami/whatever-you-might-desire. The atmosphere, the long wooden tables and benches... Everything just feels perfect about this place, so after a successful trek through Torres Del Paine, please treat yourself here... You won't regret it ;).

More transportation days... Patagonia is not just big and flat, the population density if very low, meaning long distances have to be traversed going from place to place. My goal for the day is Futaleufú (I dare you to try and pronounce it correctly); it was a long trip in a very confined space (not a real bus, but a minibus), however on the bus were 2 elder Australians (60's) named Peter and Kevin, and as with so many other travelers, conversation comes easy (where one is from is a good opening question), they sat a few rows in front of me, so we could only talk when we stopped (which was incredibly frequent).

At Villa Santa Lucia I had to get out, wait for 10 minutes and get on another bus, not really a nuisance except for the fact that it was pouring down. I eventually made it to Futaleufú, found some lodging and went to the tourist information to try and find out where to book river rafting (the reason I came to Futaleufú). But all agencies had nobody going (except me), so there was no possibility of river rafting on the 29th of February.  I did find one place that was going, but the guy in charge then remembered that they were actually full (lovely). So disillusioned I went to bed on an empty stomach (my hotel charges for kitchen use, and it was rather late), trying to forget a boring, bland and wet day.

Following (after a lot of walking, asking, looking, going to a tourist information and returning there) I found the bus company that goes to Futaleufú; in reality though it only goes to Villa Santa Lucia where you have to change bus. I went to an internet cafe to burn out my pictures onto DVD and mailed them to my father (3 dvd's).

And here is something extraordinary: For the equivalent of 2€ I bought a huge cone (real cone, not those cardboard ones that seem to be popular) ice cream with 4 big scoops of ice cream, 2 scoops of chocolate and 2 scoops of pistachio (thank you Frida, for teaching me the pleasure of pistachio). So with my huge ice cream in one hand and my camera in the other, I set out for a scenic city walk and snapped some beautiful small town pictures. The internet cafe I am at right now has rather slow computers and slow internet, so I can't upload the pictures just yet. The city itself is very scenically placed next to a calm river up against mountains to two sides, placed on a little hill.

I shopped some food for the bus trip the following day (tuna, ham, bread and chocolate), and went out for dinner the same place as the previous day. This time however I didn't have salmon but a steak with two eggs and chips. Back at my "hotel" I watched American Gun, a really good American movie about gun control.

20th of February:

I had an entire day in Puerto Natales, and used it to treat my pictures, upload them to flickr and write the first part of the Torres Del Paine post. Not much else happened, but with the horrible internet café's in Puerto Natales, not much work got done.

As this was my last day in Puerto Natales, I decided to eat at Mesita Grande for dinner. I know that I have eaten there every night in Puerto Natales so far, but the pizza is simply just so damn good. And who would have guessed it? I certainly met other people there (notice the irony)! I fell into conversation with Vicky and Sophia; from Birmingham (Vicky, with that funny Birmingham accent) and London (Sophia). They weren't having much of a dinner as they had had a big lunch, but Vicky had a salad (as far as I remember) and they stayed around for conversation until I had finished.

Back at the erratic rock I bought a tshirt, it's orange and it has embroidered:
erratic rock
Patagonia, Chile

Before I could go to bed however, I had to repack my bag (I had stored most of my possessions with the hostel in another bag, as I had to drag around all sorts of stuff in Torres Del Paine). Next to me doing the same thing was Mike from Bournemouth, England. We started talking a bit about what we had seen and done in the park; but all that talk about the park faded when we discovered our mutual passion for Blackadder. We sat for quite a while quoting different parts although mainly season 4, and especially Lord Flashheart.

What is most special about this day, is what it marks. I left Spain on the morning of the 20th of January, which means that on this day, I had spent one month in South America. But unlike the day that marked my 3 weeks in South America, I didn't have any reflective thoughts or anything.

21st of February:

At much too early in the morning, I caught a bus to El Calafate after having eaten my last erratic rock omelet. Next to me on the bus sat Edward, a Swiss/Scottish/Argentinian traveler, we had some nice conversation for most of the trip and once we got to El Calafate we decided to go see the Perito Moreno glacier together. As soon as we arrived in El Calafate we bought a ticket to the glacier (left 45 minutes later), found a hostel, dumped our bags, ate a sandwich and just made it to the bus.

After first having gone on a boat ride close to the glacier (1) (2) (3), we made it to the top and walked around looking at the glacier from above. The only unfortunate event of the day, was the rather gray weather and the rain; but we managed anyway, I even snagged an artistic photo. The glacier itself was a fantastic sight, a 60 meter tall wall of ice, the creaking noises before a huge splash that sounded like it could crush anything, only to look in the direction and see that it was just a small part; and then imagining what a huge part would be like.

Back in El Calafate Edwards creditcards didn't work, but he did have enough money to get back to Puerto Natales the following day, he just wouldn't be able to afford dinner. So after having bought my ticket to El Chalten together with Mike, he and I went out for the best dinner I have had so far. I had an omelet with red peppers, cheese and some very lovely spicy sausage. But the food was not what made it great, Mike and I quoted Blackadder all evening, and at several times I couldn't eat as I was laughing so hard. Eventually we finished eating and decided to go back to our hostels as we had an early bus the next day.

22nd of February:

Got up early and headed for the bus. Mike was there waiting and we soon set off (I arrived 2 minutes before the bus left). After driving for a while Mike woke me up (I had been sleeping with my head on the windows so my neck hurt like hell) as we had arrived at a roadside stop where a small guanaco (llama relative). When we finally did arrive in El Chalten, we found a nice hostel, bought our tickets onwards (the only bus was the following night), ate lunch at the most wonderful little "teahouse". It was the most delicious sandwich I have ever had, followed by the most delightful of all waffles.

But we did get serious (eventually). After a lot of kicking about and spending money unnecessarily, we got up and took a dayhike into the valley ahead of El Chalten. The views were incredible, the path nice and even (in fact it was madly steep at places, but after Torres Del Paine... that was even anyway); the highpoint of the hike was a panoramic view of Fitz Roy the legendary mountain but as you can tell from my picture, the peak was obscured. Despite these setbacks, it was a great dayhike. If any of you had been wondering what Mike looks like, well here is an appetiser. Eventually we made it back to town and we both went to an internet cafe to sort out our stuff. Afterwards we went to the towns only (and not only bland but very much lacking) supermarket where despite the shortage of goods, Mike bought what he felt was necessary for our dinner (yes, he cooked for me).

I was rather skeptical about the dinner, but with 3 kinds of vegetables (carrot, red pepper and vegetables), potatoes and some huge sausages (yummy) he cooked up a wonderful meal. With us for the dinner was Emm (or so I think her name was) from Seattle, USA. After dinner we went to a small bar where Mike and Emm had a locally brewed pilsner and we all had a nice chat. It was a cool place, neat wooden decorations, good music (including Roxanne and other police songs); and instead of placing bread on the tables, they had popcorn :D.

23rd of February:

You really come to understand just how fragile the human body is. It was a 5 hour daytrek (both ways), but after 1,5 hours of walking I couldn't go much further knowing that the scenery wouldn't drastically improve (1) (2). So I went back (totaling a 3 hours trip) while Mike went on; back in Chaltén I went to an internet cafe and managed to finish my Torres Del Paine post (although I didn't publish it at the time as it needed proofreading). Having done that Mike was back (it was now around 20) and once again we set out for dinner (funny how you do some things every day, like eating dinner?) and found a nice place with an idiot for a waiter. Instead of charging one sidedish of chips (french fries) to us, he gave us a full price each; but Mike and I had had a lot of fun during the previous days we had known each other as well as this dinner, so we didn't make a fuss of it and just accepted it. We went to the best place in town (Del Bosque) and I had yet another (and last) waffle. We were to catch a nightbus out of El Chaltén on this day, in fact it left at 1:20 in the morning. But it was a long wait from when the last waffle had been eaten (2 hours) so after watching some football on the madly discoloured television (spaced out colours, purple, pink and so on) until I fell asleep for about 20 minutes. Mike woke me up, we got our bags, walked to the bus and got on.

24th of February:

This time when I woke, my neck didn't hurt so much I thought I would never be able to straighten it out. Instead I pulled out my copy of Master and Commander and continued reading; I woke up around 9 o'clock and my bus wasn't schedueled to arrive for another 7,5 hours (16.30), so I had plenty of time to kill. I had recently begun reading Master and Commander (the movie is based on several books in the series, but it does take a few parts from my copy, the first in the series) and it is a most splendid book, I really hope I can pick up some of the next in the series once I hit Santiago. After a long ride we arrived in Perito Moreno (named after the same guy who the glacier is named after) where Mike was getting off and everybody got a 30 minute break; so I got off the bus and bought an ice cream. When I got I (to my extreme horror) saw the bus drive away! After some moments of panic, someone told me that the bus was just going to get refuelled, and true enough, not only was the bus empty as it drove away (apart of the driver), it did in fact return 25 minutes later (to my relief). I got on the bus and drove the last 25 minutes to my final stop of the day... Los Antiguos. Shortly after my arrival I found my way into a nice hostel, walked around this dull/dead city, went to an internet cafe to proofread my Torres Del Paine post, started talking to a French girl named... Fanny. She invited me to come to dinner with her and a group of people she had met... Israelis. I accepted and came along, but yeah it was a bit of a mistake, I felt very much out of place and just watched Catwoman with Halle Berry dubbed into Spanish (bad enough on its own, but dubbed?) instead. For some odd and quite horrible reason, restaurants in South America always have at least one tv running, and quite loudly at that; it is a horrible distraction, but the locals seems to enjoy it. I just went straight back to bed after that ordeal, and the tiniest omelet you can possibly imagine.

25th of February:

As always I woke up quite late, but that didn't stop me from being ready for the announced 11 o'clock bus from Los Antiguos to Chile Chico (in Chile). But at 11.15 it still hadn't arrived, so I went to ask for it. And so it went every 15 or 20 minutes until I got picked up at 13.30. Quite nice isn't it? A bus being 2,5 hours delayed doing a stretch which takes 10 minutes... Anyway I got across and that is the important bit, it didn't matter how long it too, I would be stuck in Chile Chico anyway as the next ferry wasn't till the following day.

Once in Chile Chico I had a sandwich (had some leftover money from my last stay in Chile) and then to my horror, discovered that the only bank in the town wouldn't give my money "invalid transaction", lovely right? So I went to an information office and got the price for ferry. I had enough money for the ferry and 2000 pesos (I had also bought some bread) in excess, which I didn't spend in case the ferry price wasn't accurate. So I went back to my hostel and paid the owner with some of my remaining Argentinian pesos; and stayed there for the rest of the day, doing anything costs money in South America.

For dinner I had some leftover pasta from the last time I cooked dinner, so I greedily ate a lot of it and watched Snatch together with Ron, one of the Israeli's from yesterday who was staying in the same place. When I was about to go to bed (in fact, I was in bed), the rest of the Israeli's poured in at about 22 o'clock and started to cook (10 people in a 4 people room) their food on stoves, turned the tv way up and started blabbering in Hebrew... Lovely.

26th of February:

The ferry I was getting on didn't leave till 16.30 so I had nearly a full day with no money... Luckily the hostel had an English language tv channel (the one that had shown Snatch) which had an all-day special on Bruce Lee... Mind you not his movies, but a super crappy 80's documentary on him, with the interviews in English but the speaker in Spanish... Oh the agony. Anyway I watched that for several hours (and ate some more pasta) before I got my gear and walked down the ferry. Don't you love getting wrong information? Well so do I. The ferry was there, but I was supposed to buy my ticket the previous day (a new concept in South America), whereas they had told me at the information to buy it on the ferry. So I got to wait in the sun for two hours, underneath the hole in the ozone layer, until at last I was allowed on board (at a higher price then they had told me at the information). On board I snapped a few decent pictures (1) (2) (3) (4) (5), but mainly I just sat down below trying to relax for the 2,5 hours the trip took.

On the other side mini-buses took everyone to Coyhaique (I imagine a few people stayed in Puerto Ibañez), the trip took 2 hours; but as soon as I was in Coyhaique I set out for a hostel. It took me 3 tries, but I found one, dumped me bag, went out for dinner (it wasn't a hostel but a crappy hotel, so no cooking), back to my room, watched an episode of Sherlock Holmes (in English) and then straight to bed.

I was directed to a place called Mesita Grande, and it turned out to be the best pizza I have ever had. It was so freaking delicious I had a hard time believing it. Unfortunately for me, I was too hungry and ate it much too fast.

Back at the hostel I started talking with a Canadian named Jenny from and bought two delicious home-baked chocolate chip cookies. Later in the evening, I had a long conversation with a German girl in German (Anette would be proud, not my stepmother, another one); Jenny and Susan (an employee at Erratic Rock) decided to watch Tommy Boy; but as it turned out guests kept pouring in and so we had to quit watching the movie and I went to bed.

1st day (February 12th) in Torred Del Paine (map for all 8 days):

The first day was fairly simple, after a nice busride where I took some pictures (1) (2) and meet a friendly couple from New Zealand and a cool Londoner named Craig (who I would meet again later), I landed at the administration around 12.00 I got dropped off at the park administration and walked for5,5 hours up to Albergue y Camping Pehoe. The first day was marked by Lucas and I spending an hour lost trying to find the trail (only time I got lost), but the rest of the day was fairly easy and straightforward. I managed to take some nice pictures (clicky).

The pictures of Lago Pehoe are incredible, the lake really is that colour, you never get tired of looking at it. Not much else occurred, the weather was a stable mix between cloudy and sunny. When we eventually made it to our campground, we simply just made ravioli, talked to some random people for a while before going to bed. I do however recall one particular conversation. A Californian (I think) told me about his travels in Colombia, and it just seems so great. He told me how he had never felt unsafe (by South American standards anyway) and that Bogota was one of the greatest and safest major cities in South America, you just had to stay in government controlled areas and you were in a really great country. I have for some time now really wanted to go there, but my parents are not too keen on the idea, and I would never go without their support.

2nd day (13th of February) in Torres Del Paine:

We (Lucas & me) tried to get up at 7 o'clock as he wanted to head up the left arm of the W with 3 American girls he met on the bus while I went to Campamento Italiano to go up and see Valle Frances (but leave my rucksack at Camp. Italiano). On my way walking there I met a group of English people, Katy with her boyfriend John, hey mother Susan and her mothers boyfriend... John. I walked with them all the way to Camp. Italiano, left my rucksack with their travel packs and walked up Valle Frances (1) (2) with them. Especially Katy and hey boyfriend John proved to be mighty good conversation, they had taken a year off to go travel around the entire world (and they really had gone to all corners of the world). We talked about more or less everything, camera's (they too have a 400D), traveling etc. We were about to get to garden gnomes (not really) when we reached Camp. Italiano again; I had agreed with Lucas that I would wait for him in Camp. Italiano for his return, and we would then walk together towards our camp for the night.

When Lucas had returned Urs appeared out of nowhere, seemingly very confused and nearly lost. However we soon got him turned around and we continued towards Los Cuernos together, but Lucas was rather slow and it was soon just Urs and me. Urs is Swiss and a very nice guy, just like with the English, I talked to Urs about more or less everything, and even managed to practice some German.

We eventually managed to get to Los Cuernos after walking along Lago Nordenskjold (1) (2) (3) for a long time. Set up our camp, cooked pea soup, ravioli and noodles for dinner.

3rd day (14th of February) in Torres Del Paine:

When we woke up there was a spectacular sight, but as soon as Lucas and I set off, we quickly found Urs and walked towards the last camp before the famous towers (1). Halfway there we found a shortcut and cut off about 2 hours of the trip, and as it was early in the day we sped up to try and watch the towers on that day, as we had been told the weather would be poor the following day.

When we made it to the last Camp. Torres we had walked 5 hours (except for a 30 minute food break that Urs had) and took a short break before climbing the last 45 minutes up to the towers where plenty of pics were taken (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (coming up the the Camp. Torres I met Tamar, Adina, Mike and Roman from Punta Arenas, and at the top I met Katy and her boyfriend John as well as Craig).

Back down in the camp I got to talking with some Americans who had come back from working in the Antarctic as volunteers, an idea which hugely appealed to me as I would really like to see the white continent. But I talked for a long while with Nick from... Maryland? In any case we all had an early evening as we wanted to get up the following day for the sunrise on the towers.

4th day (15th of February) in Torres Del Paine:

I had agreed with Urs to get up at 5 in the morning, but when I didn't appear from my tent he came to check if everything was alright... Well 3 things were wrong; it was too cold, too early and too dark. Instead Lucas decided to get up (he had previously had no plans of such), so I didn't get to watch the top of the towers turn red, instead I got to see some rainbows (1) (2), and I waited around at the top for an hour and a half to get a fairly cloud free pictures (1).

This was also the day that Lucas, Urs and pretty much everybody else went home as the W was done, and unlike me they weren't doing the circuit or the Q. As a result they had all headed down way before me to catch the 14 o'clock bus back to Puerto Natales, so my walk down from the mountains was very much solo. Down at the bottom I did however meet up with all them for a proper goodbye before they left.

At the Hosteria Las Torres I got my camera recharged for free and during that break, ate an outrageously priced but VERY good sandwich (6300 Chilean pesos) and wrote I bit in my diary.

Once my camera had fully recharged I walked to Camp. Seron. which was a very very very very long walk, it was rather scenic (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) but very flat and monotonous. When I finally made it to Camp. Seron, it was rather late and I just cooked some quick ravioli, borrowed some salt from my neighboring Germans and went comfortably to bed (although a bit cold).

5th day (16th of February) in Torres Del Paine:

The backside of the trail is very different from the frontside (the W). The paths are far less trodden, they are sort of flat on the ground (although clearly visible), whereas they on the frontside the path could be as deep as 25 cm. The frontside also had very open terrain with almost constant views over a lake or mountains etc. far far away. Here on the backside it is more valley like, much more closed (1) (2) (3).

But mostly it was just a very long day (6 hours), and it felt particularly long as I walked this day alone. The weather was very changing; the weather changes a lot around the trek, but on this specific day I got hail, strong winds, heavy rain and lots of sunshine. The terrain wasn't very good however, for a very big part of the day I walked in nothing but marsh, but the views were good and I found some interesting places (1).

After a long day of struggle against the weather, the terrain and the fatigue of my legs; I came upon the beautiful location of Camp. Dickson (1). Situated on a peninsula in a glacial river, the view is spectacular. You climb up a little while until suddenly you are standing in the southern direction looking north at the camp with parts of the river in between, it truly is stunning (I apologise for the poor colours, they don't do it justice). The view from the campsite itself was quite good (1).

It was at Camp. Dickson that I would meet my next hiking partner and soon-to-be lifesaver. Rafael a psychiatrist from Porto Alegre in Brazil, he was very good company, good conversation and a very funny guy (1).

For dinner I ate some pasta with an Alfredo sauce that you will soon hear more about.

6th day (17th of February) in Torres Del Paine:

BLAARGH! That was the sound I awoke to half past midnight. The 200 gram of pasta and the 125 gram of Alfredo sauce exciting my stomach in noticeable portions every 10 or 15 minutes for much too long. I was only saved by the nofloxacin (antibiotics) and ondansetron (for my nausea) that Rafael had with him (hence he was my saviour); I did have anti-biotics myself, but I had no flashlight, no contact lenses on and I wasn't very much able to go through my rucksack. I was extremely cold but sweating in my joints and trying not to get worse. When the sun eventually rose after a horrible night, I got up to stretch my legs, ran to the toilet and just walked around trying to regain some strength.

The worst part of being on the backside is how remote it is, there was no easy wasy back to Hosteria Las Torres, and all the horses were rented out. So I went back to bed hoping to get some sleep, recover a bit and go on. I woke up again around 13 o'clock, took my tent down, packed my bag and walked towards Camp. Los Perros.

The previous day had seemed very hard, but due to my condition, this was far worse. I once again walked alone all day, the terrain was constantly going up and down, and it was all in forest. The best sign of me feeling ill is the very low amount of pictures taken on this day; even though those I took were quite nice (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6).

I had been wondering about whether I would write the following, it can be quite strong to read (it was to experience), but I will write it in white so that you have to highlight it in order to read it.

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I was walking in the forest near a bridge when suddenly, the second part of food intoxication kicked in. The human body has two main openings meant for food to pass through, I had already vomited so that only left one. In the case of food intoxication your "leavings" are quite fluid and not easy to control. Suffice it to say, I was tired, ill and suddenly my trousers smelled horribly. So I just sat down and thought "I quit", but of course that would do no good. So after a short break I was standing around in the forest wearing nothing but a tshirt, packing my pants and trousers down into a plastic bag folded 3 times over; and so I walked the last 3 hours, high in the mountains wearing nothing but pants (that's underwear for any Americans who might stumble by); you would also be surprised at how much people stare at you. Furthermore knowing the challenge the following day, I had to wash my trousers (eww) as I couldn't cross the pass without them, it would be too crazy.

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Eventually I made it to the campsite where Rafael was waiting for me. In order to be sure not to freeze, I had a bit of conversation with some New Zealanders who had a VERY strong accent (I couldn't tell the difference between bitter and better). But I had an early night as I (surprisingly) wasn't feeling well.

7th day (18th of February) in Torres Del Paine:

The (physically) hardest of all days, and I had at this point not had any nutrition since the beginning of day 5. On this the 7th day, my intention was to cross the pass and make it to Albergue Grey. I met up with Rafael who had met a Russian (Vovar) and two Americans (Connor and Matthew), so around 10.30 (two hours delayed) we set out towards the John Gardner pass. The trip up was very hard, very swampy, very wet, very rocky and generally just very hard. After 3 hard hours we found ourselves standing at the top of the pass, by far the highest point along the trek (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10).

But getting up is only half the task. Getting down proved to be far harder; it took 3 hours to get up, but getting down to the first camp on the other side (Camp. Paso) took an incredible 4 hours, and it was much harder on the legs. It was 4 very steep hours of holding on to trees, ropes and railings, trying not to get hurled down the hillside at a dangerous speed. The first part had offered spectacular views over the Grey glacier (1) (2); however the rest of the trip was entirely in forest. I took a long break and Camp. Paso where Rafael also came (I had left the others at the pass) and ate some food, I tried to eat some pasta but vomited it all up on the way to Camp. Los Guardias. It was at this time (we left Camp. Paso at 18 o'clock) also very clear that we wouldn't make it to Reguio Grey.

But luckily the trail between Camp. Paso and Camp. Los Guardias turned out to be very scenic, and unlike the first tough 7 hours, it was now easy to talk and Rafael managed to teach me a lot about aperture (on cameras) and we talked about pretty much anything (Rafael had just been given a PS2 and was very interested in it). (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9).

After about 2,5 hours we made it to Camp. Los Guardias, I pitched my tent, rolled out my sleeping bag, went to the nearby Mirador (lookout) and took a nice picture, went back to my tent and fell asleep.

8th day (19th of February) in Torres Del Paine:

The last day in the park. I wanted this to be a nice easy day, but I still couldn't get any food down, so I was feeling very weak and very tired. The weather was also incredibly gray so the 4,5 hours spent walking to Albergue Pehoe where the catamaran sails from (which would take me to a bus that would take me to Puerto Natales sails from) were rather dull and didn't create any grand pictures. Later in the day the weather did clear and so towards the end of the trail, I did get to snap a few decent picturs (1) (2) (3), although the gray colours were still prevalent (1) (2). The last part of the trail is walked in a very narrow valley with no views for orientation which made me frustrated as I was very tired, not just physically and mentally, but it felt like my legs were coming apart and I was getting annoyed at everything (even the ever so friendly Rafael, and for that I do apologise), but suddenly, straight ahead, Lago Pehoe appeared in front of Rafael at the end of the valley, and I knew that I would soon be relaxing (1).

Once I was at Albergue Pehoe, hunger swelled back. I managed to mash two huge ham and cheese sandwiches down my throat (although I had to surrender when there was only a small part of the second one left, which a nice Belgian couple I had been talking to ate). But aside from that, not much happened between I arrived and when the boat left at 18.30. The weather cleared to allow for some pictures (1) (2) (3) (4).

The trip on board the catamaran was nothing special, but the bus on the other side however, was special. I sat next to a Californian named Brian who was a really cool guy, with whom I had one of the best and most interesting conversations with. He seemed very interested in a Europeans thought on Obama and the other candidates in America, as well as my travels; and likewise I took a particular interest in his travels. As it turned out he was teaching English in Santiago with 3 of his friends (who were also traveling with him now), with whom he also went around spreading the catholic word. Which meant that we also had a very long discussion about religion, but at in a very civilized way; it really was one of the better conversations I have had in South America. The busride itself offered some nice pictures of the park whilst driving away from it (1) (2), but most spectacular was the sunset we could see from the bus, oh my what a view (please watch all 6) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6).

Back in Puerto Natales I found my way back to Erratic Rock and got a bed in their annex. Before going to bed I went and ate one of the great Mesita Grande pizza's (with salami) before hanging out at Erratic Rock for an hour and then finally going to bed.

I know that you might be expecting my big post on Torres Del Paine, but I am now going into a series of new small cities with no internet, and I will unfortunanately fall a bit behind with my writing, but will catch up soon. I am now going to El Chalten followed by Los Antiguos, Chile Chico, Coyhaique and then get internet again in Puerto Montt (although possibly in Coyhaique).

Just know that it is coming, just not right now (unfortunantly).

In the meantime, I uploaded all my pics from Torres Del Paine to flickr, go check those out ;).

Only two major events of the day. The hostel I stay in serves real breakfast, and Bill (one of the owners) cooked me the most wonderful spices omelet; the second major event of the day was when Lucas discovered the renting prices. This unfortunately meant that I will only be doing the W with him, and then the entire backside alone, but I really doubt that I will be "alone". The trek is very popular, and it is high season right now, so I should easily be able to find someone to tag along with.

Other things I did today was buy food for the first 5-6 days (impossible to carry for the entire trip, you have to restock underway), buy gas for the stove and most importantly I bought toilet paper.

I am planning (I'm writing this in the middle of the day, as I can't get online tomorrow before my bus leaves) to have a pizza for dinner and thus asked around for the best place, and I am confident that the pizza I will be having tonight is superb, as a sort of "I am leaving the civilized world, and refuse to cook dinner before I leave". When I get back from the Q, I am intending to eat a nice meal and not just a pizza as a sort of celebration meal :).

So this is it, my last words for up to 14 days (might be quicker), but when I come back, you can expect a "freaking HUGE" post with tons of new pictures on flickr; and if you think my post for yesterday was long, you have no idea what you are in for... If you are only going to read one post (besides this one), read the one I wrote after I have done the trek. I know that setting your expectations too high, only means that you will get disappointed afterwards... But really, this is going to be such an amazing trek.

As always, you can pass the time waiting by looking at some of my pictures: Flickr

I woke up this morning as Mike and Roman got up (their bus left 30 minutes before mine), and slowly made my way up and about, which included a huge 5 egg scramble egg. One thing that has left me pondering, is why I can't find bacon, and when I ask other travelers, they haven't seen any in South America either. However I said goodbye to Teresa (who owns the much beloved hostel I was about to leave) and set off towards the bus company I had chosen. Punta Arenas unlike other cities of the same size (or bigger, sometimes smaller) doesn't have a bus terminal, which means that the buses for each company go from different places, so there is no central place to grab the cheapest ticket, however I quickly learned that all tickets from Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales are 4000 peso.

I have to give credit where it's due, and on this my first domestic bus trip in Chile, it only took 3 hours and get this... We arrived 15 minutes early! Getting from the bus stop in Puerto Natales to my hostel (Erratic Rock), was about as simple as it gets; it was located about 50 meters from the stop in direct sight. I produced myself in the office to a great amount of confusion, not because I hadn't booked ahead, but because the person in the office were on her first or second day (at the most), I then got a quick tour around and donated my last Danish coin (50 oere) to their reception desk (it had a glass plate above it, and between the table and the glass were lots of coins, and during my waiting I had discovered that there wasn't a single Danish coin).

At 15 o'clock there was an information talk on the Torrel Del Paine national park, or more specifically the different hikes around the park, the very reason I had come to this small village (but before the talk happened, I went out for some cheap lunch, and sat down in the hostel, listened to some music and played with a cat that lives in the hostel. However it suddenly (very suddenly) decided to poke its claws into my skin and bite the cord to my headphones over... I managed to fix the headphones with duct tape, but I did let go of the cat). I had originally intended to do the "W" which is a 5 day hike, with one day added on each end, but during the talk, the hostel owner (Rustyn, American) (who is also a guide and life long trekker) described what is known as the "Q" hike, and I was instantly on to that. It takes 10-12 days with a day of transport on each end, so up to two weeks, instead of the original 5 days of the "W" hike.

One problem about such a long hike is hiking alone; Rustyn asked how many were trekking alone, and there were just two of us. So by sheer coincidence, Lucas was intended to do the "Q" hike as well, and we have decided to do it together, which also helps to keep costs down, and distribute the weight between us. Lucas is from Utah (America) and is down here on a shorter trip (1 month?), and as far as I could understand, this hike would be the last thing he does before he returns to USA. He seems like a great guy, and in roughly two weeks time (we leave on Tuesday the 12th of February) I imagine we will have gotten to know each other quite well.

I know that I don't have the gear to do the trip, which is why I am going to rent it; and I feel really lucky about my choice of hostel. It is owned by Rustyn and his business partner Bill, both of whom are professional guides, trekkers and just good outdoor people; they rent gear which appears to be of really good quality at a more than reasonable price, but it isn't like I have to rent everything.

After the talk I went around with Lucas trying to find some of the things we needed to bring for the hike, but we couldn't find any black garbage bags (for waterproofing the bags), we did get those at the hostel; but instead of going out again to buy more, we decided to meet up the following day at 12 0'clock.

So I went out to buy some dinner and went back to cook it; now I am at this stage not only noticing how my Spanish is improving, but also how it is really rubbish. I was in the mood for something with meat (surprise), and so I bought some pasta with meat sauce. Only when I got back did I found out that it said "meat not included" and that you had to buy it separately. So I had dry pasta with some powder you mix up with meat and water to get a nice meat sauce; anyway the trip back wasn't worth the extra flavour, so I once again had a boring meal, but at least this time I didn't burn myself (much).

Earlier in the day I had been talking to an American named Britney (more specifically from NYC) and although I didn't know it at the time, she is going iceclimbing in the national park (where I'm hiking) for 24 days together with bearded guy aka. Colorado dude aka. Keenan (whom I wrote shortly about in my first day or two in Punta Arenas). What a coincidence, right? Anyway besides watching Mission Impossible in the evening, I spent most of the rest of the day around Britney and Keenan, asking them about their trip and making nice conversation. One thing that you do come across with people from almost any country, is not only that they nearly all want to go to Denmark at some point (but complain about the prices), but that they all seem genuinely interested in Denmark.

In the end I got tired and Britney and Keenan had to get up early for their 24 day adventure, so I went to bed around 23:30 after playing a game of Uno with two children who were staying there with their parents.

"It has come to my attention (I have a statcounter) that quite a lot of people visit and possibly read this blog. Just from a perspective of interest, would those of you who read it mind leaving a comment identifying yourself? It isn't a requirement, nor intended to scare you away... I'm just interested :)"

I talked to Carl (from London) and Mike (from Austria) for a while; and discovered that Carl intended to go to a museum which I had wanted to see, and thus decided to come along. The museum was housed in an opulent museum showing relics from the time when the southern part of South America was explored, and featured a lot of information on the conditions and the indigenous people, but unfortunately most of the information was in Spanish, so I just looked around in the gorgeous rooms (see Flickr for pictures). After the museum we walked about for quite a while, trying to find another grand mansion that Carl had seen at some point, but eventually we settled on the fact, that we simply couldn't find it. But never the less, Carl knew about another museum (hopefully as good as the first one), but unfortunately it was closed (so was the cathedral, which Carl hadn't seen (I had)).

Eventually we had to head back to the hostel as Carl had booked a trip to the nearby penguin colony; I knew about the trip beforehand, but had already seen penguins in the national park near Puerto Madryn, and had therefore opted not to go.

I went back to the hostel (after an internet trip) and relaxed for an hour or so before I made pasta with chicken sauce for dinner, an enormous portion of which I could only eat 2/3. It was about when I was done that I notice the silence. Carl and the British couple were at the penguin colony and so I thought Tamar and Adina were, although nobody knows where they went. But it was quiet and as time passed, Carl and the British couple did come back and ate dinner. A bit of conversation emerged, but it turned out to be a very quiet evening/night.

Back in Punta Arenas it was only 15 0'clock, and so I once again set about walking around the town, venturing into areas further away, and although not as pretty as the other parts of the town, still very interesting.

Around 19 o'clock, I decided to make dinner, but I was rather impatient, and my pasta wasn't exactly fully cooked nor did I have any kind of sauce for it, so it wasn't the most interesting meal, but then neither is the oat meal which I eat for breakfast every day. The rest of the evening was spent talking to the other travelers, including two new English travelers. The two twin boys who live there, just wouldn't stop running up to me and pulling my hair, very annoying that is. But I had an enjoyable evening (every evening here has been), and went to bed feeling good.

I really have to underline this, my hostel is a wonderful place. The operator, a lady in her 60's is a wonderful, very energetic and genuinely cares about her guests. I woke up a couple of my times when my room mates stirred, but I didn't get up till about 10, and left the hostel at around 11 after setting some clothes out for laundry and sorting through my rucksack.

I had initially booked 3 nights (two full days), but upon seeing the city when I entered by bus and drove to my hostel by taxi, I decided that 3 full days would be better.
So once I was up and had set out, I walked around the city and it was indeed pretty; the main square was very green with a nice huge statue in the middle, and the square itself surrounded by beautiful mansions. For lunch I had a ham sandwich, which really was a ham sandwich... It was toasted bread filled with ham (plenty) and nothing else, quite dry although true to the menu. Later in the day, I booked a tour to see Fuerte Bulnes, the original settlements here, and my Sunday bus to Puerto Natales. I also shopped for dinner, and luckily for me, I have far from grown tired of pasta at this time, nor do I mind the oatmeal for breakfast, I feel like I could live on nothing but that (oatmeal). As a small treat, I managed to find some good chocolate. All chocolate so far down here, whether Cadbury's or Milka has tasted rather poor, but I found some wonderful Nestle chocolate. Back at the hostel I started making food around 19 o' clock and suddenly the hostel just woke to life, everybody started appearing to make food and the conversation didn't stop till people went to bed around 23:30. While pouring the pasta into the holed bowl (to separate it from the water) I managed to get my hand in the way and pour boiling water over my hand... 10 points, right?

Anyway, new to the hostel were two Israeli girls and two Austrian guys. The Austrians sleep in the same room as me, and seem like very nice guys. The Israeli's are more atypical; there is an Israeli site which shows Israeli people where to go for hostels etc. These girls use the site to find out where not to go, as unlike other Israeli's they came here to meet people from several nationalities, not just people from Israel. They were however very nice and made for good conversation, but in any case, so did everyone from the hostel.

The (wonderful) hostel is owned by a woman named Teresa who lives there with (what I can presume are) her twin grandchildren (boys), who are very very very energetic, always running around and (trying to) show off to the travellers, by measures of noise and activity.

Well the service was... Unique. I entered and got shown to a table, after which the operator/waiter/cook asked me "aléman?". I told him that I was Danish (all this is in Spanish), so he just looked at me with a blank stare and once again asked me "aléman?", so I just accepted that he though I as German and he went away. Two minutes later he appeared and asked what I wanted to bring, I asked for the usual still water, which they didn't have; but on his own initiative, he did present me with a glass of tap water (which I didn't touch). Shortly after (and to my surprise) he served me food... Apparently the "aléman" deal, had been a dish (he hadn't bothered to show me the menu) consisting of a meatwrap with something disgusting inside which I never identified (scraped it out) and mashed potatoes.

I went back to my hostel and joined conversation with some other travelers for some time before going to bed, absolutely knackered; and now in Chile, with even more time difference.

The bus trip was unlike any I had been on so far.  The bus was crammed full almost to the point of bursting, with a fair share of screaming children. What also made this trip peculiar were the border crossings, 4 of them. Leaving Argentina, entering Chile, leaving Chile and entering Argentina; all of them separate, instead of just a logical 2 crossings. It resulted in lots of waiting in line for stamps etc. I got my first entry stamp to Chile about 3 hours before I got my first exit stamp, so in total I got 4 stamps within 4 hours. Eventually the bus pulled to a final halt and everyone got out, got their baggage and went somewhere else, and so did I. But my map didn't fit with this place? So I asked someone for directions; he told me that I wasn't in Ushuaia but Rio Grande. "Clucking bell" was my initial thought, but I went into the office of the bus company I was using and asked about what was going on. Apparently another bus would come by shortly and pick me up, and surely it did, and some of the people from the first bus returned, many as bewildered as me. Eventually the bus halted in Ushuaia and we all got out. Now at the internet cafe where I had reserved my bed in Ushuaia, I couldn't print; and thus I had no idea what my hostel was called or where it was, so the first thing I had to do was to go to an internet cafe and find out. I was staying at Los Lupinos hostel which luckily turned out to be quite close. I went and paid for two nights before going out for dinner (no supermarkets were open, and you can't transport food across borders here), and I had a lovely ham and cheese omelet with French fries, immediately after I went to bed, very tired and with a long day of walking ahead of me.