malacalachalahayo

Just got back from a Malacalhello, and it took me the entire two days I was there to be able to say it. It is not spanish, so I am not a complete jackass. I went on a whim from Valdivia, which was another whim, and arrived thursday night. I looked fruitlessly in the very small town for a hostel that might have space, and found that none seemed to be open. In fact the town appeared mostly deserted. So I decided this would be a good opportunity to save some money and walked out of the town (about a 2 minuted walk) and found a cozy little spot in the dirt. It was a nice warm night and the sky was full of stars. It seemed nothing could go wrong. then my imagination got the best of me and dogs barking became the police looking for rogue backpackers, and cars headlights became UFO´s, then the temperature dropped, and me in my tshirt and 45 degree sleeping bag didnt cut it. well needless to say I didnt sleep much, but I was able to watch a beautiful sunrise, without use of my hands or feet, but it was worth it.

The next day I hiked in a beautiful national park nearby that has forests of Araucaria trees, and of course volcanoes (I never thought volcanoes and glaciers would become...ordinary). The Araucaria trees or "monkey puzzle trees" as we call them are these massive pines with very few, cactus like, branches. Hard to describe, but very beautiful.

Now I am in Temuco waiting for a bus to head back to Santiago. I indulged in a little YMCA swimming pool today after being sprayed with air freshner at the last internet cafe. At the Y  they took pity on me and gave me a discount for the pool. Probably because they could tell I really needed to bathe.

Looking forward to Santiago. I am renting a PHAT apartment for a week (haggled for half price of course). It will be shi shi sha sha and a drastic change from all the farms, camping and rogue backpacking I have been doing.