Anyhow, I am going to post The Doc’s letter so you can read
his account of the trip here and whatnot.
Hey guys, Just stopped off for a few minutes in Coihayque (in southern Chile) on our way to Puerto Natales. it was a long bumpy bus ride through the badlands of Argentine Patagonia. it was a lot like Montana, or eastern Washington... except with flamingos and guanacos (like a llama). The flamingos were too far away to get a good photo, but I did get a great shot of the badlands for you Jason. It looks like the New Adventures in Hi-Fi album cover.
The border going into Argentina was (as predicted) a little more trouble than getting into Chile, but they seemed to like us well enough, so we got through. Actually it wasn’t myself or Jen that posed a problem at the border as we zipped right through once they got to us. It was the Chilenos that took forever. When I finally got to the front of the line it was stamp, stamp, welcome to Argentina. Mom, don’t worry, when I got back into Chile they gave me another 90 day visa...so it’s all good.
The bus ride was the height of tedium, because the guy who was kind of like the bus stewardess guy thing kept inundating us aurally with the 80’s music from hell. He started us off with a mix tape of all the hits one could think of from that venerable decade, dipping into the 90’s occasionally for a taste of Michael Jackson’s history. but it didn’t even play whole songs (which would’ve been tolerable) it was 30-50 second clips of each with the MTV video for them played under it. Weird... i was left to wonder what it must be like for Chilenos to experience American culture 15-20 years after the fact and in incomprehensibly small portions. It’s no wonder everybody thinks American culture is so perverse...aside from the perversion that is. Then we got hit with
Latino love songs until 12:30 in the morning... which was pretty annoying given the hour, but it was rounded out come morning time when we were serenaded with the guns-n-roses video anthology... yep, Axl is still the bee’s knees ’round these parts.
All the while Jenicita y yo played travel scrabble and her perverse (though apparently correct) version of gin-rummy. I’m up two sets to one so far. we’re calling her version Jen-rummy and my (ten card, no knock) version Tim-rummy. it troubles me that her name is closer to gin than mine, oh well.
Anyways, all is quite well and i have been enjoying the scenery of this part of Chile. Coihayque is a lot like Yosemite or Yellowstone in many ways, but with a lot less people. it’s an interesting place to spend my birthday, and I like our transitory nature at this time. It seems like a wonderful way to start a new year.
We are (slowly) making our way to Punta Arenas and the Tierra del Fuego. If time permits we will come back through Argentina, up the coast through Buenos Aires. We are talking about maybe renting a car for the Argentine leg, but we will have to look at the money situation. Well, anyways... happy birthday to me, and happy valentine’s day to all you out there. I love you, and I miss you.
ps- Jason, they’re totally playing a Latin cover of a joy division song right now in the internet cafe... I can’t remember the name of the song though... argh!
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