WWOOFing

Kathryn took off to Santiago to catch her flight, an I, feeling a little lost, decided do do WWOOF. (WWOOF is a worldwide network of organic farms, where volunteers trade labor for food and acomodation, no money is exchanged.) My first WWOOF experience was at a small outfit east of Puerto Montt, where I did some construction work on a new building, harvested lettuce and other vegetables, and worked on new beds. The volunteers were a mix of french and estadounidenses (a word for "Americans" that recognizes the fact that there are 35 countries in America). Since the french (being french) didnt all speak the best english, spanish was the common language, which was great practice. By the end of a week however, the volunteers that I liked the best were leaving and the work wasnt intersting enough to keep me around. I headed north for a stop off in Valdivia (where I am right now), and plan to continue on to Temuco, then to another WWOOF farm on the coast.

Just like home!

Kathryn´s flight arrived at SCL at the lovely hour of 3:20 am. I took the last bus out to the airport and killed time until her arrival, then we killed some more time until the first bus back to the city at 6:30. Luckily we had an amazingly gracious host, who I had lined up through couchsurfing.org, who invited us in, fed us breakfast, and told us to make ourselves at home while he went to work. we thanked him, and in no time were sacked out on the floor. We spent the next few days checking out the city and going out to a barbecue with our host, Marcelo, before catching a night bus south into the heart of Patagonia.

Our first stop (after a night in the unremarkable town of Osorno) was Volcan Puyahe, due east and almost on the Argentine border. We hiked up from the road to the tree line with 5 days of food, but were put off by the weather and returned on the third day without reaching the summit or the hot springs on the other side of the peak. A damn shame, but at least we did have the mountain refujio, a simple hut with bunk beds and a wood stove, and the company of a dirverse crowd of trekkers and geologists from all over the world, to wait out the rain.

We then hopped over to Argentina to San Carlos de Bariloche and south to El Bolsón. Both towns looked interesting and I imagine there´s a lot more below the touristy, pricy surface, but we didnt stay long enough to find it. So we turned around and headed back to Chile, further south to the island of Chiloé. Chiloé is a rural, typical of the patagonian coast.

We arrived in Ancúd, a sleepy town, and were asked if we needed a room as we left the bus station by a young couple. Usually I avoid touts like the plague, but they were so... bumbling, as kathryn put it, and friendly (and the price was right) that we checked out there hospidaje. It turned out to be their house, with a couple spare rooms upstairs and room in the backyard for camping, sharing their bathroom and kitchen. We then walked down to the plaza and arrived just in time to catch the end of a circus festival. I got to play around on a trapeze and fabric for about half an hour before they took it down to set up for the show. The show was really fun hosted by some wonderful clowns and featuring (among others) an act from the set design workshop, a beautiful doubles fabric act, and the finale, juggling clubs dangling on strings (by pushing them and catching them when they swing back, lots of sweet tricks and up to 7 clubs), was great.

Kathryn and I broke up already. Actually it wasn´t so much of a breakup as a not getting back together after 2 months apart with little communication. The spark just wasn't there from the start, so we´ve been traveling as friends. She decided to go back to Guatemala in a couple weeks, which made me sad. Its great having her as a friend and travel companion, and I would be happy to continue traveling together and see if the romantic side of things (re)develops. But she has important ongoing work with the NGO she works for (Guatemala Solidarity Project) that keeps here mind partly in Guatemala. I´m looking into WWOOFing for a bit here in the south, before heading back north to Santiago and then on to Bolivia and Peru. I´m also starting to miss things in the old Pacific Northwest, so I´m starting to think of my life when I get back.

Tango in Plaza Bellavista

I was sitting on a bench, reading the novel House of Spirits by Isabel Allende. The vivid descriptions of post WWI Chile gave life to the dry political and economic history I had been reading, and I was completely immersed. My revere was broken as the sound of accordion and strings, the unmistakable sound of the tango, burst from from a tinny boom box a few feet away. I looked up to see a stunningly gorgeous couple begin to dance.

I had started my day with my spirits low. After a burst of activity and meeting people when I first got to Valpo, that momentum has been lagging. I often feel like an outsider and the place where i´m staying, in large part because so often I can´t understand what people are saying, especially when its a big group of old friend talking fast and joking around. Though I keep hearing of interesting social projects, I have not yet find something to get involved in, so I end up with more free time that I would like. On top of that, I dearly miss my baby, who will be arriving in Santiago very soon, but never soon enough.

So as I watched dance after incredibly beautiful dance and happily threw few coins into the old derby they passed around, I was grateful for a reminder of why I travel.

Valparaiso

I´ve been back and forth to Santiago a couple of times now, but most of my time has been in Valparaiso, or Valpo.  Supposedly Chile´s cultural capitol, Valpo is jam packed with artists.  There are murals everywhere, street theater all over the place, and jugglers at every stoplight.
I´ve been hangoing out a lot at Casa TIAO, an "okupa" or squat.  Its been going on for about 2 years now, has water, electricity, and a pretty public image, they have shows there all the time that are widely advertised.  they have huge ceilings, rigging for 4 different aerial aparatus at once, space to juggle, etc etc. its great, someone will be randomly walking through the living room, jump up to the trapeze and bust out some moves, then hop down and continue ontheir way.  in some ways its amazing how similar it is to scenes in portland, the bay, etc; the partially shaved heads, the circo-punk style, but in other ways very latin amreican.  it is more diverse than scenes i´ve seen in the states.  the jugglers here are pretty amazing.  its a way to make
money, juggling at stoplights, so they learn it early and get good fast.

Threre was just an independent theater festival, mix of street theater and independent venues (like the okupa and a converted factory among others), i ended up with a bit part on one of the street peices which was really fun.  I got pulled into one of the shows, and played a crazy doctor in El Mimo Tuga´s street show.  

I´m staying on the other side of town, in Taller El Litre, a metal fabrication shop and hangout of traveler/circus types.  Its run by a crazy guy called Tio Willy and his wife.  I´m living in a theater set peice, halfway up a hill.  Its on a strip about 12 feet wide, with a 15 foot retaining wall above and another below.  Did I mention Valpo has a lot of hills?  Really steep ones too.  There´s about a dozen "ascensor"s, or elevators, built at the turn of the century (starting in the 1800s that is) that take you up the side of a hill on railroad tarcks.

Now, i'm off to the okupa to practice some acro and aerials with folks I've met here.

Hitchiking in Chile

I've been in Valparaiso for about a week.  I dedided to head in to Santiago (1 1/2 hours away) to see a couple of shows, part of a huge international theater festival going on the month of January.  I was with a new friend, Jackie, a contortionist from Portland, and her friend Morgan.  It didnt take long for a car to pull over and give us a ride into the city.  The driver, a very nice clean cut man about 30, turned out to be a prison guard returning from work.  We kept a good converstaion going and when we got to the city he invited us to join him for lunch.  We stopped at his house for a drink, then drove around the corner to the Police Officer's Social Club.  In the restaurant, we had to rearange our seating arrangements so that those of us with sandals (not allowed in the restaurant) would not be visable to those entering.   After our lunch, our guide continued to drive us around the city, to the museum, to the internet cafe, to the park.  Finally he got tired (he had worked the night shift the night before) and dropped us off and went home.

Our return trip was not as unexpected, but quite friendly.  After being passed by a funeral procession (the hearse driver gave us a huge goofy grin and hand signals something like "normally i´d pick you up, but i got this guy in the back..."), we got a ride in a vegetable truck, straight to the market in downton Valpo.

Santiago de Chile

I arrived in SCL at 5:30 AM after nearly 24 hours of traveling. Aside from customs finding my trail mix (and having to sign a total of 5 statements acknowledging my failure to declare my dried fruit, authorizing its seizure and destuction, and agreeing that i´m damn lucky that they didnt slap my ass in jail) my entrance to Chile was smooth. I made my way to Hostal Don Santiago, my new home for 5 days. I found this place on couchsurfing.com; Pato, the manager of the hostal invited me to stay there free of chage.

I passed out for about 7 hours, and got up in time for the new years eve dinner hosted by Pato and Diego, an employee at the hostal. Then we went out to watch the fireworks and celebrate in the street with thousands of chileans. I almost went to be after that, but instead I ended up at a bar with some germans, drinking with Pato back at the hostal, then catching a cab to a club at around 4, dancing for a couple hours, and finally returning to the hostal to pass out.

I spent the next couple days recovering. Finally, I feel like myself again. I bought new juggling clubs here, after leaving my old ones at my friend´s place in Oakland. They´re pretty sweet, and cheap too, about 9 bucks each.

I´m sticking around for juggle club tomorrow, then on to Valparaiso on monday.

Cancun Sucks

Obviously.

I spent last week in San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas. It is a sweet town, lots of live music, art, circus, international flavor, and generally cool people. Unfortunately, i spent most of my time resting up and hoping the microbes in my gut would stop giving me hell, after about 5 days resorting to extreme pharmochemical measures. The worst part was seeing so much good food, after the blandness of Guatemalan cuisine, and not being able to eat anything richer than pancakes and rice and boiled bananas.

Next stop was supposed to be Tulum, a small town a couple hours south of Cancun where I was going to camp on the beach and hang out. Unfortunately, the 16 hour bus ride, made even longer when the bus broke down and it took 4 hours before a new one came to get us, rolled through Tulum at around 6 AM with me passed out. So straight to Cancun it was.

Its my last day here, and i´m quite glad i´m not here for longer, i´d be bored to tears. Aside from drinking and partying, there´s very little to do. I went to the mercado this morning, usually that's an interesting excursion, but found it to be just a big souvenir fair! I don't know if there´s a real mercado in Cancun or not, but I guess why do you need the mercado when you´ve got a Wal-Mart? The beach is an endless strip of hotels and condos, to even get to it you pretty much have to cut through a construction site or hope you don't get harassed walking through a hotel lobby.

A rather anticlimactic end to the trip. That´s ok, I´m ready to get settled in Bellingham for another stretch. Summer is just around the corner!