buenos dias!

good morning everyone! gorgeous sunshine here (again) at the bottom of the world. amazing!!

so i got here just fine. when i got off the plane in punta arenas (flight #4....), we had landed a bit late and i missed the bus that i was supposed to catch that would take me to natales (2 1/2 hours away). so i figured, hmmmm.... maybe there will be another one??

so began the bus epic. i was waiting outside and it was awfully cold and this wonderful woman comes up and starts talking to me. now, i thought that i had at least a sorta basic grasp of spanish. up until a couple of weeks ago anyway, and since then i've sorta fallen apart. but i figured i would be able to understand a word or two.....um, no. not a word. so this woman is talking to me and i'm telling her that i can't understand and only speak a little spanish, which is making her chat even more. so finally she says "frio" which i did understand. that means cold. and she grabs two of my bags sitting at my feet and walks off. so i figured i should follow. grabbed my stuff and followed along feeling like quite the idiot.....she walked into the airport and put my stuff down and we waited together for the bus from in there. much warmer. we continued to try to talk and i eventually got across that i was supposed to be on the ferdinand bus at 5.30. she eventually got across that there would be another bus in an hour or something like that. so then i figured i should call the guys i'm working for to let them know that i'm not on the 5.30 bus.

so began the phone epic. i had a pocket full of random coins. and a piece of paper with phone numbers on it (thanks owen and jenny!!) including country code, region code, and a bunch of other numbers. and a pay phone. with all directions in spanish. there were some helpful pictures on the phone that only served to confuse me more. i finally figured out that the phone wanted 100 pesos. which happened to be all i had in my pocket. awesome! so i put one in and started dialing numbers. i was hoping the phone would have some sort of phone number on it so i would know how many digits i was looking for, but no luck. i figured that i wouldn't need the country code since i was already there so i just dialed the region code and the other digits. the phone started beeping. hmmmm. maybe in chile the phones don't go "ring ring", they go "beep beep"? well after a while the beeping stopped and i hung up and my 100 pesos dropped into the coin return thingie. don't think that was the right number. so i tried again. put in my 100 pesos and dialed just the last group of numbers. and the phone started beeping again...and then rustyn answered! YES!!! i had made my first phone call in chile and was oh so proud of myself! rustyn explained that since i missed the 5.30 bus, they didn't have a reservation for me on the later bus and there was no guarantee that they wouldn't be full. so i just had to hope that there was room. i tried calling the bus company, but for some reason i couldn't get the phone to take my 100 peso coin. wtf?? it worked fine before.... then i realized that there are different 100 peso coins here. the older ones are larger than the newer ones. and the phones only take the older large variety. i guess they decided not to change the phones when they changed the coins....and i was out of the larger coins. so i crossed my fingers that the bus would have room, and the phone epic was done!

and so we return to the bus epic. rumor (and my terrible spanish) had it that there would be a bus at 7. sure enough, right at 7 a bus pulled up. i was ready with my spanish phrasebook in hand. everyone rushed up to the bus and a guy started throwing everyone's bags into the storage area under the bus. i went up to the guy and tried to ask if i could buy a bus ticket. he didn't understand a word i said. so i had to show him the damn phrasebook (yup, i was that person). he didn't really say anything but he started putting my stuff under the bus so i took that as a yes. so then i got on the bus and tried giving the bus driver my 5000 pesos. but he didn't seem to want to take it and everyone else getting on the bus was squeezing around me and i really felt like a fool so i just went and got a seat. as it turns out, in chile you get a seat so that the bus/boat/whatever can start moving and then you pay whenever they get around to taking your money. so i eventually paid and off i went to natales! the bus was really comfy (sorry mom, no chickens) with seats that reclined and a bathroom and everything! i tried so hard to stay awake to see everything around me but after close to 40 hours of traveling at that point, it was a losing battle. but at least the epics were done and i was on my way to my new home!

so now i'm here and it's wonderful. went for a walk in the sunshine yesterday to see the town. wow i've never felt so conspicuous in my whole life. as it turns out, i'm really tall and my hair is really blonde and my clothes are really colorful. so i smiled at everyone staring in surprise at me and explored the town. amazing place. there's shops everywhere that seem to sell a little bit of everything. i walked as far as i could towards the mountains and then turned and headed down to the water. the mountains are unbelievable. you can see glaciers across the water that look close enough to walk to (they aren't). they're all covered in snow (it snowed in town two days ago so there was snow in the hills still) and are incredibly impressive. can't wait to get to know them better! there was a massive military boat in the water which everyone laughed about when i told them it was there. apparently chile thinks that they have to be ready for battle, although there really isn't much of a threat from anyone at all. but just in case anything happens, there is a great big grey military boat and it has a helicopter on it and everything. i continued exploring, and all of the shops started closing. we had reached the noon hour. when just about everything (except for our hostel/rental shop) closes. and doesn't reopen until 2 or sometimes 2.30 or sometimes 3 - just whenever the people working there feel like coming back to work. i'm quickly realizing that things get done here whenever people feel like getting them done and if it's not done today, you can get it done tomorrow. i mean really, what's the rush?? ended up back at the hostel without getting too lost (major accomplishment) and spent the rest of the day checking out the rental shop (was a whore house up until last year when erratic rock bought it.....so we may be renting more than tents and stoves, ha ha ha), hanging out with the travelers staying at the hostel, and trying sorta to unpack. my room is called the cave and it's wonderful. bed is super comfy and has a ton of blankets and comforters to snuggle under. totally doesn't make up for the fact that toof and ducky and buddha aren't sleeping in bed with me, but it's nice to sleep well. am hanging out today again and will probably start working tomorrow or the next day. and should be able to get to the park (torres del paine) soon. it sounds life altering. something tells me it will be.

lunch is ready and i'm still in my pajamas....gotta run. pictures and video to come. till later, take care of each other and i'll see y'all on the flipside. :) coke