huevon!

I can't believe almost a week has passed since we last wrote. As planned, we left Buchupureo with aspirations of exploring the mountains in this part of Chile. Essentially, we found what we sought, which was the beauty of the mountains. Unfortunately, we mainly saw them from a distance because the parks were closed. We even had overnight packs loaded--camping gear, premade meals, warm clothes, etc.--on our backs and were denied entry at the gate of the second park we tried.
What we eventually realized was that it was for our own good. We learned this as we were leaving the park by foot, along the road that had been closed due to rockfall and waterflow. We stopped for a few minutes to enjoy a tall, lightly-trickling water fall. We sat below it, took some photos, soaked in the sun. Then, as we were walking away down the road, we happened to look back in that direction. The clear, ephemeral, trickle had been replaced by a brown, frothing torrent of water.

At the least, we would have gotten very wet where we had been sitting. Considering this a suitable reminder that things happen for a reason, and that it was time for us to move on, we quickly hiked through the rock slides and, later that day, high-tailed it back to the coast.

So, here we are back in the region surrounding Buchupureo. This time, we are camped on the beach near Ryan's new favorite wave, and are loving being back in El Furgon.

Many amazing things have been happening. For example, this morning our battery died, but we ended up meeting an awesome truckload of Chileans as a result. Right now we are sitting in the internet cafe where, before the terremoto, we made the decision to leave the coast. It has reopened after almost a month closed. There are cracks in the walls but the computers and the cappuccino machine are working. The town is being rebuilt all around us. It is actually quite surreal.
We plan to spend the next week working our way north along the coast, and then back to Santiago. You'll know when we get there.
Lots of love to all,
Jess & Ryan

Buchu Dayz

Hi everyone,

We hope you are enjoying hints of spring, wherever you are. Here, we are enjoying hints of autumn: yellowing leaves, a cool nip in the breeze. LJ will leave us on Tuesday, to catch his return flight to the states. We will also leave Buchupureo on Tuesday, for a trip to the mountains. Though we can feel our time here winding down, there are still memories being made. As you will see from the photos, we are continuing to enjoy the beauty of this magical place, while also finding small ways to help the people who live here.

Any questions about why we love this place? This helps explain it...

The view from our Buchu home.

The footbridge to the beach here was washed out in the wave that followed the earthquake. If you look closely, you can see another piece of the bridge on the right bank of the river, just before the bend. That's how far it was carried, upriver, by the surge!

We helped the family that lived in this house pre-terremoto. They are currently living in temporary structures in their backyard. (Note: the following photos are all of this same home.)
This shows the adobe building style. The walls are almost two feet thick! In this case, the whole front wall of the house split off the rest of the structure. To me, knowing how violently the earth shook here for two and a half minutes, it is almost unbelievable that the walls are standing at all.

A stopsign on the streetcorner is visible through the crack between walls.



We helped them piece together temporary living structures, using materials salvaged from their demolished antique home.

Pondering the movements of the ocean

Ryan, pondering the waves.

We will miss LJ! He's been a great compadre!

While we are feeling nostalgic about leaving Buchupureo, and about parting ways with LJ, we still have two solid weeks left of this epic adventure, and we aim to make the most of it! Who knows what is in store????

Love to you all,

Jess, Ryan, and LJ :)

P.S. For Oliver-fans, I added a couple photos to the "It's a..." post.