Shaken, not stirred....

Hi everyone. Thank you for your concern regarding our wellbeing. We are better than good, with stories to tell.
When the earth began it´s trembling, the night before last, we were snuggled into El Furgòn at our friend´s land outside Pucón. When I first awoke, my groggy mind thought, ¨someone is shaking the van!?¨Then I awoke Ryan, thinking, ¨maybe a big bear is shaking the van!?¨Neither of those first two were logical explanations, so we slowly realized that what we were feeling was a real-live earthquake. El Furgón was vigorously shaking and rocking on her suspension.
We began assessing our situation. With our heads raised off our pillows, we were looking out the open back door of the van at the surrounding landscape. The big tree in our view was shaking and bending as if moved by a strong wind, but the trees near us were small and unthreatening. We were near the river, but far enough away and on high enough ground that we felt safe. We were basically parked in the middle of a wide, flat meadow, immediately surrounded by immature trees. We couldn´t have been in a safer place. Realizing this, we were able to actually enjoy and marvel at the movements of the earth´s crust. Holy shit! It was amazing. The ground shook vigorously for a few minutes. That´s a long time. The trees were swaying and bending like they´d been in training for such a challenge. El Furgón heaved and rocked, jolted and swayed. Every bird and dog in the countryside was cawing or barking, and we just felt, watched, listened, awestruck, until it subsided.

This is where we were parked during El Terremoto.

There were many after-shocks, too. I didn´t fall back to sleep until hours afterward. It was just so interesting!

My sketch from the middle of the night, of the experience.

On our way back to town, we were more aware of the smoking volcano than we were before.

The story continued to unfold throughout the day. When we returned to town in the morning, we were curious about what we would find. We didn´t know if it was a big earthquake or a small one. We didn´t know anything except our experience.

Pucón appeared to be unscathed, despite a lack of electricity. Many of the Chileans, however, were pretty rattled. A lot of the people who vacation here come from the region around Concepción, which was the epicenter, from what I understand. We found out that we had experienced a 7.0 earthquake here, and that it was an 8.5 at the center. Almost unbelievable. Most of the businesses stayed closed. People were rapidly leaving town, despite it being Saturday morning. The lines for gas ultimately made us decide to stay in Pucón another day, rather than heading south toward the coast, which had been our plan.

The amazing thing is that we had a wonderful day. Our friends who work on the river didn´t have to work (oddly, it had a ¨snow-day¨vibe). The weather was as clear and warm and calm as it has been (all summer, according to them). By the end of the day, we were referring to it as ¨Earth Day¨because the earth had, once again, stopped us all in our tracks and reminded us to appreciate her beauty, and her power.

Hanging out on Lago Villarica with the kayaking boys. There´s LJ!

As you can see, we are better than good down here in Pucón. The internet is working again. We have a full tank of diesel that we didn´t have to wait in line for.

Last night we camped on slightly higher ground, with this view of the volcano. It was glowing orange at the top all night long. My attempts to capture it on film failed, but use your imagination. It was AMAZING!
Our plan has been to head farther south, for a while, before working our way back north along the coast. From what we have heard, this is still a really good plan, because most of the damage is north of here. It will be interesting to see what we find when we leave here. We will keep you posted.

Again, thank you all for your concern. Know that we are doing extremely well, that we are on a great adventure, and that we are making memories that we hope to share with you.

Dancing with the earth,
Jess & Ryan

Cascadas, saltos, cataratas

We´ve spent the last three days exploring the cascading waters around Pucón. Today, we visited a staircasing series of waterfalls and rapids that our friends here like to kayak, and then soaked in gorgeous hot springs next to the Liucura River.


Yesterday, we hiked in a private nature preserve that was created to protect old-growth forest and, in the afternoon, went kayaking in inflatable boats called ¨duckies.¨ Ha!, Go Duckies! The river (Rio Liucura flowing into the Trancura) was breathtakingly beautiful, with views of the snow-capped Volcan Villarica, and heart-quickening rapids: so much FUN! It definitely got my adrenaline going! (Stay tuned for photos that the guide company took. I´ll add them when I get them.)
Generally, we have been enjoying seeing this dynamic landscape from the perspective of our friends here who kayak big rivers, including very tall waterfalls. It is truly a different perspective on nature. What a gift.

Hiking around, outside Pucon

They kayak this!!!

Ryan, LJ, Jared, and Isaac by one of the kayakers´favorite runs called ¨Demshitz¨

Though we have been loving every moment we have spent in Chile´s mountains, we are beginning to think about returning to the coast soon, maybe even tomorrow. Ocean waves are beckoning, and we know podemos subir otra vez (we can climb up again).
We will continue to stay connected with you all.
Lots of love,
Jess and Ryan

Las Montañas

Hi everyone!

A week ago, we decided to leave Chile´s beautiful coast for the mountains, knowing that we would return to the beach later in the trip. What we have found in the mountains has definitely exceeded our expectations. The pictures & captions tell the story best.

The first couple days were magically misty and rainy, which meant we had the camping all to ourselves at this amazing spot on the property of a Swiss lodge.

We hiked through a forest of rare Araucaria trees to the base of Volcan Lonquimay.

After navigating a road that would have been challenging even with 4-wheel drive, we found ourselves camped by this lake, at the foot of Volcan Llaima, which is Chile´s most active volcano (it last erupted in 2008).

Another great hike to the source of the Rio Truful-Truful, where we saw no fewer than 20 waterfalls, a condor, breathtaking volcano views, glacial snowfields, and many other wonders of nature. My legs were soooo sore!!!!

We have been so comfortable camping in the lap of El Furgon that we haven´t felt the desire or need to rent a cabin or hotel room for almost two weeks, until now. It was the dirty laundry that finally pushed us into the comforts of a hotel room. So, we are celebrating Ryan´s 35th birthday here in the small Chilean city of Temuco: indulging in very reliable hot showers, watching the Olympics and movies on the television in our room, exploring local handcrafts & food, and eagerly anticipating clean clothes.

Our next stop is Pucon, to hook up with our friend LJ and check out the ¨Lake Tahoe of Chile.¨We´ll keep you in the loop. Please continue to keep us in your loop, too. We love to hear your updates!

Love,

Jess and Ryan

Tranquilo

Hi everyone.

We have finally found an internet cafe that can read our camera, so I went back and added photos to the last three entries. We hope you enjoy the visuals!

Last night was my favorite campspot so far: just a flat dirt lot right on the beach with a view of the point at Buchupureo (see photo, above). This spot has waves sometimes, but didn´t really while we were there. It was simply a quiet and peaceful night in El Furgon. We saw the crescent moon rise. We had a guest (Rick, traveling solo, cardiolist from New Mexico) over for drinks and an evening snack. We ate by candlelight.

Now we are in a tiny, historic town called Cobquecura, which was apparently founded in the early 1500s but has houses that are even older than that. Many of the houses are built with slate-like stone and roofed with Spanish tiles. Beautiful. I will try to snap a few photos to post.

We are in the process of deciding whether to continue south along the coast, or to head inland toward Pucon. We will let you all know when we decide. In either case, know we will be enjoying the journey.

We are sending you all lots of love. Please pay it forward :)

Love,

Jess and Ryan

Ryan´s update

Constitucion had great surf and beautiful hiking.
Our camping spot near Constitucion was in a small, low-key campground right by the ocean.

Giant rock formations near Constitucion.

Fishing boats on the beach in a town called Duao.

We bought fish called Reineta at this fish market. It was yummy!

What is up everyone, Ryan here. Chile is an amazing place, so many things to tell. Life on the road is great we have found really cool spots to camp, cooked somthing from the sea everynight for dinner and it seems like there is a left point break aroud every corner. I have had some really good surf, and met some really cool chilean surfers. The country side is amazing, think southern Oregon coast. There will be a saw mill then a cool little town, 20 miles of beautiful coast and another town, with potential surf spots everywhere. The wind has blown out of the south everyday plenty to kite and there are miles of beach for that, truely an amazing place. The sea food is incredible mussles, clams, oysters, shrimp, salmon, sea bass, and as much as you can eat. El furgon is the bomb great little diesle van, the locales see very few gringos especially ones living out of a furgon. The folks around here are amazing super friendly and beautiful. We have been talking tons of spanish every opprotunity we get, it feels so good to be finally getting my arms around it.. Well life is good... Here is an invatation, we have el furgon, the gas is paid for tell us when you fly in and we will pick you up.... Thanks to all of the people that have made this trip amazing Harry, Tyler, Caleb, Kimmy, Randy, Jim, Alenka,Mom, Dad, Lindsay, Beto,Alex,Carrie, Mike, Angie, Francesco, Lori, Dave, Norm, Barbara, Antenello, Peter, Crystal. I am prbably forgetting someone... Thankyou for being our frinds we love you.. More later I have to drink my cortado grande it is getting cold.

Punta Lobos

Ryan enjoying the view from our front door, after our first night of camping; notice he is tenderly holding his first Furgon-made cup of coffee. The beautiful rock formations at Punta Lobos, and the wave.

Hi everyone,
Just a quick check-in to let you know all is well with us.
We spent the last two nights camping out of El Furgon (our van) at picturesque Punta Lobos, which has a famous, but quirky, surf break. The surfing conditions weren´t great, but we had fun camping and exploring the area. The region we are in (Pichilemu) is a prime vacation spot for Chileans and other South Americans, and it is their peak summer right now, so we have been enjoying being part of that experience.
The terrain here is interesting. The beaches have black, volcanic sand. The vegetation is mixed: succulents like in Santa Cruz, Calif., cacti, and also lots of trees of all kinds. The weather, yesterday, was like the Oregon coast in the summer, with a thin marine layer, but also sunbursts. We have been wearing long sleeves and, at night, our Dody caps :). It is beautiful all around.
El Furgon is proving to be a comfortable home and a trusty vehicle. We have gone approximately 250 km, covering first downtown Santiago, then a section of the Panamerican highway, some smaller country roads, and a small mountain pass over the coastal hills. The diesel engine seems to be pretty efficient, and it handles the road gracefully. We feel very good about our purchase.
We have some great photos, so I am a bit disappointed that I haven´t found an internet cafe that has computers compatible with our camera, but oh well. I will keep looking when we are in towns.
Today we will head farther south along the beach, toward Constitucion. We will be looking for good surf and enjoying the journey. We hope you, too, are enjoying your journey.
From the Latin land down-under,
Jess and Ryan

Wheels

The view from our hostal, of the Argentinian embassy.
In the Plaza de Armas: the cathedral next to a modern building.

One beautiful station in Santiago´s awesome metro system. We used it!

Our new home, El Furgon.

Our time in Santiago has been surprisingly enjoyable, especially considering that it is a busy city and that our central task has been to find and purchase a vehicle for the rest of our trip. When I say surprisingly enjoyable, I mean wonderful, really. Today, Ryan said that this is ¨The best city experience [he has] ever had.¨Being here has, once again, reminded us of the fallacy of the myth that suggests U.S. superiority over Latin/South America. Santiago is a very modern-yet-down-to-earth city, with very kind people, beautiful art and parks, clean & efficient public transportation (awesome subway), great weather, views of snow-capped mountains, great roads & signs, etc. Everywhere we have gone, people have welcomed and helped us.
Buying a car has been a fun challenge. Our search has taken us to all corners of the city; at the end of each day Ryan asks, ¨How many miles do you think we´ve walked today?¨and we like to think it´s around 10 (probably a slight exaggeration:).
We have joked that we are in the midst of a Spanish language program and our recent homework assignment is to research buying a car: government offices, forms, very big numbers, car parts, and not to mention getting around the city. Our Spanish is definitely improving, and we are having an easier time understanding the Castillian version of Spanish spoken here. Today we feel like we passed the Spanish final exam. We have officially purchased a Hyundai H1, which is a cargo van. We have named the van ¨El Furgon¨(pronounced fu-GON) because we had to say that word a thousand times to find a suitable van, and because it sounds cool in Spanish, and because it means, well....¨van¨. Ha!
We are sooooo excited to head out of town en El Furgon, and we feel ready--camp kitchen, maps, surf gear, bedding: check! The plan is to go as early tomorrow as possible, and head toward Pichilemu. We will check in again when we find an internet cafe in our next location.
We love you all, with whole hearts,
Jess and Ryan
P.S. After trying to post photos from our camera, using three different internet cafes, I decided to go ahead and post this without the photos, but plan to keep trying...Stay tuned for photos. :)