South American Blunders

I get to use that crass title because that´s what they call hitch hiking here, "a dedo." So, I fingered Chile, I fingered Chile so good. I left the farm in El Bolson on the 15th and, instead of simply taking a bus South to Gobernador Gregores, decided to try my luck making my way South through near by Chile. I bussed to the border town of Esquel and then was able to flag down the very first car that came by. He took me over into Chile to a town called Futelafeu where I camped for the night by a river. The next morning I got up and started walking. I needed to get into southern Argentina by the 18th to start work at this ranch and it was going to be a challenge, busses would almost certainly be a necessity. I walked for about 2 hours before a mother and 2 children picked me up and drove me about 20 minutes up the road. Chilean Patagonia is probably the most beautiful place I have seen on this entire trip. There are waterfalls every 5 minutes and beautiful blue rivers and lush mountainsides everywhere you look. I walked for about 3 hours before a group of kids going rafting let me hop in the back of their truck. One thing that I´ve learned is that there is no better way to travel and no better way to see the landscape than from the back of a pickup truck. So much fun. After that was an indigenous family that took me to the nearest town. More walking and then a couple from the Czech Republic took me to Santa Telma, where I camped for the night in an open field. The next morning I waited with a group of Israelis until a huge truck came by and piled into it every hitch hiker it could find (in total there were about 11 of us). It left us all in the middle of nowhere and I hiked up to a scenic point overlooking the convergence of 2 rivers and had lunch. While there a German hostal on wheels pulled up and unloaded about 50 elderly Germans. The vehicle was 2 massive cars hitched together and, when everyone piled back in, I made the terrible decision to ride between the cars to the next town. Sorry mom, bad decision but it was also pretty cool. Once at La Junta I hiked for about an hour out of town and eventually caught a ride to Puyuaphi. Puyuaphi is right on the pacific coast and is beautiful. I camped by a river and got up at 6am to catch a bus South to Coyahaique. Once there my difficulties began. The only bus heading south that day (the next day was the 18th) headed to a tiny pueblo down south. I reluctantly went there and was able to hitch a ride a little further towards the border. The driver took me to his house which was also a hostal and I enjoyed my first bed in 18 days. I also took my first shower in 5 days, my hair had actually started to dread and I had just learned to avoid touching it. There was no bus leaving from this pueblo until Monday so I, once again, started stomping towards my destination. After about 2 hours a truck with the 3 coolest people in the world stopped and picked me up. German Jean and Argentinian Sandra and Rodrigo were actually traveling near my destination and said that I could ride along with them all the way there. What luck. We circled around the second largest lake in South America with its blue water and backdrop of snowy peaks before getting to Chile Chico and breaking down. We were stuck there for 4 hours before finally getting going again and making it across the border. At this point I was already a day late for the ranch and was very anxious to get there. We camped just outside of Perito Moreno and woke up at dawn this morning to continue South. The three of them left me about 2 miles outside of Baja Caracoles while they went on to see a famous cave with cave paintings. I walked into town over the strangest desert terrain I´ve ever seen in my life (could have been the moon but peppered with dense, perfectly round buttons of clover every 5 feet) where I was told that I could take a bus all the way to my destination. Not so. There is no bus that goes from there to Gobernador Gregores so, after sitting in the sun for 3 hours and trying to hitch I paid a bus passing through 30 pesos to let me off at the turn off for the road to my town. It was 80km. and I had enough food and water for about 24 hours so I just had to hope that a car came by on this desolate road and picked me up. I walked for so many hours this afternoon and was about to give up for the night when finally a single car came by and took me into town from where I hoped to walk to the ranch. I learned just as we entered town that the ranch was about 50km outside of town in the direction we had just come from. I had actually gotten pretty fucking close to it before catching my ride far from it. So, tonight I camp in a pay campsite in the city and a trucker agreed to take me with him at 5 tomorrow morning.
Internet access will probably be VERY scarce to nonexistent for the next month. So, much love and many of you I´ll be seeing in a month and a half.
YYYYEEEEEHHHAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

I am currently living and working on a little farm on a mountainside in El Bolson, Patagonia. The town, a 45min. walk from the farm, is a little, beautiful community that was founded by hippies in the 70´s and is surrounded by inviting, snow capped peaks. When I first arrived I stayed the night at a campside on the outskirts of town and the next day bought myself some supplies at the craft/food market here and headed to the foot of one of these mountainous playgrounds. I camped along the Rio Azul (blue river) and barely resisted jumping in the bluest of blue glacial waters I have ever seen. I love rivers but this thing is beautiful, surrounded by forest, and filled with great little nooks to rock hop, read a book, and drink a beer-simultaneously. I sat by my fire until late with an Argentinian couple talking politics and drinking wine and started up the mountain the next morning. The view, naturally, only got more and more spectacular and after 6 hours of uphill climbing I reached the Refugio Hielo Azul. Surrounded by forest and right on a little stream with a back drop of snowy mountains it was a great place to stay. That night I saw the most spectacular night sky of my life (which really is quite a statement) and slept well despite the cold. Camping outside of the refuges is illegal here but all the same they´re great because there´s typically no more than a small building, built by the employees from wood they cut and it´s only 5 pesos. I didn´t know and thus brought food for 4 days on my back but each of these refugios sells homemade bread and pasta and such. In the morning I somehow managed to get myself up and out of my tent at dawn to make the 2 hr. hike up to the glacier, as recommended to me by the Argentinians I had met below. I raced the sunrise, which kept creeping around the valley until it eventually caught up to me, and was slowed when I hit the icy snow. I had to kick footholds in and precariously traverse across the icy plain because if I lost my footing I would have slid very far and very fast into rocks with no means of stopping myself. The glacier was pretty unimpressive but the view was spectacular. On the way down, after making the poor decision to slide on my ass down to a patch of rocks (much pain, much ice in the pants), I mastered the art of skiing in shoes over ice. So much fun and damn I´m a badass. Back to camp, cup of coffee in the sunshine, and I headed down to Refugio El Cajon.
The hike that day was pretty brutal as I was traversing the mountainside and constantly found myself going up and then down and then up again. In the middle of a forest on a mountainside in Patagonia, far from people and gringos, I found something odd. Sitting on a stump, facing me and in pristine condition was ´The God Dillusion´...in English. It certainly wasn´t a coming to god moment but it was very odd, I haven´t started it yet but I expect it to unlock some sort of secret something.
El Cajon was equally beautiful and the next day I decided to stay an extra night. I fought my way upstream and spent the whole day fishing from a rock. At one point, fully clothed with a book, beer, and my kick ass fishing pole in hand I fell into the glacial water. The beer was lost but I managed to drag myself out of the water with everything else. Cold. So very cold. I laid out all my clothes in the sun to dry and then, of course, was seen butt naked by a few of the only backpackers in the area. No fish.
That night 2 really friendly Puerto Ricans came and shared my fire with me and a bottle of wine. Before long we were joined by about 7 Argentinians and it turned out to be a great night.
I descended the next day and caught a bus into town. By that evening I was setting up my tent at the farm and having been working there since then. I harvest various things and do some manual labor. I also am often charged with watching 1 year old Salamei. I´ve kind of fallen in love with her. 3 more days and I´m heading down to cold, windy Santa Cruz to work on the ranch.
Coming home is going to be hard.