Man Down, BA, Rapa Nui

Hello readers (if there still are any). Hope everyone had a fantastic Easter, non-believers included. Just wanted to give everyone an update since its been over a month now. Mike is now back in San Fran, attempting to reprogram his brain into leading a more standard life, good luck with that buddy. Alex and I are down south in Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire), a title that baffles me since all I see is snow. We will tour the area for several wks and then head back to BA where we will continue to maintain our vampiric lifestyles before returning home. I will be quickly turning back around however, now that I have made the decision with some helpful parental prodding to learn Spanish and evolve.

I must mention my week furlough to Easter Island with our good English friend, Peter Bannister, who gave me the idea for this unplanned side trip back in Colombia. He and I met up in the Santiago Airport and spent 8 days in the most isolated, inhabited island in the world. Quick tip: for those who ever go, 5 days is more than enough time, since by the end of your stay all you do is burn through cash buying food and trinkets. I did have one solid effort in producing my Mom´s famous pasta sauce, which our fellow hostel guests lapped up (out of the pot) due to its awesomeness. Other than checking out the sweet Moai statues, volcanoes, and diving, there is little else to do. When the time came to leave neither Bannister or myself were hanckering for more time. We seperated on the mainland, Pete staying in Santiago to continue south in Chile, myself heading back to BA to regroup with the boys. I managed to get back just in time to celebrate Mike´s sendoff, which consisted of many drinks and clubs.

The following days Alex and I chose to divide and conquer. Alex staying in his cozy palace, the Torino household, taking in a bit of the posh life for the first time of the trip while I stayed in a hostel in Palermo. We were in BA for about 5 days before we made our way south where we are now trying to see as much as possible before fall starts turning into winter. Next stop for me is Punta Arenas, Alex is heading to Torres del Paine with Bannister for some hiking and scenery, I just hope that there is some good scenery for them other than grey skies and poor vistas. I will be straying away from the whole roughing it track, instead holing up in the heated hostels of the many cool, rough-edged towns of southern South America. If any one has ideas of good spots let us know. We probably won´t team back up until Puerto Natales for the ferry ride north to Puerto Montt, but ya never know.