Days as Full as the Moon Will Be on Saturday

...And a heart that waxes and wanes

Such an incredible past few days, but I made it! I'm in Ancud, Chiloé, in the 10th Region of Chile, where it is sunny (for now) and brisk, and I found an actual internet café that's as fast as any in Stgo.

I ended up leaving the city by train on Sunday morning and spent so much time reading the Lonely Planet getting excited about my travel that I didn't close my eyes to take some much-needed sleep after a night of carrete and culture (live folk music at El Sindicato in my neighborhood and a cyclists' bar in Providencia) until the train was close to the station, five hours after it left Santiago.

It was a beautiful day in the city, too bad to leave, though I've had enough of it for now. Sunny, though not without the ever-present smog that clouds the bliss. On the way out, I could see all the early-morning flea markets lining the roads in the poorer neighborhoods and wished that, like my honey probably did in SF, I had woken up early to aprovechar. People with their blankets spread out or with small makeshift tents hawking everything under the sun. The only flea markets I've really been to were Parque Forestal--clandestino and hip.

And then, as I opened up my travel book after I took a simple breakfast in the dining car, admiring the scenery--vineyards and vegetable fields and orchards and mountains small towns and horses and cattle and little chickens...AHORA SÍ, RECUERDO! My heart began to soar as I remembered the sensation of getting out of town, of traveling to new places. I wondered if I would have gotten this excited about travel if I had opened the book last week, or even a few days ago, if I would have gotten out of here sooner, if I would have been more inspired...But as it turns out, it was right in the universe for me to leave when I did, because here I am and lessons have been learned and the heart has been opened, and dispatch has been right on. So I began to formate some brilliant travel plans to enjoy the South of Chile--and rather than stay here only a week, as I had told my friends in Stgo I planned to do, it occurred to me that I should take full advantage of my last two weeks here (AGH! time flies!) and see new places.

So far things have gone more or less according to plan...but better than I could have planned, because sometimes you just cannot imagine how well things are going to go, and the beauty of what you will see and the depth of the spirits of the people you will meet on the road.

I don't know, I had originally thought I would spend only a few days in Stgo, but then Mendoza seemed like a good idea, and then something kept me in the City that I cannot regret...so the plan to spend the bulk of my time based here in Chiloé melted away, and that's how travel goes, and I have to think it's for the best. So now if the weather's nice (yeah, stupid me traveling to the South of Chile without raingear or fenders!), I'll ride through Chiloé the next few days and then head to Chaiten by boat and then another ferry back up to Puerto Montt and to Bariloche, Argentina.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Yes, the train to Chillán, the town that my old housemate Rafael is from, and the town that he said has nothing of interest...well, I arrived there tired but happy as a clam to get on my bike and pedal away from the train station with a map from the tourism booth and some ideas of a few things to take care of before I headed out for a two-day trip to the Termas de Chillán (hot-springs) and back, about 70 km away.

Yikes, I'm realizing I'm tired and hungry and out of sorts and maybe this entry doesn't make much sense...I'll be back tomorrow to fill in the rest...