Day 5

Day 5. In the morning they feed me coffee and delicious heavy bread that they made themselves in the coals of the fire the day before. I pack up, and my stuff i sdry. One of them is heading the same direction as me and lets me use the other horse. Sweet. He takes me all the way to where the trail leaves the dry riverbed. Near the waterfall where I ate lunch. I thank him, he says dont worry about it. I then head back up the steep mountain I had climbed down a few days ago. I only stop twice on the way up. I gotta make good time. Its 20km from where I slept to the entrance of the park. And I gotta catch the bus. Last one is at 6...I think. So I hike fast. Eat a quick lunch and hike all the way out to the entrance of the park. At top speed. Never stopping. Trucking along. I get near the entrance. 2km from it. At the part where there are rangers and you have to pay to enter. Theres some cops and people taking pictures of a fox. I take a few. Then go talk to them. It turns out the last bus is at 5. And its 4:50. The cops give me a ride to the entrance. No bus. They keep rushing down the road and get the bus to pull over so I can get a lift. Thanks guys. Funny dudes. Cool cops, who joked with me the whole ride. Then I ride the bus back to San Clemente. Towards my warm bed in a cozy little B&B. Get there. Hang up my wet stuff, walk into town. Wander around enjoying the dry air for a change. Sighing my happy sighs. Eat a warm dinner, shower, and go to bed. Thinking about all the crazy stuff that happened in the last 5 days. I just lived the story of a lifetime. My craziest time in the mountains yet. And I survived. All alone. Loving all of it. Desert, jungle, waterfalls, mountains, snow, hot springs, and a blizzard. Getting saved by cowboys, horseback riding, and hiking like a lunatic, the funny cops and barely getting the bus. I cant believe the amazing amount of good luck I had. Everytime something went wrong, it seemed like things would go right and I would recieve exactly what I needed to resolve the bit of bad luck Id had. Amazing. I fall asleep grinning and exhausted. Tomorrow i will head south. For Temuco. And from there into the mountains again to the adventure capital of the northern Patagonia. Pucon. Then its off toward the Southern end of Chile. Torres Del Paine. The most famous park in Chile and the best National Park in all of South America.
Wow! I love this. I´m so happy, and I feel like my life is changing. I´m living my adventure, loving it, and I really feel like I´m growing and becoming the man that I want to be. Ive met so many amazing people who have influenced me and my thoughts. Ive been to amazing places, had the best of luck on every turn of my journey and I still have so much more ahead of me. And its all an adeventure. I have no idea what lies ahead. I never do. And thats the adventure.
and I cook all my food for 5 days with fires. which is ilegal and then I hiked to the base of a 1500 foot volcanoe. . hot springs, wash myself and clothes in a warm creek Day 4 I wake up and want to climb the volcanoe. it starts raining. I pack up and start heading toward the pass I gotta crossw. rain becomes slushy snow. oh shit. so i turn around and decide I gotta backtrack 8-9 miles to the valley where I was on night 4. I hike at top speed. stop 3 times. once to shit in the snow, once to wade acoross a river in full rain gear. once for water. hiking totally soaked for the last 7 miles. wool gloves were all that saved me from frostbite. and the whole time I was trying to outrun a blizzard. and i was the only person in that section of the park. finally make it to the valley. meet 2 chilean cowboys who have a shack with a fire. they let me sleep near the fire and give me some chilean alchy to warm my core. in the morning there was 4-6 inches of snow in the valley. and Im guessing close to a fooot at the volcanoe. so all in all I outran a blizzard, narowly avoided frostbite, and if it hadnt been from the cowboys I wouldve froze that night. but  all in all, it was an epic adventure and even though there were moments where I was scared that I might die...most of the time I was smiling and enjoying how incredibly insane everything was that was happening to me

Day 4

This entry needs an introduction. As I sat to write this in my journal, so that I wouldnt forget anything. I was on a bus. Heading to Temuco. 6 hours. I wanted to write about my last 2 days on the trail, but my mind was on how amazing adventures are and what I was beginning to think made an adventure an adventure. And this is what came out. Its raw, and unchanged. An exact copy of what is on the pages of my journal.
¨ I guess an adventure is when you´re perpetually lost yet always on the right path. A path which you cant find. No, its a path that finds you.
I guess adventure means everytime you make a plan it has to be broken. Because every time I plan, every time I try and control my adventure, I get a slap in the face. Surprise! Something changes. And what happens instead is unplanned. But that´s the only way it can happen because it is th epath that must find you.
An adventure is a balance. Fun and scary. Good and bad. Circumstances that make you laugh and those that make you want to cry. But if you look at adventure like this, comparing and contrasting. Judging, deciding what was good and what was bad. Telling yourself that the good was an adventure and that the bad was just an obstacle to overcome....a hinderance. If you´re doing this youçre not seeing with open eyes. So take a deep breath.
Step back.
Take it all in.
There is no good or bad just like there is no control. Because its all an adventure. If things didnt go wrong, then nothing would change. You would gain control and thus snuff the adventure. So it´s more than balance, instead its all one. Unity in experience.
Adventure is a state of mind, Openness and acceptance that if you follow your heart and live freely every single moment...exciting things will happen.
Adventure can be found and enjoyed on any scale. All you have to do is abandon your routine(that demon which slowly sucks the life out of us all) and listen to your inner self. Inner child? Subconsciousness? Heart? Doesn´t matter what you call it. Just listen and then do.
Start. Begin. Jump off the edge into the unknown. Into an existence where you abandon control.
Once you do this you´ll find that you´ve gone down the rabbit hole.
And now.
Everything is new.
Everything is one.
And it´s all an adventure.
When you realize these things and realize the power of letting go. You will experience moments that can only be felt. And not explained. And these moments feel perfect.
I know. I´ve had some. And afterwards all I could do was throw my head back and laugh. Grinning like an idiot at everything around me.
With these things in mi9nd, what follows is the essence of adventure. Found. And it begins with light rainfall at 5:45am on a Sunday morning while I am lying in my tent at the base of a volcanoe. Utterly alone....
Day 4. I wake up at 5:45 to the sound of rain. Great. No volcanoe today I guess. Go back to sleep in my cozy tent. Get up at like 8:30, eat breakfast. No rain. But then it starts raining. Pack up everything whilst struggling to keep it dry as possible. Then I leave camp and start to head farther into the mountains...but its impossibel to follow the trail I need. I check the pictures of the map that I took. It should be right here. Wander around. No decent trail. Super confusing little cow trails. And then the rain changes to hail. Great. I start thinking that maybe <I should head back. But I want to get to the other park...and it is up and over a mountain pass in front of me. Well if its hailing here then its snowing up there. Then hail turns to slushy snow. The kind that doesnt quite stick. Oh shit, I gotta get out of here. So I turn around and start heading back. Downhill. Down everything I went up the day before. As Im crossing the desert nature calls. I have to shit. Oh great. Im already cold and wet and my wool gloves are half soaked. Only 1.5 miles from camp, taking the high route across the desert to avoid a gnarly and dangerous bit of cliff that I had to climb across the day before. Where I almost fell. And the only shelter is a big rock with a 2 foot snow shadow. Well, I gotta do it, so I do and as Im sitting there the snow thickens and the temperature drops. By the time I start hiking again. 15 minutes later. Theres alomost an inch of snow on the desert. So I hike fast as the weather quickly changes and becomes a blizzard. Snow falling fast, and wind all over the place. I cross the river in full gear. I was already soaked before the river. Then I make a mad dash down the canyon. I only stop once for water and to take a picture. Snow sticking all over all my clothes. 6 inches on the ground at times. And it only started snowing 2 hours ago. Hands cold but just warm enough. If I hadnt found these gloves on the way up yesterday, and grabbed them, I would be in serious danger of getting frost bite right now. No joke. As Im high tailing it downhill, trying to outrun a blizzard, and watching as my whole world disappears under a white blanket, moments pass where I am scar3ed. I think about how I am alone, in a blizzard, and Im cold and my mind tells me that I could die. But then I shake it off, just tell myself what I have to do. Keep hiking. Dont stop. Get to where I camped the other night, because where the French couple was was a bit of shelter. Some little shack. And then I calm down. And after shedding the fear I hike with a big smile. This is crazy, I cant belie3ve that this is happening. HAHA!. Ahh, big happy sigh. I´ll be fine. Get to camp. I had done the 8 miles in 2.5 to 3 hours. Damn, it took me 5 or 6 the day before. I get down there and theres 2 cowboys in the shack. With a fire. I ask one about where I should camp and if theres a way to open the refugio, hoping that he´ll offer to shelter me in the shack. I cant quite understand what he says, he speaks with a thick accent and lots of slang. So I thank him and go over to the bathrooms. Rig up a tarp for shelter for all my stuff and so I can change while its snowing. I set up my tent right next to the cement slab. Climb in . eat a cold lunch. Shiver in my sleeping bag. Try to sleep for a bit. Its almost impossible to warm up. I have all my dry clothes on and the sleeping bag is closed. Im exhaling warm air to warm it up but its not really working. Its too cold outside. After an hour i get it just barely warm enough. I doze off for 2 hours. Wake up as its getting dark to the sound of a voice. Its the cowboy. He invites me to sleep by the fire, says I´ll freeze out here. I thank him and grab my pad and sleeping bag and follow him into the shack. Its warm. I sleep out by the fire with the dogs. They sleep inside with tons of blankets. They give me some chilean alcohol and chocolate to warm my core. I go to bed with all of my wet clothes hanging by the fire.

Day 3

Day 3 I jerry rig my tent with bamboo, rope, and duct tape. And its actually a strong repair job. Eat brekfast. Pack up and start climbing up a steep steep canyon towards the volcanoe. Its 8 miles, the first 5 of dry rocky slopes. I stop for a little snack and to get some water from under this snow field across the little canyon. I come across a pair of wool gloves. Just chilling, abandoned on a rock. Well, I think I should grab them. I dont have gloves. Little did I know that those gloves would practically save my life the next day. Theres this big hawks flying by checking me out. One flys within 25 feet or so of me and I realize that its huge. And that its actually a condor. Beautiful. Very different colors than the ones in CA. Cool. I move on and pop out of the canyon where theres a lake. At the base of steep little rocky mountains. I cross the river and then after my feet dry. Put the boots back on and push on. After the lake I hike across sand dunes. Desert sand dunes for about 30 min and on the other side of the little desert I pop out with views of the volcanoe and a long stretch of green pastures at its base. And cows? Crazy. I could barely get up here. Yet these 4 cows are chilling, eating the greenest grass Ive ever seen. I hike across the swampy and damp pastures and find my camp right next to where the trail starts to go up the volcano. I wash my clothes in the creek. And its warm? Huh. I figure it must be fed by some hot springs nearby. I poke around and find one thats luke warm. 100 feet from camp. After showering in a little waterfall in the creek I wander up to the hot spring naked and hop in and chill for a while. With expansive views of the beautiful mountains, sprinkled with spots of snow at the other end of the green pastures which are split down the middle by this beautiful little creek. All alone and grinning ear to ear. What a spot. Then I gather some miners lettuce in the creek, get water, make a nice fire. And start cooking. I mak4e a miners lettuce salad with garlic and oil and parmesean. Delicious. Then I cook a huge double meal of rice dishes and a just add water backpackers meal. The rice dishes are to eat cold for lunch the next two days. Backpackers meal for dinner. I eat, dry my clothes, enjoy the fire and then go to bed. Tomorrow will be the day that I finally climb the volcanoe.

Day 2

Day 2. my stove stops working. I cant seem to fix it. Gas just wont come out. Damn. No hot tea. Oh shit. This means I cant cook for the rest of my trip...or that I ll just have to bend the rules and cook with fires. I pack up and head out. Today I am climbing down into the valley Venado, which I gazed down into from El Endralliado. Incredibly steep downhill, but with amazing views from a tiny little trail which traversed across steep cliffs. It reminded me of the Kalalau trail in some places. Then I finally hit the jungle again. After popping out of the jungle close to where the river winds downd through the wide, rock strewn Valley, I decided to take a short cut to a waterfall for lunch. I had to go down a steep little hill covered in scree(loose rocks). I took 1 step and slipped. Damn. I stood up, felt something warm on my right arm. Looked over at it and there was a sharp lava rock, similar to obsidian, sticking out of my arm. And blood running down to my hand. I yanked it out and tossed it away, then hiked to the river whilst bleeding. Washed up, dropped my pack and boots. Grabbed lunch and hiked across to the waterfall. Amazingly awesome and beautiful waterfall. Took lots of pictures and ate and then went back to my pack and started heading down the valley towards camp. Amazing views looking up at huge steep mountains the whole way. In camp I meet a french couple. They have a really good map of this trek that leaves the park. Condor circuit. It passes by the volcanoe and connects into the next national park. Parque Nacional Siete Tazas. I decide that I´m going to go that way in the morning. I say goodnight, its getting dark. I make camp upstream. No tent. Dont need it. Make a fire. Cook. Hit the sack.

The essence of adventure. 5 days in Altos De Lircay. Day 1

Heres a little story. last week I returned from a 5 day trek in the mountains. alone. in a national park called Altos de Lircay. incredibly epic. jungle, desert, high alpine lakes, and snowfields...all in one day.

Day 1. tent pole broke. But I didnt let it dampen my incredibly epic first day. I had entered the Park at about 9:30 on foot after hoping off a 2 hour bus ride from the little town of San Clemente. I decided to climb this really steep mountain. 1000 or plus feet in less than 2 hours. Then I hiked across the pass at the top. I hiked through snow where 1 mile before I had been in jungle and less than 300 yards before I had been traversing dry, hot slopes like the desert...with just sand and shrubs. From the pass I had views back down the valley and of all the mountains across the valley. I climbed over the pass a little and found a spot to eat lunch where I could look at Laguna Alto (High Lake). No one around at all. After lunch I traverse a few miles along ridges. All gradual downhill and level, and with everchanging views of the mountains all around me. Eventually I arrive at El Endralliado. A huge flat spot on top of a big mountain. With 1500 foot drop offs. Thats where the incredibly epic pictures of the Valley are taken. I was quite literally breathless as I wandered around the plateau for an hour. Alone. Enjoying the views. Then I headed off downhill to get to camp. Cooked. Tent pole broke. Whatever, I´ll figure that out later. Drink about 1/3 of a bottle of red wine which I had brought in a water bottle for the first night. Yum. And then bed. What a day.

Pichilemu and Crossing the desert

So its now October 23rd I think, and I´m writing this from an internet cafe in the desert coastal town of Arica in the Northern tip of Chile. Anyways, I"ll try to write what ive been doing on my trip so far. First I ll fill you in on what Pichilemu was like.
    The rest of my time in Pichilemu was a blended blur of surfing, time at the beach, me working a surf contest, and fun nights with locals that I met.
First, the surfing. It was amazing the whole time I was in Pichilemu. I surfed a 7`6 gun for the first time in my life in 3-4 meter waves at punta de lobos. It was the most scared I had ever been surfing but i managed to swallow my fear and grab two pretty big waves a little shy of 4m. Probably about 3.5m, a little more than 10 feet. I had lots of other fun surf sessions at Punta de Lobos, none of which were on waves smaller than 7 feet. Then one day I snapped the rented board that I was surfing. Oh shit. Elvis is going to kill me, or hes going to want a lot of money. Once he got out of the water and I talked to him he said itd cost me about 80 bucks to repair the board. After we talked more he said I could work the next day and a half as a flag man for a local surf contest and get 40 bucks and he said Id only have to give him 20 more. Perfect.
       So, the surf contest was easy  work with free lunches and half way through the first day I wound up as a clothing model. This lady walked up to me blabbing in spanish and I didnt quite understand what she wanted other than she said something about clothes. Finally, I got the picture when she dragged me to a clothing trailer and gave me clothes to put on. I got to keep the clothes after she said and Id just have to pose with 2 professional models and this other guy. I ended up having to walk the runway, talk off my shirt and throw it to screaming highschool girls, and I even had to dance with one of the locals on stage. All in all, it was embarrassing but funny. There are pictures on Fuel Oil Jeans facebook page under the albums titled pichilemu.
    After the contest, I hung out with some of the kids who also worked it and met their friends. We hung out at a house and drank some beers and then some of the girls wanted to go to the club, I wasnt in the mood so I declined. They left and I ended up chatting with a friend of a friend named Deborah. 22 years old, yoga instructor, brazilian surfer girl who spoke spanish with a portugese accent. She was traveling as well and over the next few days I surfed with here a few times and ended up deciding that I would tag along with her and travel up to Arica to surf. She has two boards, so I dont have to rent one and she has little money so we hitch hiked all the way here. about 2000km. took 4 days to cross the massive desert that is Norhtern Chile.
    From Santiago we hitch hiked on the highway heading north. got a couple rides and ended up staying with the last family that picked us up. They owned a restaurant and didnt have much but they gave us their spare beds and fed us and made us feel at home. Christian and Naiomi and their little daughter Augustina. Great people with huge hearts and we stayed with them helping in the kitchen until 4pm the next day. Then we hitch hiked more and eventually got picked up by an 18 wheeler loaded with beer. The drivers name was Mauricio and we spent the next 2 full days with him. He was a joker, funny guy. full of stories. we ate together, chatted away the long miles across the dry desert, and we all got to know eachother quite well. Me and deborah slept with Mauricio in the truck for 2 nights. Me on the passenger seat, Deborah in the driver seat, and Mauricio in his bed. Then we said goodbye in the hot, dry industrial city of Antofagasta...still 700km from Arica. Then more hitchiking. 2 rides got us within less than 300km of Arica, and then we payed 10 bucks each to get the rest of the way there. We payed because our last driver, Jonas dropped us in a a town called Pozo Monte and it was almost dark. He told us this wasnt the safest place to be at night and we wanted to wake up in Arica. So we bused it. got there at 11pm and then walked down the beach looking for a place to camp. Asked two guys, they told us to camp in front of the police station down the beach, and then they ended up giving us a ride and feeding us pizza. Javier and Eduardo, they work in a pizza place and are both super nice and cool.
    Over the last few days Javier has hung out with us some, brought us food and helped Deborah find work. Shes gotta work some to save money and get back to Brazil for a little while before she continues on with her traveling.
     Im glad that I came up here and that I had the experiences of traveling with someone else, practicing my spanish more, learning some yoga, and learning a different kind of travel. But on the other hand, traveling with someone is a lot like living with someone. It has its pros and cons. And for now Im ok with hanging out here for a few more days with my surf buddy becasue the waves are supposed to get small enough to surf after the weekend but then Im ready to move on. Im ready to take what Ive learned and try to hitch hike back to Santiago on my own. And then fly to Patagonia to start backpacking. The desert is beautiful in its own way. But my heart is longing to be in the mountains, and I am ready to not have to make compromises with my days or time. Which is whats starting to happen so I know its time to continue my adventure, follow my heart to the south, and do only what I want to do with each and every day that I have.
Ciao

A snapshot of what its been like since i deplaned

       Got off the plane. tired as all hell. a big beer during my midnight layover in canada whilst reflecting on what i had left behind and what lay ahead. some wine on the plane. and no substantial sleep. i walk out the clouded glass doors to hit the street. booom. im bombarded by so many taxi dudes its rididculous. i wish i could not be so white and blonde for just a moment. i almost get tricked into spending 30 bucks to get to a hostel in santiago, but i escape and snag a bus. i jsut get on. no idea where its going. no idea where im going. we get on the freeway toward Santiago, thats a good start. i open my lonelyplanet chile for the first time, Residencial Londres sounds good and cheap and its downtown. I stumble through my spanish and find out that i can get near to the metro stop for universidad de chile, which is what i need. hostel. chill. unpack some. freshen up. starved, so i head for a late lunch. find a cozy place, empty except for one big family. i sit down, order a beer and some dish with chicken. beer is huge and the chicken is fried with lime rice and potatoes. yum. i dont end up leaving this place until 8pm and i got there at 2ish. I ended up at a table with friends of the owner, drinking beers and chatting it up for hours. i got a salsa lesson and a few email addresses. really cool people. i head to my bed for the night a little drunk. 13 hours later i wake up.
          i have a list of shit to do in santiago. check out. wow! sooo many people everywhere. i get lost many times. get directions over and over to places that may have things i need. no dice. no progress on my list. forget this. im leaving. go to the bus station and buy a ticket for pichilemu, its a 5 hour bus ride. turns into 6.5 because the bus breaks down halfway. typical south american adventure. i get to town and its dark. the bus dropped me off so far from where i needed to be. 4 men walk out of the little store on the corner. One is quite drunk and very friendly, his buddy keeps reminding me of his friends drunkeness and keeps showing me a worn silver dollar he uses as a keychain and saying ¨Chon Ken-e-dee!¨ Drunk dude teases him. they ask me many questions and crack me up and down. and eventually are able to get me a taxi. get to my hotel.check in. and meet the only other gringo there. a canadian. and his name is Colin. and he surfs. we chat. then i go eat out. quick stop by the beach to hear the waves. deep breath. ahhhh. my soul is refreshed and i head for bed with a huge grin on my face. amazed at how deep i already am into my adventure.
        The next morning I get pulled out of a really weird dream to the sound of knocking. then colins voice asking if im up. I meet him downstairs for breakfast and then we head out in his car. I love this town already. small. right on the water. laid back people. half paved and half dirt roads with sidewalks to match. beautiful countryside. We cruise around and i see the surfspots. great surf too. lots of lefts. Then he drops me off at the local surf shop/school. I meet the owner, Elvis. Tell him I need a cheap place to stay and I need to rent a board and suit for a week, I say, because I dont think I´m going to want to leave this place. I can stay at his house. 7 bucks a night, kitchen, and use of his motorcycle and mountain bike, and he ll take me surfing in the mornings. board and suit and booties for 60 bucks for the week. im stoked. And Elvis turns out to be really cool. We´ve shredded two times the last two days. And right now I have to run so I can go thumb a ride to Punto de Lobos to try and snag some big lefts.
More stories and details in the next few days. and please give me feedback. too lengthy? not enough emphasis on the action and too much filler? please let me know. and for coinciding photos see my facebook. later on i hope i can figure out how to get them on to here.
for now.
Ciao!

Saturday

October 2nd. A Saturday.
That's when when the first chapter begins.
No plans or agenda. Searching for the essence of adventure.
By getting lost.