And then God came. In terms of introductions, that's my favourite.

After a day of superlatives in Patagonia, this time negative ones at the roads that were a jumble of pot-holed and corrugated gravel, we were due some goodness. Puerto Tranquilo delivered. We were bouncing up and down in a speedboat on the Lake General Carratera at 9am amidst the rain and mist to view the marble caves, tinged with mica and manganese that over thousands of years had formed beautiful weathered formations in the lake, yet it was once again the climate in this part of the world that took centre stage. The sun bursting through the mist, calving a path through the mountains to give an ethereal light that sets fire to souls. If there is a God, they like Patagonia very much. Yes, as a proud Kiwi friend was keen to point out, it is similar to New Zealand. Two astonishingly beautiful countries, where you almost bore yourself with the constant exclaiming of ‘wow’. (Images above are from my phone, will be doing the drone and DSLR at some point when I get time! Included is a lovely guy I met, Vladimir, with a Troopy all the way from Russia!).

I was never very excited for this trip: I had a 13-hour airplane journey ahead of me and had to navigate my beloved Izzy through customs, the latter of which had the propensity to be akin to someone singing Ed Sheeran at me for weeks on end. Only once I was heading down the coast with the sunshine switched on, water to my right and Izzy’s straight six burbling along would I be happy. Well, I’m elated to say, I AM BLOODY HAPPY!! (As for flying, I remain a drug addled mess for the entire period, but I do get to my destination despite the fear, but that is beside the point!).

Other than getting a smash on the windscreen (stone on the freeway, crack!) and getting that replaced, along with fitting a new alarm – make hay whilst the sun shines and all that – one of the highlights of the week was meeting Lucy Barnard. As per my previous write-up, Lucy is aiming to be the first woman to walk solo from Ushuaia to Alaska, completing her journey by 2020. Needing to cover about 5000 miles a year, she has covered about 3000 so far in her inaugural year. I am not sure I have aided this at all by supplying Tim Tams and Vegemite for the journey! Whilst I’ve maintained really light-running communication channels, Lucy has blogs, Instagram, twitter, facebook, real interviews, sponsorships, competitions, fund-raising and miles and miles of walking to do. It would kill a lesser . . . erm . . . Welshman. In saying that, Lucy is a pro-adventurer. However, the bravery and courage for her trip is undeniable, she’s an incredible person, and an incredible person lugging a 30kg pack every day. One of the key things she highlighted during her trip was the kindness and compassion of the people that she met on her journey, something we can completely attest to as well. As with any country (and hopefully this remains the same for this trip!) I’ve visited, regardless of Pakistan, Iran, Uzbekistan and even North Korea, people at their heart remain the same: good natured, caring and full of surprises. Oh and Lucy is an Aussie (if the vegemite wasn’t a give away!), so please support her at tanglesandtail.com, and buy her a coffee at her next stop!

As above, I am writing this from one of the ferries from the route south. Telstra were very kind in providing me roaming for my trip which has been absolutely invaluable, a huge thank you to them enabling me to keep up posts and message family and loved ones. Thank you Team Telstra! Will add some photos as soon as I can get some wifi! :-)

I’ve been camped in a hostel in Santiago's Bella Vista district for the last few days, a leafy graffiti laden suburb where the affluent (young and...erm…me) come to eat, socialise and get absolutely paralytic. It’s a very cool area though. I’ve been practicing my Spanish and trying a few local dishes, although am yet to try casuleh, essentially a hunk of meat and vegetables delivered in a dish of steaming broth slightly warmer than the sun. When famished I did undertake the manhandling of a huge local burger, and thus my appetite was truly satiated, my wallet parched of $20 US (holy sh*t!) and yes, my soul entirely abandoned. Still, I didn’t go and ask reception where the local Starbucks is, so that’s got to be a win.
 
The top four highlights this week have been the cemetery, learning about the coup d’etat, and the domestic violence protests. Looking at it, it’s not exactly a jolly start, is it? I’ll just round the blog off by kicking a puppy and that’ll be me set.

The cemetery is good, in fact it’s so good its counted twice. I have been to a few in my time, but clearly attending them for funerals is just weird, but I’ll get to that. For a start, take a stab at how big it is? Let’s talk football fields. 50? 100? How about 117, packing in 3 million people. I’ve since wikipedia’d (new verb for you) and they believe it’s closer to 85 football pitches, but still....HUGE! The biggest interest though is not just the amount of burials but how they’re buried. Remember in mortuary scenes in films where they slide out the cadavers from a chest of drawers of people? Well imagine that, but buried. Thousands upon thousands buried as unceremoniously as slotted into a wall with nothing to show for it but a small plaque or in some cases just handwritten scrawl. If that wasn’t enough, you pay rent on the place of about $100 a year. Yup, rent. If you don’t pay? Well the bones of your beloved are amassed, put together in a small pot and another body slapped in on top. Sometimes, whole families have been in the same space. Amazing. And to top it off, the cemetery is treated as a park by the locals and so, according to the guide, first dates in the cemetery aren’t uncommon. Wow. Just...wow.
 
The third choice was the Human Rights Museum detailing the period of unrest during the junta era and General Pinochet’s reign. It will need a much lengthier read, with the museum providing confronting images and stories of the interrogation, torture and butchery. It’s pretty savage, but certainly worth reading considering it was just over 30 years ago. 

To continue the theme of a fairly serious post, which is completely unlike me, my other one in the top four was the domestic violence protests, where thousands of women and men protested in the streets with banners and drums to celebrate International Women’s day on Thursday. It was really fantastic to see such a passionate and mixed crowd of all ages getting behind such a great cause, with banners and protestors highlighting the recent domestic violence case of Concepción Arregui, known as Conchy, that was apparently killed by her former partner. I say it’s fantastic, but at the same time it saddens me that people have to protest at all – come on society, equal pay, equal rights, equality, saying no to violence of any kind . . . lift!
 
To end on a slightly lighter note, I’ll be picking up my uncle soon from the airport and travelling to the coast at Valparaiso, and in the coming week hopefully picking up my beautiful machine Izzy and meeting an incredible inspiring woman in Lucy Barnard from tanglesandtail.com. And talking of inspiring women, check this wonderful clip out. "...if there’s something to be done, I'll do it". What a woman!


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Cue the music Les MIserables fans . . .One Day Mooooooore!! Another day another destiny . . . perhaps the wrong audience, especially at 5.43am on a Monday. This is the first day not at work, and how I relax. I've been up about two hours. Can't sleep, again, but no matter! Onwards, huzzaahhhhh!!!! <... and snooze>

I fly out on March 6th and hopefully meet my vehicle on March 8th in Sanitago, a mere 7000 miles away. 

I mentioned this already on my facebook post, but thought I would welcome aboard Bainbridge Technologies as a sponsor who are providing a 160amp hour battery kit which I'll be fitting when I'm out in the bush somewhere and have some time on my hands!

Have an awesome day!