changes

this week nate left for cochamo. it was a tough week.

marcus, cerin, ash, ros, nate and i made record time last friday reaching puerto varas in a mere 5 hours. smooth talking at the border and good driving skills (not mine, of couse) made all the difference. el caminante is a new hostel in town and it has my vote for one of the best-onda hostels around. nate and i dined at 'donde el gordito,' a cozy seafood restaurant for our last night together.

the next morning we moved nate into his hilltop hotel and said goodbye.

so nate and i have certain obsessive hobbies. his is climbing and mine is traveling. we realized that we have been making some compromises, neither one of us truly fulfilling our own goals. so we have made a tough decision. nate will travel to the cochamo valley for 3 months of climbing, hiking, and opening new routes in the beautiful and relatively unexplored terrain. i will finish up my school year in bariloche and then starting january begin traveling again. my goal is to adventure through deep-south patagonia and then north through the amazon rainforest of brazil ending up in colombia. passing through uruguay, paraguay, guyana, suriname, and venezuela on the way. i want to learn portuguese and immerse myself in culture!

but we will take all this adventure with a spoonful of salt. we will be apart for a long unspecified amount of time. and that's tough.

so we said our dreaded tearful goodbye. i got into the car and reluctantly returned to bariloche. i would be understating it to say i was an absolute mess.

back in bariloche, my friends were so unbelieveably helpful and supportive. i still miss nate tremendously, but i'm sure that what we're doing is the right thing for us both. i wish him the best of luck in his endeavors and i hope he continues to spread his positivity, limitless energy, love, encouragement, generosity, and humor to inspire others to follow their dream. you're one in infinity, nate. i love you.


meanwhile, the weather in bariloche could not have been better. bluest of blue blue skies were bordered by snow capped mountains. the sun was fierce, but the wind off the lake made all the difference. i spent time on the beach. even braved the lake's icy temperatures. held my classes outside in the grass. enjoyed ice cream to the fullest! summer is upon bariloche again!