Elad’s blog

They cancelled the penguin tour in a most cruel way. Well, maybe not as cruel as Sir Francis Drake, who slaughtered some 3000 penguins to feast on the cute birds (will history and linux lovers ever forgive him?) , but still - putting a note on the port, just an hour before the ship was supposed to leave, and writing exclusively in Spanish that the tour is cancelled “due to bad weather” is pretty cruel. Especially that the weather was not at all that bad: it was cloudy and grey with some cold wind all day long, but there was no rain, no huge waves, and it cleared in the afternoon - nothing that should have caused a cancellation of the short voyage through the straights of Magellan, in my educated opinion.

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Here is a small topographical description of the Paine biospheric reserve, situated in the Paine mountain range, for those of you who haven´t been there. This range actually forms the southern border of the huge Campo Del Hielo Sur, the southern ice field.

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One of the things I learned about myself in my far gone years in the army, is that I work better under stress.
All of my projects and stuff that had a rigid deadline were performed better then those without a strict time limit; In fact, I also enjoyed them much more - which may be connected: I love the feeling that things are happening, everything is “on the air”, and you have to catch it before it falls.

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I found three interesting things at the island of Chiloé, in central Chile. It was the food, the architecture, and Hector.

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Not the special emerald-green-blue colour of the water; not the surrounding green forests and hills; not the perfect cone of the snow-capped Osorno volcanoe that overlooks the entire area; not the black sand beaches at the front; not the four Israelies I met there; not even the perfect weather. What I remember most from Lago Todos Los Santos is the crazy insects - huge, violent, clourfull flies.

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Pedro de Valdivia lived a violent life. He was a conquistador, in the court of Pizarro at Peru, and in the middle 16th century he set from there to conquer Chile. He crossed the deserts of northern Chile, fought and killed many Indians, established Santiago, and continued south into the land of the Mapuche indians, who finally killed him (violent life, violent death), at the location of a city that now bears his name, a city that he actually founded as a fortress trying to conquer southern Chile, Valdivia.

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Now I have some time to tell you about what I did from Friday till the volcanoe climb yesterday. This included the travel from Santiago to Pucon, the meeting with Gina and all the Israelies in Pucon, two day trecks in Pucon, and the Hannuca celebration.

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Some people say I am stubborn. I am not sure how accurate this is; it is just that when I decide to do something, I generally do it. If it doesn´t work on Papua, I try in Vanuatu; if not in Vanuatu, maybe New-Zealand; and if I fail in New-Zealand, I would use the opportunity to climb an active volcanoe in Chile, and finally throw the ring into the lava lake. It is just what I did today on the Villarica volcanoe, the most active one in the americas.

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Here are a few words about the Israelies that got lost last week on the Villarica Travers track near Pucon. I know there was plenty of disinformation in Israeli newspapers, and this is what I found out from here. I am writing this just because it caused some worries in Israel, and it actually affected my journey - I waisted my last few hours in Santiago (and a lot of time here in Pucon) just finding out the situation and determining how safe the area is (answer: perfectly safe).

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I know each place has its local foods. I am not too spoiled, I think. I handled the beetroot they put on hamburgers on Australia. I can also handle the green beans they gave me on a hamburger in Chile (actually, it is not a bad combination). But mashed avocado? On Hamburgers? Moreover, on hot-dogs??? Don´t you think it´s a big gross?