Hard to Say Goodbye

Santiago, Chile

We pull out of Pucon at 6 o’clock, heading up to Santiago. We’re all pretty subdued, hungover from the
Leigh, Kate and Naomi outside the Hostal in Santiago

night before. About 15 minutes before we get to Salta de Loja, the waterfall where we were supposed to stay a night and where we’re now scheduled to have lunch, we have a blowout a rear tire. Luckily, it’s not entirely popped and we’re able to limp it in to Salta de Loja. There, while the pax all check out the waterfall, Steve and I go find a tire place. The tire is completely ruined. While we take it off, I watch one of the workers replace the tire of a truck that basically has a bee farm on the back of it. The guy changing the tire kept getting stung on his bald head while he was trying to take the wheel off. In the end we ended up just leaving the destroyed tire and putting on our best spare. Unfortunately, our spares aren’t in the best shape after the rough roads of Patagonia, but hopefully we’ll make it back into Argentina with the tires we have, as it’s much cheaper there to buy new ones.

We pull into Santiago in the evening. Santiago is all right, but it has one major flaw: it’s not Buenos Aires. It’s not as cheap as B.A., not as attractive, the nightlife isn’t as good, the women aren’t as hot and it’s pretty average in every way.

That night I take everybody to the Vaca Gorda, a nice restaurant a block and a half away from the hostel. The tour is about to change drastically. Right now there are 14 passengers on board. A few are getting off, but a lot more are getting on. When we leave Santiago, we’ll have 31 passengers, which is 3 away from full occupancy. It’s a very difficult transition for passengers to make, so I’m a bit nervous.

After dinner we head off to a club a few blocks up the road. After about 20 minutes in the club, I walk up to the bar, slip on a patch of water and end up in the air completely horizontal and land flat on my back. I haven’t fallen like that in years. I’m a bit stunned, but otherwise OK.