not been eaten, yet

Now that a few concerned emails have arrived and I'm finally able to get to an Internet cafe: I'm fine, just not been within easy reach of the net.

To make a long story short, I had to ditch the idea of camping out of Mendoza and instead proceded to eat my own body weight in meat over the course of the next two days. Okay, so I also went on another short hike, with subsequent terrifying rappelling sessions down the cliffsides and surprisingly successful attempts at climbing up part of them.

Pictures off all this will have to wait, because they are now on their way to Germany. Yep, I managed to meet up with dad in Santiago over the course of the last 4 days.

Decadence started in Mendoza, because I decided to travel in style: the wide leather seats in the first class bus section were worth every cent. As was the suite in the Plaza in Santiago's Las Condes district. After months of staying in rock-bottom hostals, the views of the setting sun illuminating the snow-capped peaks as seen from the pool on the 17th floor were a nice change.

The food was spectactular, as was the wine, although the exercise room was the only thing that saved me from instant obesity.

So now I'm back to travelling on a budget for the last few days before I fly back to Frankfurt. I've managed to get one of the last seats on a bus leaving for Talca, a few hours south of here. From there, it should be a relatively short hop over to the Reserva Nacional Altos de Lircay for a few days' camping and longer hikes.

Santiago is chilly and damp today, and I'm a tad apprehensive about snow falling on my crap tent in the mountains. But what the hell - for some reason I couldn't face the thought of the Fiestas Patrias madness here in Santiago so I opted for getting away.

I won't break into song just yet, but it seems I may just get my nature experience set up by tonight!