everything happens for a reason, says maria

I had to sort of escape from alejandra´s place, both because of her mother´s feeding instincts and the fact that A. - and I love her dearly! - is slow even in South American standards! On the day where "going shopping" was the main and only item on our daily itinerary, and when we hadn´t left at 6pm, I decided to split...
Taking the night bus to Pucon was quite an adventure: the busses are not exactly neatly labeled, it was full as hell, and my bus was late; but one of the "que rica!" guys helped me out. The busses are quite wonderful (most of them), spacious and including a toilet (unless it´s broken... then it is TERRIBLE!). Pucon was a town seemingly entirely created for tourism, but at least the tourists were mostly from Chile or South America. The funniest thing about Pucon is that its airport was closed because some farmer refuses to cut his trees. and while the law sorts things out, there are no planes... In Pucon, I climbed the Volcano Villarica which was worth every penny of its proud price. four Brazilian girls dropped out right from the beginning, so it was only Dutch girl Linda ("so hard to be called linda in South America.."), the guide (who does this thing EVERY DAY) and me who ran up the mountain - and I say "run" because we made it in less than 3 hours, while 4-5 hrs were envisaged (Forgetting I wheezed like a middle-aged hippo on the final ascent, I am quite proud). The way back, sliding down, was the icing on the butt, really much fun. and we saw Condors.
The day hike on the next day turned out to be not the 9km promised by my (4year old) Lonely Planet, but 17 k´s, and pretty steep trekking too (everybody around me was walking with these funny ski poles..). In the end I almost missed the bus, having chatted and dawdled over a cafe con leche (which here means a mug of hot milk to which nescafe and sugar is added according to taste:), so I had to RUN to catch the bus.. Tired from these activities, I spent the next day driving through the Lake District with Rob and Robin (I kid you not) from London (i.e. my room), sampling "Kuchen" in Panguipulli, the fat blackberries at the roadside endlessly tempting ... The air smells of rosin,

Initially I had thought the roses were a particular spleen of Alejandra´s dad, but there are roses everywhere in Chile: it must the national flower or something, in every park, on every corner.

Crossing over the border to Argentina, everything was against me. the bus missed the ferry, the next ferry was 5 hours later, and had no bus connection. I hitched a ride, arrived in a flood of rain, had to waddle through half the town and the rain to find a free bed, got wrong information on busses leaving town.. the ususal, apparently, for now, as I want to go back to chile, public transport keeps hating me: all the busses are full. first there were no busses over the weekend, now one company closed (but the signposts are still there), and the other one is full, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow.
but I really want to get away from here, so I´ll try and hitchhike over the border. please keep your fingers crossed for me and my rudimentary spanish. Oh, and this entry´s title is a quote from sweet Buenos-Aires-expatriate (everyone I meet is from BA!) Maria, who took pity on me and me under her wings yesterday, taking me to their "maision dans la foret" where I could revive from my bumpy ride.
Her formulation is somewhat more elegant and optimistic than my acquiescent "sometimes you win, sometimes you loose".. which might make more sense if you consider the list of all my things that have been stolen or gotten lost in the laundry, coz it's kind of ridiculous, really:
- a white blouse
- my green sweater
- a couple of underpants
- towels (twice!)
- my billabong shorts
- two T-Shirts
- my fleece jacket
- numerous toilet articles

... there´s more, but I stopped keeping track. sometimes you win, sometimes you loose. with best zen-wishes...