those rainy dayz

we live in portland (for now), the rain doesnt phase us. and so after breakfast... err, perhaps more accurately lunch... we suited up in our rain jackets and set off to explore - first stop, the electronics store. you see, to charge your electronics here you need adaptors, and also, to use your steripen for cleaning water, you need strange batteries, and so, thank goodness for electronics stores... except when they are closed, at 1 in the afternoon - siesta time¿

change of plans, we went to the park in the center of town where souvenirs are sold. i wanted to resist buying them this early in the trip but couldnt resist an ear warmer and a small stone jewelry case. i definitely wont be doing the damage i did in ecuador - i brought home two backpacks full of gifts from the markets there, here i can hardly afford the two souvenirs i purchased today. 

there are many hostels in town and when we passed hostel fitz roy just after leaving our place this morning and stopped and cooed at this adorable golden retriever looking mutt laying on the front steps. we continued walking and a moment later the dog was by our side. i almost wouldnt believe it if i hadnt spent the day with this guy, fido, we named him (how original, we know), but he stayed faithfully by our side until just blocks before we headed back to our own hostel that afternoon. when we would go inside a store he would wait at the door looking in (or sometimes follow us in, which the store owners didnt like very much). he would wait for us when we came to a street and would cross with us. he would turn and run back when he got too far ahead. any bystander would be certain we owned this guy and this was our typical tuesday morning stroll.

one of our ventures took us to the cemetery in town. if you have read se asia blogs, africa blogs, or ecuador blogs you know, i love cemeteries. this one was very reminiscent of ecuadors cemetery in banos. everything is white washed and above ground and so elaborately decorated. fido loved this part of our adventure and ran like crazy between the grave stones leading us to castles that i would imagine only royalty could afford. every grave is unique, many garnished with brightly colored fake flowers, others covered in thriving yellow and white daisies. we wandered around, contemplated life and death, found some engravings from people born in the 1800s, and then reluctantly left - the place was huge, i could have spent the entire day, but we had more errands to run and places to be.
 
3 electronics stores later we found our batteries and plug adaptor, only stopping to buy fido some bread, because lets be honest, he had been running around with us most of the day and he had to be starving! i didnt mind paying fido in bread for his company, though, i miss amani and he was good substitute dog company... 

side note, i must mention that this computer corrects in spanish, meaning that every word i type is spelled wrong according to the computer - but i am a terrible speller and in a hurry with no time to proof read so there is a very good chance that nearly every other word might actually be spelled wrong and i just want to apologize. you should mostly be able to get the gist of it though, so bear with me... 

we were picked up at 4 for our penguin tour. packed in a small bus slash van with a bunch of other outta towners we zoomed down the highway until reaching a winding gravel road, which we zoomed down just as fast. the poor van was rattling so violently i worried it might fall to pieces around us. we slowed only for the occasional traffic: cowboys on horses, herds of sheep, and mutt sheepdogs.

the scenery resembled the drive through the high dessert to bend. you know just when you come down mt. hood and leave the forest and evergreen trees and hit the brown, with snowcovered mountains off in the distance to the right and nothing but subtly rolling hills and livestock between. the plant life is a little more interesting here, less barren than the high dessert and more colorful. and the birds of prey are everywhere!! perched on every other fence post - they are falcon or eagles or hawks and i am missing my birding days in high school when i knew so much more about raptors. i will have to do some research once i am home. there were smaller brown falcon looking birds and huge black and white eagles with white heads but black masks like ninjas... or bandits... or teenage mutant ninja turtles (now you see what i am describing). bandit birds is the best illiteration but pete prefered to call them ninja birds. they were awesome!

we finally made it to the location of our penguin walk. we were set free from the van and left to our own devices. wooden planks spaced just enough that groundcover could grow between lead the way and a single rope made up the railing of the walking path. the plants are very different than home and i loved them all. we eventually came upon none other than a penguin! just sitting there in the grass with his buddy, hanging out. we did the typical tourist thing and spent far too long taking definitely too many photos of the semi-distant penguin duo before we continued along the path only to realize around the bend were a lot more penguins much closer to the path. my favorite were the babies - full grown at this time of the year and in the middle of molting their downy baby feathers in exchange for that sleek black and white tux - always dressed for a party these guys seemed more hungover than anything. they were just chillin' in the grass and about the most interesting thing we saw them do was flap their wings - so stinkin adorable though!! it is like they are trying to fly and in total denial that it is not possible. or maybe they are just stretching....

next to the penguins the only thing that could distract me was the incredible sunset. like i said, i think there is something special about the clouds here every day and this afternoon was no different. not to mention we could see torres del paines and other snow covered mountains in the distance and the low clouds lit up by the setting sun made it look at though these mountain ranges were gold and glowing. wild!!

it is nearing the end of the penguin season so there werent hoards of them, but we were entertained by other wildlife, including the silly little mouse (which impressed me because given the density of the birds of prey, i had no idea how that perfect snack of a little guy was still around - keep doin whatever you are doin mouse). we also saw the easter bunny, and meredith, if you are reading this i want you to know that he is still out there and mickey didnt... you know... still cant believe that really happened.

there were these funny lookouts where you could climb metal stairs to get a view from these platforms. all had signs specifying 3 person max capacity and it really makes you wonder what event lead to the posting of the signs - because really the platform is only big enough for 3 people to comfortably fit and... maybe we had better not think about it. 

we were also lucky to spot a flock...¿ herd...¿ a crew of emu... emi¿ emus¿ dangit... anyway, like 5 emu were hanging out on the side of the road and they are a species native to this area so it was cool to see them in the wild when back home i always think of them as farm animals.

slept most the way home because cars do that to me... and maybe we are still trying to catch up on sleep. dinner was late tonight but we didnt mind walking in the dark because we had a guard dog posse with us. yes, yet again, we left the hostel and not 2 blocks later 3 dogs come running over from various side streets and just walk along by our sides. now i am really confused because this happened on the beach the first day and twice today, all with different dogs (though I will say this evening i recognized one of our dog body guards from the beach)... so either tourists feed the dogs so often that they see us, know we arent from around here, and walk over in hopes of food... or pete and i give off dog people vibes and the dogs sense it and just want to be friends... or we smell like bacon. i just cant really explain why they walk so far with us, or spend the entire day with us (except maybe in the scenario where we smell like bacon), and i have yet to see any other tourists with faithful canine companions so yeah, i am at a loss...

ok, we need to get to bed and i am out of stories for the night except to say that dinner at la cuisine was excellent and the beer here is slightly better than that in ecuador, which is nice :) 

ttfn!