Painting courtesy of French cyclist Anne Buisson. Thanks Anne! Check out her and partner Stephane’s website by clicking here

Hi everybody!  Ana and I are in Puerto Natales, Chile and doing well.  The weather has been awesome lately, and we’ve been enjoying the sunshine and warm weather.  We’ve been in Puerto Natales for a few days now, and are using the time here to catch up on a few projects.   I used the good weather to give Mango some TLC.  She’s running great but needed a few tweaks after all the bumpy, dirty roads.  I replaced her burned-out headlight, rewired two side-marker lights that shook loose, cleaned her tailight bulbs, regreased the sliding door, put a new fuel filter in, and cleaned the air filter.  Total cost for everything $7.  I love this car!

It’s been good relaxing in a “big” city like Puerto Natales (pop. approx 20,000).  We haven’t been in a city this big since Coihaique, about 2 months ago.  The Banff Mountain Film Festival was in town, and we enjoyed 2 nights at $3 each of watching short films about rock-climbing, skiing, and mountaineering.  They had some really beautiful films, although I must say that some of the rock-climbing stuff was a bit too crazy for me (free-climbing with a parachute – no thanks!)  Their website is here if you want to see some of the films or dates it might be in your town.  We also watched the opening ceremony of the Vancouver Olympics at Baguales Bar with some fellow Northwesterners from Vancouver, Bremerton, and Portland.  Since my family lives in Seattle, it was nice seeing TV from back home and feeling a bit more connected with family, friends, and the rest of the world.

After many weeks of mainly free camping, we are “splurging” and staying at the Hostel and Camping Josmar for $7 a night each.  The hostel is nice because it has cute little wind-protected camping areas in the back with lots of grass.  It also has a nice, warm common area with one free computer for internet that everyone hangs out around.  We plugged our laptop into the modem to make this post.   It also has several dogs and cats that mainly hang out in the sun and occasionally attack Ana’s pant leg.  I especially like the hostel because it’s name is a combination of my parent’s names, Joe and Marlex.  Mom and dad, you never told me you started a hostel in southern Chile!

We also used the time here to catch up on a few cosmetic and hygiene “special projects.”  One warm afternoon I dyed Ana’s hair black, and the next day she put highlights in my hair. No one was around to laugh at us if it went awry, so it was a good time to experiment for us.  We both look exceedingly spiffy now.  I am also still trying to get my pair of jeans to last until Ushuaia, and today I ironed a 6th patch onto the inside of one of the knees.  Additionally, Ana pre-washed some of our nastiest laundry from the Torres del Paine hike in the bathtub of the hostel.  The laundry stench was starting to eat through its plastic bag, so we decided something needed to be done.  All in all, we’ve been quite productive here in Puerto Natales.

Tomorrow, we’re driving to a penguin colony north of Punta Arenas (Pinguinera Seno Otway)  We’ll probably free-camp by the colony if the penguin smell and noise isn’t too great!  Thanks for the emails the last few weeks while we were in Torres del Paine.  It’s nice hearing what everyone is up to.  If you get a chance, leave us a comment or send an email.  We always appreciate hearing what is new in your lives.  Take care and see you after the pinguinos!

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