Border crossing in the SOUTH!

Hello everyone on our bandwagon of adventures and escapades!

We crossed the Argentina-Chile border down near Puerto Montt yestday and our heading our way down south to Chiloe (birthplace of my dear friend Joseph Perloff) and onward to the legendarily beautiful park of Torres del Paine! Everything is green here and mountains flank us on all sides as well as lakes (the area is the lake district!) So anyone that reads this in Seattle, know that I am know in the second Washington with similiar color and freshness that surrounds that fair city.

We met three hombres de EEUU (USA) in Salta up in the north of Argentina and again as we were leaving Mendoza for Bariloche in the south. As we all sat in a transitionary city bus station in the south the three lads opened up their guitar cases and gave us a run down of songs that Jerry Garcia and David Grisman would be proud to have heard. Since Ricardo and I purchased a guitar back in La Paz we´ve been trying to learn various songs by ear (which I have to say Ricardo has been picking up in rapid pace!) The lads gave us good tips on how to grapple with chords and learn recently practiced songs in new ways. If you´re reading this pops: do you know the chords for the planxty song you always used to play? Send them to me if you get the chance! Oh and play your guitar while you´re at it! it´s probably up for a new stringing!

All three of the traveling trio go to Colorado college with is a school that has one class for 3 weeks straight every day, pretty intersting learning style. One of the guys went to Sierra Leone for a 3 week stint with this class and studied the societal structures in the post war era country.

In Bariloche, we attended a local bar called Che Papa with a local from our hostal. Wall to wall pictures of Che Guevara (photos and artist renditions as well) made for an amazing collage. Later that night seemingly on a whim the owner pulled out his saxaphone and another attendee picked up a guitar and began to play heartfelt, passionate songs of Buena Vista Social Club (traditional cuban music for whoever doesn´t know, go listen if you´ve never heard it!). The guitarist´s voice was flawless and the addition of the sax gave these old songs a new body. The rest of us picked up any instruments we could find or simply our hands and joined in. Hopefully we´ll find more spontaneous acts of music further on our travels. (I made a video of one of the songs so our next project will be to add a video section to the blog! Stay tuned!)
Right now Ricardo and I are feeling a little of the pressure of time and so we´re not stopping at a local farm around Puerto Montt to work for a few days in order to reach parks in the south and Tierra del Fuego for hiking and camping.

Hope all are well and if you can let us know about news in your respective areas we will devour every word!
Cheers!
Nick and Ric