Moving on

It has been about two months since our last post and the unfortunate events that happened to us in Peru.  Combined, Jed and I have about ten word documents saved on this computer, all attempts at trying to piece together our feelings of the attack and the events of the weeks following.  Neither one of us can quite grasp the words to do so at this point, and furthermore our personal preference has become to concentrate on recovering and moving on.

After a drawn out process, Jed and I finally received our truck back from the police in Cusco, and made the tenuous decision to try out life on the road again.  There were several reasons for this decision, including, but not limited to;

1. 95% of the people we have met on this trip have been wonderful
2. with all our previous amazing travel experiences it seemed a shame to let it end on a bad note.
3. after living in it for almost a year, our car was our home. Life on the road was our life.  We couldn’t just leave it behind without another try.

We figured we would get back to life and see how we felt.  We could always drive straight to Buenous Aires and ship home if that is what we decided we needed.

So fast forward through all the rest of the bullshit, for lack of a better word, and here we are ecstatic to be crossing the border with our truck and camper out of Peru and in to Chile!  A day we at times during the past few weeks thought was never going to come.

Chi Chi Chi- Le Le Le
Chi-Le! Chi-Le!

We were happy to be joining our new friends, Home on the Highway  as we continued south.  And in true Chilean fashion, we celebrated our lives that night with a couple bottles of cheap wine, while camping on a beautiful beach.

From there we decided to head inland towards Luaca National Park, the Altiplano in Northern Chile bordering Bolivia, an area we had heard held promise of long deserted dirt roads with spectacular views and lots of wildlife.

Two hours and several thousand feet after departing from the coast, we found ourselves just before sunset at a small developed hot spring fed pool off the side of the road. We met the friendly Chilean attendant just as he was closing up shop for the evening, BUT he quickly informed us that were in fact free to use the pools after hours and camp in the parking area.  Well… okay, if you insist!

A few more bottles of wine, my own self-proclaimed healing volcanic mud bath, and a spectacular sunset later we couldn’t help but start to think that a road trip through Chile and Argentina was going to be just what the doctor ordered. Entering in to Luaca National Park the following day, even though cold and rainy, was no less magical for us.  We spent the day driving by beautiful snow capped volcanoes and crystal clear lakes.We spotted tons of wildlife, including thousands of pink flamingos,  giant ostriches, a condor with a wing span longer than I am tall, wild vicunas and the more domesticated, fluffy llamas.

ostriches and llamas

flamingos and vicunas

The day would have been beautiful enough, even if we hadn’t got to camp right next to another hot spring while witnessing another beautiful sunset.

We were four days in to Chile, out there giving this wild world of ours another traveler’s try and her response to us was loud and clear;

The beauty will outweigh ugliness if you allow it.

Cheers to that!