We had some stickers made a while back and mailed out quite a few. Some folks even sent us photos of where they ended up – thanks!

Since we’re back in the U.S. for a little while longer, we can send out some more if there is anyone left who still wants one or didn’t receive theirs the last time around. And, we even have some new stickers printed – smaller and on a white background (the last ones were transparent). Just send your mailing address to the email here, message us through facebook, carrier pigeon, whatever. We’ll do our best to make sure to send some out before we leave…

Angela loves penguins.

We drove down the coast to the inlet at Puñihuil and hopped into a boat for a quick tour.

For about 10 bucks, they take your around 3 islands and you get to see Magellanic penguinos, Humboldt penguins, and all sorts of other sea creatures doing their thing.

Since we’re always running behind on the blog, we’ve got some stuff from the previous week we can continue to add. We’ll be in Houston for a while longer, but we can all pretend we’re in Chile while we read this.

We hit the road and headed south and for the coast. This is officially the end of the Lakes District and is now Northern Patagonia. I think. Maybe it’s just Chiloé.

You have to take a quick ferry over to the island, and they charged us 10,000 pesos, or about 20 bucks for the bus. It’s just a car ferry, but it has wi-fi. If we haven’t mentioned it before, everywhere in Chile has wi-fi.

The first stop on Chiloé is Ancud. We found a run down cabana on the waterfront and made ourselves at home. Except the great weather, this place is about what we expected. The aesthetic here is rotten wood shingles and rust.

Before we knew it, we were all on a midnight flight to Mexico City.

I often give the Random Tuesday explanation whenever someone asks about what we’re doing next. Of course, even that explanation can’t be correct.

We called Angela’s mother to check-in and were hit some some shocking news. Only hours removed.

Unexpectedly, Angela’s father passed away.

We flew to Houston as quickly as possible and have now been here several days. It been tough, but it’s also good to be back. We’ll stay here a while and spend time with family and try to be useful. Bode has already claimed that he will move in with his cousins and we can return to South America without him (he’s serious).

Just last week I was joking that nothing has changed in years. Now, so much changed in just a few days.

We spent a few more days in Frutillar. I caught up on my sleep after a hectic week of work and plane rides. Angela and Bode continued their routine of sleeping until noon and then going to the beach. Tough life, these two.

I don’t think we could have picked a better place for them to call home while I was away. Nice, relaxed town. Great warm beach. Tons of activities to keep Bode happy…

It was a quick and exhausting week. I was called back into the old lab for a proverbial ‘laying on of hands’ – I’m sort of known for it. Start with something that doesn’t quite work right and then make it sing. This might shed some light on the vintage VW thing.

But, my big travel week back to the U.S. started with a fizzle. My flight from Puerto Montt was delayed, which resulted in missing my connection and being stranded in Santiago for 24 hours. I even had to get my exit papers nullified (NULO!) and try again the next day. Once I entered the U.S., my flight to SFO was canceled, I was re-routed through Chicago, only to have that change. Fifty hours after leaving, I finally made it to San Francisco via JFK.

Even though I was in a bit of a daze, my first thoughts on coming back to the Bay Area after 2.5 years were that nothing had changed. Things looked about the same. When I walked into my old office building, it was pretty much as it was when I left. When I went to lunch at the bagel place down the street, the same people worked there and they even remembered my order. I met some friends for dinner and everyone seemed about the same. I may have discovered some sort of time warp.

Still, everything was very different from what I now call home. My morning sunrise over the lake and volcano was replaced with a view of a Honda dealership. A leisurely walk to dinner down the shore was replaced with piss-stained sidewalks and vagrants. One thing that continuously stood out was just how convenient life is in the U.S. – my nearest intersection had at least four fast food restaurants and two gas stations. I suppose convenience is often better than inconvenience.

Overall, it was a good trip. I had success at the office and, of course, I also managed to squeeze in some time to see some friends.

Still, nowadays, the best part of any solo trip is the end: coming back home.

Things here in Frutillar, Chile have been great. We stumbled upon a great place to hang out while Jason’s gone. But we haven’t done much, sort of a little break from traveling I guess.

Our cabin is nice, pretty small but it has a toaster and a microwave so that seems really deluxe.  The floor is covered with cars, legos and army men. We sleep in, we do some work, we go to the beach. We thought about going to the museum, but ‘the best museum of German colonial history in the area’ didn’t really grab us.

I also wanted to go see The Magic Flute, but Bode said he’d rather climb the rock wall and play chess. That sounds pretty good, too.