New Year's Eve - 12/31/07

We had hiked 12 miles the day before with full packs, the first big hike in Patagonia....we definitely felt it in the morning. We packed up our things in excitement to hike over to some waterfalls about 5 miles away. Upon leaving a man from Ecuador stopped us and insisted we have some of his hot chocolate. The communication between us was rather broken but he was really nice and the hot chocolate was amazing.While hiking to the waterfalls it began to rain again. I often get into a rhythm while hiking where my mind completely glazes over to the point where I am unaware of the things going on around me. This is heightened by conditions of rain or snow. Luckily, by the time we got to the waterfalls the rain had stopped because the views along all the trails were amazing. The pictures will describe much better than my words. Later on in the week we rafted down this same river.

We finally made it back into town by the late afternoon. We had an eleven o'clock dinner with our friends, went out and saw the fireworks over lake Llanquihue and then went out on the town. Apparently the younger folks from all around gather at this one barn every year. It sounded a little odd but we went with some guys and found that it was by far the liveliest party I had ever been too. The yard was filled with people, well over a thousand, and actually getting into the barn without some serious ambition was impossible. I had a great time meeting new people and even just people watching. We finally decided to leave around 5:30 when sun started coming up.