Small Journey, Big Journey and Some Work

The Small Hot Springs

As it turned out bad luck had not already finished with my tonsilitis. From the penicillin I got a viral infection in my mouth which forced me to eat only liquid stuff for two more days and was even more painful than the tonsilitis itself. Finally I lost 4 kg in just three days. From all the tablets I had to take against all the attacks on my poor body I got stomach problems and so had to diet some more days. Finally I had been so ravenous that the first meat after all that which I had taking a dinner out in Pucón with Inés tasted like heaven!

Finally healthy again I went with a friend to some free of charge hot springs close to Pucon. You reach them in half an hour by car and a steep 5 minutes walk down to Liucura River. There just at the bank of the river is one small pool formed by a natural rock face and a concrete wall. Because it already had been dark I can´t tell you anything about the view of the surrounding landscape but the night sky with millions of bright stars and the sound of the running river were amazing. The beer we had brought under these circumstances tasted especially sweet and smooth.

My next journey brought me to Santiago with Inés. We went there to meet her mother who lives in Italy and is on holiday in Chile right at the moment. So I got to know my future mother in law. She´s a likeable, little and funny person. Unfortunately weather conditions had been quite bad with rain, wind and low temperatures (one morning snow in the Andes range almost had fallen as low as the first suburbs of the town - never saw Santiago that winterly). This in combination with not heated houses let me suffer of the chill all the time we had been there. When we were in the house of Ines' sister where we usually stay in Santiago I was just sitting next to the only gas oven that exists, wrapped in blankets reading a book or the newspaper like a crabby grandfather. Fortunately we daily went to the city. One day to buy cloth for my wedding suit and clothes for Inés to wear at the marriage (we are going to be a damned pretty bridal couple), the other day to take the rare chance for us to go to the cinema. We watched 'X-Men'. It was the first movie I did see not in the original English version and Spanish subtitled but Spanish synchronized. Although I have not seen the first part of 'X-Men' I understood quite well and got the meaning of the movie which of I was a little proud.

After three days with big parts of Inés' family (which always is quite chaotic and not really relaxing) we had been quite happy to go back to our own warm and cosy house in Pucón but fate did not want to let us come back that easily. We missed the bus that left at night and so had to stay one more night in Santiago. The next day we had to take a bus connection with changing the bus, because their had not been a direct bus to Pucón during the day. Finally we reached there at midnight, tired but happy!

The next day I started working for the winter season. Now I am waxing skis and snowboards for the next three months. After working  the whole day  standing my back hurt terribly in the evening that I nearly could not move anymore. As it seemed I had caught a chill of my back in Santiago and for sure the long odyssey in the bus had done its bit as well. In the night I could sleep with pain killers only and the next days wore my kidney belt for the motorbike to warm and support my back to bear working the whole day. Meanwhile I can stand upright again and already gave my first skiing lesson (which I am doing too as well as guiding snowshoe hikes). My student was a Venezuelan woman who had touched snow the first time in her life that day. It was great fun and let me go for skiing again which I have not done for several years.