Hi everyone - it´s been a while but we´re back to share some more fun from our adventures. Hope you´re all happy, healthy and enjoying the holiday season! Now Aaron wants to relate one of his (and my) favorite stories from the trip thus far. Take it away, Red...

Back in early November, Melissa and I took on a hike that we were a bit under prepared for. After mistranslating "lots of snow at the top" as "lots of rain at the top", I began to realize my error about 3/4 of the way through our ascent. We were hiking up a small mountain in Parque Huerquehue in the lake district of Chile and, after slogging through lots of mud, we started seeing patches of snow. Patches turned into trail covered stretches, and Melissa was starting to get annoyed with either me or the unfavorable conditions, probably both. Our light hiking shoes were pretty wet. Finally, we turned a bend and saw our trail disappear into a snowy bank. As I turned to see the expression on Melissa´s face, I was cringing. Was this the end of the line?

"Oh. What?! No. No way. That´s it," with a shrug and defiant tone, "I´m done. I can´t do that."

Ahead of us, 15 feet or so, a woman stood at the base of the incline and lamented, shouting to three other members of her tour group that had already summited the worst of it.

It was looking grim.

"Hon, you can do this."

"No, Aaron, I cannot do this. And, I know that you saying I can do this really means you want to do this, and I don´t blame you for wanting to go up to the top of the hike, but, I´m telling you that I know what I can do--"

"But--"

"No, Aaron, I know what you are going to say, so just don´t," closed eyes, shaking head, "I - can - not - do - this."

At this point, the tour guide from the delayed group ahead of us had come back down to help out the last of his crew. He pulled on one end of a walking stick and the woman, clutching the other end, feebly followed. I considered telling Melissa that if this woman could do it, so could she. Just about then, the woman fell backwards and slid screaming, erasing her 10 feet of progress in dramatic fashion.

"Es imposible!" she yelled, from her prone and inverted position.

Melissa was not looking happy - this clearly wasn´t the sort of encouragement she needed. Thanks a lot, Mr. Tour Guide. I wanted to see for myself how hard this was. I headed for the most trodden part of the embankment and followed the well stomped steps. It was steep, but in about 30 seconds, I was near the top.

I came back down. I waited a bit. And then, Melissa agreed to try it! I was very proud of her.

We began our climb - her in front, me behind providing artificial support, going one careful step at a time and never looking down.

Pictures will do a better job describing what we saw at the top but let´s just say it was more than worth it. You can find photos of our hike, and the summit, in this photo collection:
http://picasaweb.google.com/aaronboydyo/2007112118AroundPucNAndCollipulli

As for how we would get back down (on Melissa´s mind as soon as we got to the top) it was easiest to just slide on our jackets. Video of Melissa here (her first sledding experience):
http://video.google.es/videoplay?docid=-4184233498197143378&hl=es

A week or so later, we were in Valdivia, Chile, a pretty university town south of Pucon. And then came Bariloche, Argentina - wow! - views that really live up to expectations. We took many photos, and some video:
(pics) http://picasaweb.google.com/aaronboydyo/20071191115ValdiviaAndBariloche
(video) http://video.google.es/videoplay?docid=-351576861924611022&hl=es

We´ve got some more pics and stories to share from our fantastic T-giving with the Boyds + Hut, hanging on the beach in Argentina and our first couple weeks in Ecuador so stay tuned...

xoM+A