Segundo- Vino, Mar, y Montanas

---This blog is still being written on a public computer, in South America, and that any type of editing, or spell check is impossible, unless of course I write the whole thing in Spanish, but that would be detrimental to the entire point of writing this blog for my friends and family in the USA. Dontcha think?---

So Megan and I have arrived in Punta Arenas. The southern most city in all of Chile. It definitely has an End of the World feeling. Its not quite as far South as Argentina´s Ushiaia which is the base point for all Antarctic travel, but for Chile is the farthest south for any town of size. It is located right on the Straight of Magellan and is the equivalent of being on the panhandle of Alaska, located at 54 degrees south. Traveling has really opened my eyes to the reason why I have studied/loved history for so long. It really brings alive all the places I go. Being able to walk along the Straight of Magellan for example whispers the past of one of the most epic undertakings by any humans-the first circumnavigation of the globe. But trying to imagine what this desolate land, now called Tierra del Fuego (the Land of Fire), was like before any settlement is almost unnerving. In February in the south the sun is up and shining from 7am-11pm and its hot. But when the clouds roll in it totally becomes another season, and it is windy. Really, really, windy. It has to be 40-60mph gusts. For example, walking down the street is a constant battle of trying to lean far enough into the wind so you can continue, but then as the gust disperses you have to stumble not to fall on your face. A second later the gusts will hit you in the back and send you jogging a couple steps before you complete stop because you get hit in the face again. It would be hilariously fun if it wasnt so annoying. However, the easiest way to spot tourist vs locals is who can keep a constant pace in the wind because everyone is usually covered in a windbreaker of some sort. But the town is full of extremely happy, and friendly Chileans, and really reminds me of Alaska, as i guess it should. However, this is not where I left off.

After we finally made it back to Mendoza the second time the weather was completely different than what we are experiencing now. As I briefly described last time, Mendoza is an Oasis in the steppe of the Andes, a true Island in the Desert, one that Phoenix should be jealous of. It has very fresh water that comes down from the Andes and waters ever inch of its beautiful treelined streets and many parks. But as we arrived we met up with our new friend Ozlem. She is a fellow traveler from Germany who we had met in BsAs and ran into again in Mendoza. Once we were reunited our first goal was to find the Godzilla burger. And as the country that eats the most beef out of any in the world Argentines love to flaunt it. They took the Big Mac from McD´s and created the Triple Mac (really, just more beef), and all over Mendoza were ads for the Godzilla Burger which is essentially a double bigmac, 3 pieces of bread, 4 patties, less than 4 bucks. It was at a Mendoza fast food chain called Kingo. Although not the best thing ive ever eaten, it was still an epic undertaking, little did I know that the most epic meal of my life was coming the very next day.

So the last time we were in Mendoza we only had hours before we had to rush back to BsAs to deal with my stolen passport which meant we missed hooking up with Katie Shea, our friend from Redlands. So this time we made sure that we were not gonna miss a good time Bulldogging in Sur Americano. Katie works out in one of Mendoza´s/Argentinas most premiere Vineyards called Bodega Zuccardi. It is truly epic. She made us some reservations for Lunch and a free tour with her at 230 in the afternoon on a sunny Saturday. We decided to spend the morning cruising around Maipu, which is the neighboring town to Mendoza to the South where most of the wine production actually happens. So after lots of discussion with some locals we figured out which bus to jump on and 45 minutes later we were in the middle of nowhere, on a dirt road, and no vines in site. So with a crappy little map with about 12 roads on it for a 100 sqkilo area we took off in search of a vineyard. After another hour or so we actually made it to the Maipu center which was gorgeous, full of flowers and fountains in the middle of the desert. And after even more walking we found a winery, but it turns out it didnt even produce wine anymore...At Bodega Giol we took a really cool tour of essentially a winery museum. There were giant casks, about 8,000liters, and over 200 of them! So we got to check that out, and then after tasting 4 different wines we rushed off to the first car ride of our entire trip.

About 40 minutes later we arrived out of town at the Family Bodega Zuccardi (seriously, check out their website). It is probly the premiere bodega in all of Argentina. And as we pulled up we saw the only blond girl in a 100km, miss Katie Shea! She was in her uniform and had to give a tour, but she was kind enough to walk us to the middle of the vineyard where the restaurant is located. Then began the most epic meal of my life. 

When we sat down we were already a little out of place as three young, dusty travelers sitting next to two types of people: couples in their 30-60´s swirling wine, or families with lots of diamonds and rolex´s. Then began the one price, all you can eat, epic mealtime. IT began with a white wine, we chose Savignon Blanc, which was amazing to go with the breadsticks and 3 types of homemade olive oil (we thought this was all table decorations it was arranged so nice). Then came the empanadas. Three types of empanadas, cheese, cheese and beef, and cheese and onion. All three were better than the others. Unbelievable what you can do with a little bread and cheese. I only ate 4 because we had 3 more courses coming. The second course was a giant bowl of fresh greens, tomatoes, carrots, the works, that we were able to drizzle that super fresh olive oil on, and a giant skillet of roasted zuccini, yams, potatoes, onions, some other unknowns. By this time we were on our 1st red which is the standard Santa Julia Reserva Malbec. Pretty fantastic, ultra smooth, and Im pretty sure one of their lowest end wines. Only partially through the second course came the Argentine specialty-the endless train of grilled meats. AT this point Megan had decided she was going to forgo her 2 year vegetarianism for this epic display. There was so much here that I cant even remember the specifics in the meat fog. WE had a couple different kinds of sausage, a couple different types of pork, baby goat at one point, the best prime rib Ive ever had, and it was all you can eat. This part was a problem for me, because the entire wait staff only spoke spanish, and were at 2-3 year old equivalent spanish, and I really wanted more of the Prime rib that was served before the baby goat. The request went something like ¨Beef yesterday babygoat.¨ while the waitress and everyone else just broke into laughter, but she got the idea. I will now never forget “antes de” (before the). At some point during this swirling meat buffet we got our next wine, this time another red but the grape is called a Tempranillo. And I thought Malbec was good. IF you have never had Tempranillo, you need to try it. IF you dont like red wine, its probly because you have never had a Tempranillo. Its really, really good. So we finished the meat buffet, 3 different wines, a couple hours, and we had our last course. Dessert. Although it was nothing special it was still some of the best ive had in S. America. Sweet bread with vanilla Argentine gelato (homemade) covered with mango chutney. They also served us this dessert wine (usually im not a fan), but it was pretty fantastic and unusually dry for dessert wines. Then they served us some fantastic Argentine coffee, and we were in food coma. The only thing that got lighter was our wallets a bit.

AFter this 3 hour ordeal we were set to receive a free tour by miss Katie Shea so we had to roll ourselfs down the road, out of the vineyard to where the office, and production goes on. On the walk we were able to pick grapes off the vine to our hearts content to try to cope with the imminent meat sweats. We got to the office and met up with KAtie and all the other awesome tour guides and she whisked us off for a tour. Compared to Giol, this place was prime. All organic, super streamlined, and state of the art. We got to see all the giant tanks where the Santa Julia Reserva was fermenting (our wines at lunch), see some guys dumping grapes into the converbelts for juicing, the giant stem collection that the Argentines make Gruppa out of (a super strong liquor 45-60% alcohol), and the 2 coolest rooms the Santa Julia “Q” and “Zeta”. Both the Q and the Zeta are their premiere wines, the Zeta even more than the Q and the difference is all in the fermentation process. Both rooms were huge air conditioned warehouses stacked to the roof with Oak casks. For the Q they use French and American Oak for their casks and up to 3 batches in the same casks. Pretty awesome, gives them some great flavor and awesome smoothness. The Zeta, however, is only fermented in 1st use American Oak and goes for about $200 a bottle. Super fine. Once our tour was complete we headed back to the shop for some more wine tasting.

WE got a little preferential treatment here cause we knew a girl who knew some people. But our wine list included some Torrentes (the premiere white grape of Argentina), more Tempranillo (you gotta try it), the Malbec Q (much nicer, smoother, more complicated than the Reserva), another great dessert wine (16.5%), and the renowned Zeta (its a blend of 75% malbec, 25% Sav Cab). The Zeta was really noticeably better than all the other wines. Im not a huge wine taster, but you could tell this was quality. IF you wanted to just drink it, the Zeta was the smoothest wine you ever had with almost 0 sourness/bitterness at the aftertaste. But if you wanted to break it down, it had the most complicated flavor of any of the wines. You could taste the oak, plums, chocolate, raspberry, so much in such a short time and the color was an incredible dark maroon with legs that dripped for minutes.  Then we headed out, got to check out Katies sweet digs in the middle of the vineyard, and then caught a cab with Zuccardi´s pimp driver Carlitos back into town for some shenanigans.

Although, everyone is waiting for epic bulldogging stories we were pretty beat up from our epic lunch and after heading to a restuarant on the hip Avenida Avidentes called Taco Tabasco (which didnt have any Tabasco, just wanted to point that out) we werent in the best shape for an all night Argentine evening. So instead we drank beers, exchanged stories, and had a merry time wandering from street table, to street table. Had some bomb Mojitos and called it a night and said our goodbyes for a couple days when we would meet up again for awesome Mexican/taco night at our hostel full of Tequila and good ol Mexican times.

Katie and her equadorian friend, Gaby, brought another Canadian named Matt to our hostel while we were packing for our journey off to Santiago. Long story short, it wasnt long before the grill was full of chicken and meat, guacamole was being blended in the kitchen and the bulldogs were teaching a lot of different nationalities the rules of Kings cup. On tap this evening was a beer called Iguana which is one of the cheaper choices in South America. That is one thing that there are choices of down here is beer. Every region/country has several beers and one unique to its own area. In Argentina the beer of choice is Quilmes which isnt too bad. They are all lagers and can be compared to different versions of Coors light, Bud light, Stella Artois, Rolling Rock, etc. Most of them are better than there american counter parts and everyone has their favorite. In Mendoza the Brew of choice is Andes and is pretty good. So we got a couple rounds of Kings in which was a grand ol time. Later into the evening I traded the last of my tabasco sauce for 2 shots of tequila, because although it was a Mexican taco night, the spiciest thing in Argentina is black pepper. We ended up having an awesome night talking in spanish while listening to argentines reply in English and had a pretty great language exchange. WE had to wake up at 630 am for our bus and made it to bed only a couple hours before we had to get up. In the middle of our couple hours of slumber we were woken up by one of the crazy microstorms that hit Mendoza. It was literally 40-50 mile an hour gusts slamming windows open, breaking glass, and you could hear tree branches ripping off of trees. After getting woken up and running around closing windows and cleaning up glass we finally got some sleep before one of the most epic bus rides of my life.

WE had bought our tickets about a week in advance for only one reason-to get the front. The bus system in Argentina and Chile is epic. Super effiecent, connects everywhere, really cheap, and all buses are 2 story and the front seat is a WALL of glass. you sit a little infront of the driver and waaaaaay in front of the wheels. So literally you are in a glass bubble in front of everything. The drive up the andes in one of the greatest passes ever was spectacular. We slowly left the plains of Mendoza and crept up the foothills and into the mountains. The Andes (at least in this small sliver of their epic north-south journey) are a cross between the Sierras with their steepness, and little vegetation, and the rockies, with their incredible colors, but really no way to describe. We headed up and the rivers turned more and more beautiful and blue. There were sections of incredible spots of vibrant oranges, reds, and purple dirt and rocks. Then it would fade back to what I would call “regular” mountains. This went on for quite awhile, and then we would zigzag next to rivers with incredible plateaus from the erosion all the way to the border crossing between Argentina and Chile which is the continental divide. So once the rivers because tiny trickles we stopped in a little town that looked a whole lot like Silverton Colorado and we were all forced out of the bus.

Anyone you talk to about the Chile/Argentine border always talks about how strict Chile is and you hear stories of people getting huge fines and getting held for hours and having to bribe their way out. So its well know that you cannot bring any produce in. So in line everyone is munching down on a whole bunch of fruits and checking and double checking their bags to make sure theyre “clean”. We were no different and I was actually a little curious to see what would happen considering I had a passport that was about 5 days old and not one stamp in the whole thing. Finally, got up and passed the customs officer my passport and my police report and he essentially was very confused how I got into the country. So they took my passport and took me to another backroom where i had to wait while they looked up my immigration date to make sure I legally got into the country. After about 10 minutes or so my passport got its first stamp, and Megan and I were the last ones into the room full of dogs sniffing everyones stuff. MEgan really had to go to the bathroom so she left and I headed to the room alone. We put our bags up on a table and the dog jumped up and runs the length of the room with a whole lot of intimidating officers stomping around in calfhigh leather boots. Finally, after the sniffing we put our bags in a xray machine, I had some MAte and half a loaf of bread so I asked one of the officers if that was ok and he assurred me it was. So we stick out bags through, everyone gets there then one of the officers hold mine up and is like ¿Quien es este? So i raise my hand. And as he is digging through I tell him I only have Mate and Bread then he pulls out an orange and totally gives me a tilted head, caught red-handed look. Mal la Leche!! So he roughly asks me my named and finds my declaration paper, and sassily asks me if I declared everything while holding it in my face. I was trying to tell hiim I didnt know, then he tears up the piece of paper in my face, and makes me fill one out and declare 1 naranja. Then tells me No Problemo and lets me get on the waiting bus. We made it to Chile.

The ride down to Santiago might have been even more incredible than the ride up. We pop out next to a ski resort with just impossibly towering cliffs on all sides then we begin the 32 switchback road down, next to a ski lift the entire time. This was the best(for me) and worst (for everyone else) as the driver went inches from the edge of the no guardrail road. As I said earlier, we were in the front and every turn we would stick waaaaaaaaay out over the cliff as the bus made the turn. Totally awesome, and they even decided to serve a cold cut sandwich and coffee during this portion while impossibly blue creeks tumbled down the mountains. Then we dropped down in the desert on our way to Santiago and got to see some Saguaro cacti and a nice little feeling of nostalgia. (pretty sure santiago is right on the redlands, Arizona, New Mexico lattitude, the desert is very similar. We made it to the bus station, then immediatley bought out tickets for Pichilemu that evening. After waiting for about 3.5 hours and having the bus be late again we jumped on and headed down south and our first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean. 

Before I continue, there are some immediate and striking differences between Argentina and Chile that are noticeable almost immediately (at least thats all we could gawk/talk about while waiting for our bus). The first is the money situation, everyone warned us that Chile was more expensive (and it is) but the inflation is totally different than Argentina. I went to the ATM and pulled out $200,000Clp. So I was balling. The largest bill is a $10,000 so I had a fatty wad of cash. To make this even better in Spanish “thousand” is translated to “mil” so I was literally a mil”ionaire”. Everything then is between 1000-9000 pesos, and with the conversion of about 491 pesos to 1 USD everything is a buck to about 20. Still not to shabby. The other differences is that Chileans look more “Chilean” than Argentines. What I mean by this is they all look very similar. They are usually darker, pretty short (im now the tallest person in most instances), and they are, as my mom would call them, fluffy. Argentines in comparison are very European (lots of Italian, Irish, Croatian immigrants over the past 100´s of years) and the cities and towns are as blended as the USA. You have lots of “white” argentines, but they are all mixed with something which leads to a total melting pot and most of them are gorgeous, thin, and dress to their best all the time. Chileans are noticeably not as attractive, and very few are in shape. We soon learned their favorite foods are white bread (everyone talks about how many breads they had for lunch, usually 1-4), ice cream (which is just as gelatoy dankness as argentina), and empanadas (here the main difference between Argentina and Chile is that all the Empanadas in Chile are fried). The Spanish is also a big different the “sh” for “ll” and “y” that Argentines use (po”sh”o for chicken, and shamo for llamo) are non existent and they actually speak a little slower and it has been easier for me to understand. But then we were on our 4 hour bus ride through the rolling hills and the major agriculture region of Chile on our way to Pichilemu, and had a gorgeous sunset then we arrived.

Ive always mentioned this to Megan as we get off the Subway, but arriving in a place that you have never been before, with no real plans on what you are going to do when you get there, and the sun going down wells up a feeling inside of you that you can only experience while traveling to a new place, and we happen to do this several times a week, day, hour. ITs a mixture of excitement, wonder, and terror as you try to piece it all together and it is only exacerbated when you cannot speak the language. This creates every situation to be more frantic, epic, and when you finally solve somthing, incredibly rewarding. So because our bus was late and made tons of stops on the 4 hours down to Pichilemu (Pichi from now on), it was late, pitch dark, and about 11pm at night when we rolled into Pichi. We had nothing more than an address of our hostel, knew it was near the center of town, and had read/heard from someone that the bus station was pretty far out of town. So after realizing we were close and seeing a main street of tons of people we decided to get off at a random bus stop. I tried asking the driver if he knew where the street in question was and he just laughed, told me no, and drove off. So the three of us with our giant backpacks headed toward the bustle main street of Pichi in the summertime. After crusing for a block or so we Asked a lady at a street stall if she knew our road and after a couple words turns out she spoke a little english. We were only a couple blocks away and it intersected the street we were on! This is one of those extremely rewarding moments. So we headed down to the Casino (the first ever in Chile, now an old library, but huge landmark in Pichi), took a right and were welcomed by Carlos and Vivian, two of the greatest souls on the planet. 

Pichi was by far on of the greatest weeks/places/vibes/etc I have ever spent in a place. I will try to describe it briefly to save your eyes, but im essentially in love with the place. The hostel we stayed at was run by Carlos and his wife Vivian who also run a tourism information store out of the bottom, Carlos is a god by surfer standards. He owns a great hostel, rents out boards, knows all the best breaks, is an incredibly friendly guy, and goes surfing at least once a day year round. I had many great conversations with him where neither of us really could speak so we just acted a whole bunch. Pichi is home to a surf break called Punta de Lobos which Quicksilver hosts a prosurfer competition at every year april-may time. Then there are several intermediate breaks, most notably Puntilla, which still has 2-4 meter waves most of the time, and the beginner break which is waist to head deep for half a mile and has the little waves to learn on. The Pacific down here is absolutley stunning. Super cold, Super blue, and really not that salty. Pichi can be compared to Buena Vista in the sense that for 3 months out of the year (the summer), every Chilean takes a trip down to Pichi to hang out on the beach and eat. Very few go swimming, some try surfing, but mostly they just hang around, eat, and party hard. 

Our main reason for heading to Pichi was to visit a highschool friend of mine (who I had not seen, spoke to, or contacted, since 2004, before deciding to visit him). He was a great guy then, still a great guy now. Sean Mackenzie snagged an English teaching job at a local language school in Pichilemu. After our first meeting, we saw him walking on the street with his surf board, he told us to head to the school to check it out. The school is awesome, owned by a couple from America named Chris and Val. They have had the school for 7 years now and are raising their 2 awesomely adorable kids in Chile, and running a language school that teaches english and spanish. In Pichi there is a huge culture that comes from everywhere only to surf its epic waters. So there are plenty of foreigners, and there is a pretty strong interest to learn English for the Chileans, if only to make more money. So it works out. Chris agreed to give us a 20% discount on spanish lessons cause we knew a guy who knew a guy, and after getting the cheapest deal on surfboards from Carlos in Viv, in only 1 day we were now spanish speaking surf prodigies. 

And thats how it went. Everyday we would wake up, go surfing for a couple hours, then eat food (usually Avacados), then go take Spanish lessons, and then hang out with Sean and do something super awesome. IT was perfect. And a quick note on Avacados. The three stores I frequented the most in Pichilemu, in order, was a Fruiteria (which had the first spicy peppers in South America and about as hot as an Anaheim), a Chicken shop (which sold a KILO [2.2lbs] of avacados for 800 clp [$1.50USD], and the only baked Empanada stand in town (right across the street, 5 ovens in the back, and a super great jolly old man working the place). And for that avacado deal we could not believe it. We bought 4 bags the first two days we were there. We made guacamole for everything. Turns out Seans favorite thing was to get some snacks. He always wanted to buy snacks (usually peanuts, bread, and cookies). But the first day, we got a kilo of avos and made guac. Then for lunch the next day we had another kilo and more guac. Then that night we got invited to a BBQ at Chris´s house up on top of the hill (where all the locals camped out from the Tsunami a couple years ago), over looking the ocean, with tons of great surfer folk. So naturally we brought a kilo of meat, half a watermelon, and a kilo of Guac. AT this point on day 3 I achieved a natural body wonder, that I know half of the people in California I know would be jealous of. My poo turned green from soo much avacado. IT was truly incredibly. For less than 5 dollars and I eaten almost ONLY avacado for 6 meals or so. Epic. That wasnt even my favorite part of Pichi. 

After hitting the beginner break for a few days I was finally starting to figure out the surf thing a little bit. I had pretty good timing, I could stand up, and could ride the waves for the little bit they existed. So on one of the final days I asked Sean if I could join him for a surf out in Puntilla (intermediate, not quite Punta De Lobos). So we headed out, still not the most mellow place to surf. Everyone you talk to about surfing, if you have never surfed Pichi, talks about the “corrientes” or the current, and at Puntilla is what they are talking about. So to surf here you walk way out to a point about a ¾ to 1 mile from the beach, walk out on some rocks, jump off on your board and start paddling to the waves that break off the point. I knew I had to do some duck dives (this is when a surfer goes under a wave to avoid getting pushed back), but soon I realized I had to learn them fast. So after 5-10 minutes of paddling we made it to the waves. The way the break at Puntilla works is its a left breaking wave (surfers left), which means you want to surf from right to left to stay infront of the whitewater and on the green wave. So we started on the surfers right on shore, paddled out, and our goal was to get to surfers left to be out of the break, so we could catch our breath and wait for a wave to catch. This meant that during that journey 6 to 9 foot waves would be crashing on you and you had to go beneath them. I got tossed, literally, for the first couple. ITs like being hit by a semi and thrown into a tornado for like 15 seconds until you resurface and get back on your board before another one comes. So after a couple beatings I necessarily learned how to semi duckdive to not get pummeled. We made it out to the break, and the waves are just massive (remember this is my beginner surfer view, but still huge). The first round out I didnt really catch anything, Although I was able to go 100mph just laying on my board until the current caught me and I had to paddle back to shore which takes 30 plus minutes anyway. Then after walking about a mile back to the point, catching my breath, Sean came back in after he got swept out too and we decided to head back out. I was a little more prepared this time after being humbled by Grand Daddy Pacific and I was able to make it out to the break. Although I didnt get a beautiful glassy, carving surf, I was able to conquer some 6 foot wave and ride the whitewater, just in time to see one of our American amigos get an incredible ride on his longboard. I finally understand the epicness that is surfing. After talking to so many people that love it so much, its not quite digestable until you are out on the cusp and can actually experience it. Amazing.

The final highlights of Pichi included hitchhiking out to Punta de Lobos with a couple bottles of wine to watch the epic surf and the huge rocks in the fading twilight. Catching a ride back in the back of a truck with tunage, and wine. Baking pizzas for the first time in South America at Seans house for hours. Riding the Carnival rides in Pichi that would never pass inspection in the USA. Hearing a truck with a loudspeaker drive around town EVERYDAY announcing the last show of the brand new circus (which was 80 years old). Watching the Super bowl at some random bar after being denied from so many others. Getting a couple pitchers of beer and learning the word “flacca” which means skinny person, and is HUGE compliment in Chile. We had horrible service in the bar until I started calling our server Flacca. And finally, instead of taking the bus back we caught a ride with German Olli who is this crazy guy who is setting up salon/lounges at shopping malls in Chile and just tries to travel around the world and surf all the time. Total German. A great and very interesting guy to talk to on the 3 hours back to Santiago. 

Finally, Before we headed south to Punta Arenas we spent 1 night in Santiago and there are a couple of extraordinary things to mention about this place. First of its transportation. IT is one of the most well organized cities in the world. I actually studied its system a whole bunch in my Environmental Science classes. But the highways are like 8 lanes and have DEDICATED lanes for public transportation. 2-3 lanes that only buses and taxis can use. Every trashcan in the city and airport has waste, plastic and aluminum, and paper recycling. The subway is super clean, and connects the whole city (totally opposite of Buenos Aires). And overall just a very pleasant place (although I have heard many stories of theft and other sketchy things). Then finally, we jumped on a plane and flew to Patagonia.

AFter finally making it to Patagonia after a month of hot weather and big cities, we caught a ride into Punta Arenas. IT had been raining and a crazy landing on the plane but a couple minutes from town it was all worth it. The Straight of Magellan welcomed us with a beautiful full rainbow resting above the water, as if opening its arms for us into Patagonia. Hopefully, it was a sign of our next travels to come as we head north to Torres Del Paine, El Bolson, and the rest of Argentina once again. 

Ciaoito Amigos,

Nic and Megan

P.S. - Thx for reading, and I heard some folks couldnt comment, try clicking on the 0 comments? maybe? but if you have any questions, comments, concerns, we´d love to hear them. It is the eve of us taking off for the Circuit Grande in Torres Del Paine National Park. So we are going to do about 65 miles in 8 days. It should be grand. Catch you all soon, and keep the sunshine on your shoulders.