Musings on bus trip and a hike

I have two diary entries that I want to essentially copy into the blog but i don`t think I shall have time, so i will give the first one if I can.

This is what i signed up for. I left (on the 26) from Biota Maule, an ecoreserve hostel sor of thing, and headed up to Cerro Peine (2450m). Biota Maule is located in Vilches Alto, about 2km from the entrance to Reserva Nacional Altos de Lircay. I am the only person here in this huge wood replica of a church in Chiloe (an island in patagonia), aside from the guy who works here, Camilo. They treat their water naturally, compost and are generally very conscious of the environment.
So I left just before 10am with trekking poles and some food and water as well as a few layers. the trail wound up through the different types of forest - one temporate and the other, located in the river valley, more jungle like. At the first lookout the lush forest was already below me, flanked by rocky, snowy peaks. As I looked straight out, the trees met the clouds and were smothered. Beyond that far below the clouds stretched until i could no longer see them - an ocean of white-grey out of which came small peaks of hazy hills, like islands emerging from the neverending blanket of clouds. I continued on and even the stout shrubbery dropped away among the hundreds of switchbacks. At a certain point the rocks marking the sketchy path blended in so much that I lost my way. I scrambled upwards several 100 meters until I hit the path again - only a few short moments of panic. Eventuallyl I passed a plateau of white crumbly rock that pointed my steep ascent to the summit. I stopped many times to both find my way and orent myself as I steped over black (volcanic?), red and green rock. I crossed some massive snowfields, that vertically stretched more than 50 feet. When I got to the summit - or just wshort of it I looked over the other sid and could see a small lake surrounded by massive majestic snoy mountains - the snow came all the way to the shores of the lak. Black, white, blue. The view from here is panoramic. I climbed higher and stood on a giant snowdrift and turned from the black and white, I turned 180 degrees to see the contrasting soft curves of the trees, green. I looked to the misty hills, to see the rivers winding through the deep forests. Two extremes and I inbetween. - white cold snow on frigid black lifeless rock; lush green brimming with life, forest. But the meltfrom the frigid apparently dead mountain snow is what gives life to the green on the other side of this frontier. on my descent, I skied on my boots, down snowfields, for fun and to cut down on the pounding of the descent.
Before I arrived in Vilches Alto I went to Talca. I sat in the bus station and got talked at by a street vendor. the first 15 minutes centred around the glory and prowess of the chilean military and the second 15 minutes, ironically was an elaborate attempt to make me believe in god!!! I tried not to get bitter but it was pretty frustrating - i didn`t bother arguing, i just smiled and said that i thought war was bad...
The bus from Santiago was better than a greyhound, took three hours and cost the equivalent of 6 canadian dollars. In contrast the bus from Talca to Vilches was a rickety old job, but comfortable nonetheless. Both busdrivers let street vendors come on the bus at stops and while loading, selling anything from icecream to crafts to tomatoes.
The rickety bus took 1.5 hours and picked up anything from old men to schol children. It is the only public transport that goes to the remote community - this was made obvious by the fact that everybody knew everybody else. As we laboured upward the paved road turned to a red mud, embedded with rocks and the driver dropped people right at their houses - permanent wood shacks, sometimes in groups, with corrugated metal roofs slapped on, surrounded by small gardens.
Well thats time for there is a whole lot more to say but it will have to wait until i come down from the volcano!