Año Nuevo

I am writing from Chile, where we´ve been for a few days. Holly and I got to the little beach town of Arica, Chile on Tuesday and have been chillin on the beach. Not a bad way to spend some vacation time. Yesterday we rented bikes and rode along the shore to the end of the road. There´s a bike trail that goes further along the coast and passes a bunch of caves and tide pools. Farther on, there´s a colony of sea lions just hanging out on the rocks. It reminded me of the coastline of northern California, except it´s totally desert here-no vegetation. We ate fish at a restaurant that the guy was cleaning when we got there-fresh outta the ocean. This morning, we hopped on a bus to a mountain village called Putre at the foot of a national park with volcanoes and lakes. Very beautiful. But when we got here, we discovered the town was empty because everyone goes into Arica to party for nuevo año! We are still working on getting a ride up to the park to do some hiking and sightseeing with a dutch couple and an crazy italian named Guiseppi. I need to get back to Arequipa and Cusco by Sunday to start working in the clinic, so I imagine there´ll be alot of bus riding this weekend. Holly is going to continue down through Chile, making stops at the salt flats in Uyuni salt flats in Bolivia, the beach town La Serena in Chile, and others as she makes her way to Santiago. We´re separating again...Qué triste! We´ll be celebrating the new year and thinking of all the great people who have been supporting us and have been excited to follow along our journeys. All the best in ´09!!!