Ehh, I guess we just have to figure it out. By Aaron

Since Hans and I were starting to settle into a routine of shopping, exploring, touring, and staying at Hostel Dominica, it was obviously time to change things up.  As stated earlier, during the process (very long process, but I'll get to that later) of buying our vehicle we were offered a place to stay by two men, Cristian and Rodrigo.  So Thursday morning we woke up early and took a taxi to our new home base.  Of course in typical Chilean fashion, the taxi was 20 minutes late and it started to make these North Americans worry that they wouldn't get to the apartment before their friends went to work.  But in typical Chilean fashion, everything just worked out fine.   We got there as the guys were rushing around getting ready for work.  Cristian and Rodrigo have a third roommate, Fransisco, but even with 5 people in the apartment there seems to be plenty of room.  We are on the 18th floor and have a great view over part of the city.  The rest of Thursday was a day of relative rest and relaxation.  The money transfer for the vehicle had not gone through yet so nothing pressing was on the agenda.  We had some shopping to do, for supplies to keep us alive while we barge into the wilderness of the Patagonia, but the only place we knew where to go was a giant shopping mall.  Like shopping malls in the U.S., (which was exactly what this place was trying to be) the prices were to high.  The stores were mostly full of products and clothes, that if given the choice, I would rather live in a 5x8 room with 12 howler monkeys for a week than buy their products.  The rest of the day was spent at the apartment with the exception of when I went on a grocery run.  I dominated the grocery run; everything on my list was found at a good price.  And then I realized I had left my Nalgene bottle somewhere in the streets of Santiago.  It was a bummer, but I can be thankful I didn't lose something like a passport or a younger sibling.  At the apartment we watched the sun set and the lights come over the city and after a late snack with our friends we hit the hay.

    Today was full of ups and downs.  After breakfast we began our expedition of trying what we had on our shopping list: a skillet, ladel, spatula, plates, cups, a lighter, calculator, buckets, and a tarp. By the advice of Cristian we decided to try to "Chinese flea market", which is a market of products made by that industrious Oriental nation.  Once we arrived we couldn't find anything but clothes so we asked a vendor "Nececitamos platos and tazas.  Donde esta?"  He gave us some directions and then asked us if we were brothers, which happens to be about the 4th time it has happened on the trip.  We replied that we were just friends, to which he responded by questioning if we were more than friends.  I'm ready for the rest of the guys to get here so people will immediately recognize that we are a galavanting band of idiots and nothing more.  We eventually found the area of the market that had a store comparable to the famous Dirt Cheap of Atmore, Alabama.  For those of you that aren't familiar with Dirt Cheap, I am basically trying to say it was a loosely organized store with stuff just piled in places.  We were able to get a lot of our cooking utensils there for a great price and we went back to the apartment.  After a quick lunch we, again on the advice of Cristian, started heading for the previously visited shopping mall because it had an equidistant to Home Depot that we had missed yesterday.  On the way out we stopped by Jose Manuel's (the actual owner of our car) to figure out if he had gotten the money transfer in his bank.  We rang the doorbell and a women, hands full of wine glasses, opened the door and let us in.  I was immediately impressed with Jose Manuel.  The dapper, elderly gentlemen was sitting in his living room with about 5 women sitting around the room.  He appeared to be the ultimate ladies man.  I later learned that all the women were either married or related to him.  And as far as I learned, only one of the women was married to him.  He warmly greeted us and then called out "Aye, Cecelia!"  Cecilia was apparently the only women there that had any grasp of English.  The next 15 minutes consisted of Jose Manuel speaking in Spanish and a broken translation from Cecilia and me and Hans slowly catching on that 1. the money had been transferred but for some reason his bank wouldn't give it to him for 2 days, 2. he would be willing to just rent the car to us (we immediately nixed this idea when we finally figured out what he meant, 3. he was leaving on Monday for 4 days and would not be able to do the paperwork to officially give us the Subaru until next Friday.  This was very disheartening news since we were hoping to leave Santiago by Monday or Tuesday.  I became very frustrated and pretty ticked when I learned this but Hans reminded me on the way to the mall that God would work it out like he had everything else on this trip.  At the mall we got buckets and a tarp and thus concluded a very successful day of shopping.  Back at the apartment we waited for Cristian to come home from work so we could discuss what could be done.  He suggested that with a notarized approval we could get the title transferred to me without the presence of Jose Manuel.  This seemed like a great idea to us and decided to suggest it to Jose Manuel when we would see him later.  For supper we went for a walk and got a hot dogs from a stand on the street.  The US should really take some notes from Chilean hot dogs.  Our had guacamole  tomatoes, some sort of cabbage, tomatoes, and an extra choice of about 10 different Mayo and spices to put on top of that.  Delicioso!  When we returned, Cristian spoke with Jose Manuel and broke the news that there was really no way we could transfer the title until next Friday.  Since Jose Manuel could not get our money from his bank for 2 business days he was not willing to officially turn the car over until he got the money.  Understandable, but a bit frustrating since he knows our money is there.  He did, however, give us the paperwork and keys to the car because we wanted to leave by Monday or Tuesday.  This is our plan so far.   We can drive the car in Chile legally even though it is still under his name.  We are going to drive to the beautiful lakes district just north of Puerto Montt and camp for two or three days.  Then I, and possibly one other person, will take the 12 hour bus ride back and get the paperwork finalized on Friday.  We will take a bus back through the night and meet up with the car and the guys in Peurto Montt.  It's a bit annoying but it actually will work out to be just fine and not delay us at all.  God has provided once again so I'm not going to complain.  

PS We have a friend name Pedro Sandoval, from Harrisonburg Virginia, that had planned on coming for the first 6 weeks of this trip. Unfortunately, about a month before the trip he found out he has cancer in his back.  Please pray for him as he is now undergoing radiation treatment and continues his fight.