I'm thinking about everyone back home today, and hoping you have happy thanksgivings full of great food and family and friends. I was thinking it felt weird to be away from home today, but really I've only been home for Thanksgiving once in 7 years, so it's not that--I guess it's just being so far away from everyone I know, not family specifically.

But the good news is that I ran into some friends from the Inca Trail a few days ago, and have had dinner with them and new friends from the Ruta 40 trip the past two nights. They all headed off to the park today, but I met an American couple in my hostel this morning, and we're making Thanksgiving dinner together tonight! We're planning on canned corn, tomato soup (from a package of concentrate), mashed potatoes, stuffing, and apple pie and ice cream. Pretty standard stuff, except that the spices might be a little off in the stuffing, and the apple pie has raisins in it! This will all be accompanied by Chilean wine, of course.

I'm headed off to the park tomorrow, so will be out of touch until next Wednesday, 12/1, at least. There are a ton of new pictures up in both the Lake District (starting on page 6) and Patagonia sections, but not all are rotated/captioned yet. I probably won't upload pix again until Buenos Aires, as internet is getting slower and more expensive as I head south!