Today, Thursday, April 18, we have gone as far south as we will go.  We drove the Pan American to the end.  The Pan American ends in southern Chile on the island of Chiloe.  We took a ferry to the island and drove south until the only option was turn around or wait for the next ferry to the Carretera Austral.  The ferry to the Carretera Austral is a 12 hour ride and it does not run all the time now that it is going into winter.  The road south once the ferry takes you across, is 1400 miles further on a gravel road to the very tip.  The weather here is cold, very windy, rainy and getting more like winter every day.  We are here out of season and most things are closed, like gas stations and stores.

We stopped and took a photo and had a little time of reminiscing and we came up with some things we have learned on this trip and here they are:

1. Everyone in the entire world eats hot dogs, french fries and drinks Nescafe.
2. People make out everywhere here, old people, teens, in cars, on blankets, on benches – some cities have parks devoted to making out called Love Parks.
3. Freedom is not that important to a lot of people
4. Putamyo has it all wrong.  Music of the Coffee Lands should include Young Turks, Gangnam Style and Karma Chameleon.
5. Every email address we have gotten in SA has been hotmail
6. People in Colombia do not have window screens
7. While some places look spectacular, most of the places look normal and unremarkable.
8. Sylvia LOVES shish kabobs.  She has an entire main lesson book featuring crayon drawings of shish kabobs
9. No one in Peru drinks cold drinks, always room-temperature soda and beer.
10. People in Colombia have never seen a camper trailer
11. Musica romanitca is instrumental versions of American songs played on traditional Andean instruments and played everywhere.  The most popular are Dust In the Wind, Hotel California and El Condor Pasa but the list is long (usually 80’s power ballads) and we are bringing back CDs!
12. Tomato sauce in every country includes lots and lots and lots of sugar
13. All the $2 bills and Sacagawea dollars end up in Ecuador.  Sacagawea looks very much like an Ecuadorian woman with her baby.  The Sacagawea dollar was coincidentally chosen the same year Ecuador decided to use US money.  Coincidence?  We don’t think so.  See photos below!
14. Everybody has Facebook
15. Dolls are always white skinned – why??  If I had a million dollars, I would open a dark-skinned doll factory.
16. In Colombia, women wore shoes that matched their shirt every day.  They must have a lot of shoes.
17. You pronounce cuy “kweee” just like the guinea pig sounds
18. In Peru, everyone checks every piece of money for being a counterfeit
19. Manjar, oh we have learned so much about manjar.  We even learned to like it.  Somewhat.  Some of us more than others.  It is everywhere and in everything.
20. Everything comes in a plastic bag, not a bottle or jar.  Bags of water, ketchup, jelly, mayo, tomato sauce, manjar…
21. There are many species of cavy.  They are all different and they are actually different species, they do not breed
22. The extreme ingenuity and work ethic of people in Peru, long days, hard work, hardly any pay and people are happy
23. Many words are hard to translate (like, about, too, so)
24. If you wear an outfit like this, it makes you instantly look like a fascist.