Chiloe, Chile.

Chiloe is a small island in southern patagonia, considered the beginning of the end of the world, a rugged island filled with a hard and certain people who have lived there lives surrounded by seafood and its trade.

I´m flying blind -- without a guidebook, which other experienced travellers find absolutely insane -- because I came here after seeing one sentence on a map. So the power of words have coerced me here, and I´m glad they did.

Chiloe and Chile have a certain ruggedness, a coldness and beauty that is both enigmatic and wonderfully omnipresent. It´s a place where no one extends a hand unasked or even says hello, but if you ask for a good supermarket to buy wine, you´ll prompt an intense back and forth on the merits of the town´s two respective supermarkets.

At the same time, there is warmth in unexpected places. The waitress called me and a fellow traveler "sons" after a short meal of huge lump king crab and scallops.

"I don´t have children," she says, smilingly broadly as she clears plates. She invited us to take a picture with her tomorrow, where she says she´ll put us next to the other Americans -- her other children.

The king crab and scallops, covered with parmesan cheese and butter sauce, were unbelievably fresh and huge servings greeted us for the equivalent of about 15 dollars each. I digress to food because fish and food are the lifeblood of these small towns I´m travelling, and the day centers around fish. The fish trade also reflects the general feeling from the people -- tough and efficient, unflailingly competent but content with hard work and the results they bear.

Why dont Americans travel?

It´s been bothering me that I run into few Americans in my travels here. There simply is no acceptable social construct for traveling abroad, unstructured. I read about 15 percent of Americans have a passport and the ones who do travel do so for structured reasons. Finding out about other cultures, having fun, exploring the world simply isn`t in our blood despite having the means to find out all we want.

Why is that?

In other news, Ive had a whirlwind tour with no photos to show for it because my camera died and I have no way to charge it. Sigh. Im currently in Ancud, Chile, where I saw an incredible display of nature today, pelicans diving into the water and scooping up fish, penguins waddling on small rough looking islands and sea otters clawing at mussels and fish floating on their back. Ancud is a rough, poor Chilean sea town and the main attraction is the penguins. So a 40 minute bus ride later and I was on a small motor boat pulling up alongside these little islands. The water was a phosporecent green, and the air cold and clean. It was an excellent outing.

As soon as possible, I will post photos from Iguazu Falls, one of the most amazing things I have ever seen.