South American Update

Here I am at the bottom of the earth, where Magellan sailed through the maze of waterways to find a route to the other side of his world. For me, it seemed to take almost as long to get here: 8 hours San Francisco to Lima, 4 hours Lima to Santiago , 4 hours Santiago to Punta Arenas, 7 hours, this time by car, to Estancia Tercera Barranca.

Patagonia is big and windy... It is difficult to open the car doors, it is so windy. There is, not surprisingly, no Wi-Fi here. There is no electricity past 1:00 AM, no problem, and no telephone at all ... just radio contact. Not a good place to have an emergency, though I am sure they can handle just about anything.

I am here with Viviana Guzman. We have a concert in a few days in Frutillar and thought it would be nice to have this little adventure while recovering from the long trip to Chile.

I'm sitting in front of the wood stove now, listening to the wind outside. Viviana has gone to another building to play her flute. Piano is another story. There is one in this park actually, about 2 hours from here, and we will go there either tomorrow or the next day so that we can rehearse together. I need to show her the new piece I wrote in Venice, "Tango Venezia," that keeps going through my head.

Later
We did go to rehearse, with an appointment at the chic Explora Club, nestled above a waterfall and with a view that is priceless, though a room costs $1200 per day with a four day minimum. We arrived in the early afternoon and went through our set, attracting an appreciative small crowd. The stalwart Steinway hated any key with more than two flats. For lunch we were served an impeccably presented sandwich and then perused the low key and understatedly elegant surroundings. There was a quotation on the wall to the effect that we travel in order to come back to where we started and see it as if for the first time. Nice.

Alas, there were no rooms available and so we drove on to a nearby place that was a nightmare compared to the dream we had been in....noisy, cold, with inedible food that tasted of old grease. Viviana got sick in the cold and I didn't sleep at all.

So, here we are now in the lovely little lodging where we started out and it all seems to have gone by so quickly. I just looked at my photos and see the condors and guanaco and ostrich type birds and lambs and sheep and horses and endless vistas of mountains, glaciers and big sky.