USA - Pacific North West

Walking has now pretty much ceased in hope that my Abductor Digiti Minimi stops hurting. I strained it (or something with an equally stupid name) in my foot shortly after getting here whilst checking out my new walking boots. So I am being as cautious as possible and looking in to insurance cover to get some treatment from a heinously expensive podiatrist (although those prices are normal - it is the US..). I am really hoping that this will not impact on South America - as it is possibly one of the worst muscles I could pull given the hiking plans.

Other than that frustration, it is glorious to be able to spent time with Nika at long last. I have just had the privilege of meeting Nika's parents over the weekend and I was given a water tour of the locality by Rodger (Nika's dad) on his 'Vessel Assist' boat, as well as having a barbecue, eating out, seeing a film, reading and doing lots of nothing in between. We enjoyed a couple days of sun as the north west still seems to be dragging its self out of the winter greyness.

I am slowly collecting the last bits of equipment that I need for South America, making use of sales and the internet to regularly find items at half the price - until post and packaging is added - then I might as well just go to the shop and get it full price.

The house Nika lives in is full of the outdoor type, who just this weekend competed in a 7 leg, 100 mile, multi sport relay race starting on a mountain with skiing and ending at the sea with kayaking. So I am glad that I bought my climbing gear as we have been a number of times already, and Nika and I will be heading out to the east of the Cascade mountains to spend a few days camping in a unique landscape called 'channeled scab land' - characterised by the rectangular cross section valleys - created by periodic cataclysmic flooding over the last 2 million years.... hmm, lets see if it is as cool as it sounds.

For the nest 10 days I will be on the back burner as Nika finished papers, reads books and revises for finals, so there will be plenty of time to do a bit more ambling. x

Start of the Americas (But still in England)

On Monday I briefly reveled in the ability to plunge my hand in to a cold fridge and pull out a decadent bag of pre-grated motzerella. Then munch on a carefully selected un-moldy couple of handfuls. This I know will not be happening too often in the next couple of years. Rather it's going to be: counting pennys; going for the option thats cheaper than the 'cheap' option, being resigned to the fact that the vegetarian dish may very well contain meat, and everything is in a language I don't understand (also intermittently applicable to the USA, I expect).

So starts what I have been planning for the last 8 months. Initiated by a friend met traveling in New Zealand with "Lets cycle a tandem bike across Argentina". "OK" I said! And now, though the inevitable process of change, I'm going to spend 5 weeks int he US with my girlfriend (Nika), 3 months walking in Peru on my own, 3 moths wwoofing and hiking with Nika in Chile, and then another 3 months doing something somewhere in South America.

I do have a flight after that back in to the US, but after being stuck in immigration for 2 hours and being quizzed about my: itinerary; monetary situation; what illegal narcotics I take; and just quite who is this person you say is your 'girlfriend' but actually barely know, I am seriously re-considering under what pretense they will let me back in to the States, for a longer time, with less money, and with an even vaguer agenda....

I have been here in the Pacific North West a couple of days now, and I feel very welcomed, the house that Nika flats in is awesome, the other people are all outdoorsey and up for adventures, so I have already been rock climbing and had a barbecue and a big pot luck dinner and wandered around a farmers market, and slept lots (it didn't help that I was awake 22hours the day I flew in).

I'm just off for a walk now, smugly leaving Nika to do her geography assignment at uni (no, I am not jealous). x