MUNGO EATS Latin America

We were hoping to be on our way to Torres de Paine park today, but illegalities take planning, so we are in town for one more day.  We found out yesterday that we cannot bring Mungo into the park.  No dogs allowed.  We are not taking this too well, considering this is the “ONE” place we wanted to visit the most.  It would be like missing Banff on a tour of Canada.  So we had to think of a plan.

There are tour agencies in town that will drive you into the park, show you some highlights and return you to the town in the evening.  We wouldn’t be able to see much, but this was one possible option.  Mungo would have to stay in the van for the day, which would be doable.  Then the law breaking side of me thought, “If he is going to be locked up inside a van all day in town, why not be locked up all day inside the van in the park?”  They do not allow animals in the park because they do not want an animal to chase and spread diseases to the fauna.  Can’t do that from the inside of a van.  So the working plan is to drive to the park tomorrow and put Mungo in his kennel before we get to the boundary.  Then he will stay in his kennel as we hike a bit.  We will then return to the van and likely leave the park and camp somewhere outside the border.  If this goes well, we may do this for a few days, so that we can explore a bit of the park.  Not the most exciting days for the hound, but hey, we all have to make sacrifices.  Just gotta get close to those mountains.  If all goes well, we may be off line for a few days.

In other news, I have completed my “flag project”.  I started this in Guatemala.  Every overland vehicle we saw either had a map on it on which they traced their route, or flag stickers collected in every country visited.  Our vehicle was the only one unadorned, so I started to draw flags on the trailer of every country that we visited.  Here is the completed project.

Some of the flags were easy to draw, some were a COMPLETE pain in the bum.  They are only drawn in permanent marker, and although it does pretty well, the sand, sun and wind help to rub out the pictures with time.  So every time I add a new flag, I have to re-do the others.  I tell you, I hope I never have to redraw another Ecuador or Bolivia flag again.  Terrible.  When I get home, I think I will have stickers of all the flags made and replace the drawings, but these will do for now.  See why we stick out!