Hola Barret

On the bus ride from Pucon to Concepcion Jim and I were both bubbling with excitement. However this was more due to the fact that were going to suprise Barret than it was to actually see him. We had told Barret that we wanted to come visit him but had not told him any of our plans for the trip. He had no idea that we were coming to see him let alone that we were even in south america. Getting off the bus in Concepcion we found a map in the bus terminal. We found what we thought was Barrets street and started walking to it. Jim and I had imagined barret living in a fairly nice neighborhood but as we walked to what we thought was his street we moved deep into a neighborhood that can only be described as less than friendly. Eventually a chilean on a bike stopped us and asked if we were chileanos and when we said no promtly told us we should probably leave this part of the city. Considering the sun was about to down we took his advice and took a bus to the downtown area. We stopped and asked a few folks if they knew where the Barret´s address was located but no one knew. We thought that he probably lived near the University where he works. Once we got in the U district a young lady pointed us in the right dirrection and we found Barret´s apartment. Unfortunatley he was not there. We decided to go around the corner and get some food and wait for him to come back. It would be even more comical to surprise him on the street. As were discussing the finer points of suprising him Barret turned the tables on us found us first. He had spotted us from accross the street in the university where he had been doing a crossword puzzle. Concepcion has been nice and we have been spending our time just hanging out and realaxing with Barret.