Todd, I'm not taking offense at all, just having a friendly talk.

About the expensive bike thought, I totally agree. Mine is actually a cheap one, that's why the mast may leak and why I don't really care about getting a real mast float wink. It's a rebuild project, my first catm next step should be to replace it, not worth to invest much more on this one. By now it takes me where I wanna go.

About the avatar, here's the full story, about the pitchpole and how it became my avatar:
http://www.catsailor.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=76452&page=1
About tourism situation here, you mean how is it affected by economy? I'd say not too bad yet, but I'm not very well informed, it wasn't easy to get a cabin just three days in advance at lake Villarrica, probably it would have been impossible a year ago.
Cheers!