food poisoning and dog attacks, or, despite shitty luck, luke has fun in the south

Tuesday was really fun. In the morning we went to the Mapuche museum in Cañete, which is the name of the town we stayed in. A very proud, very spry old guy named Armando gave us an exhaustive tour of the museum's artifacts, which were mostly quite interesting and also small enough in number that an exhaustive tour held my interest from start to finish. Also, the museum had a spectacular view. After the tour, we went back to a traditional Mapuche hut and sat around a fire while Armando played music for us on a traditional Mapuche trumpet and taught us numbers 1-10 (2=emu, 10=mari, others foggy), and then we went outside and Tim and I went to get sticks for a traditional Mapuche game that is strikingly similar to field hockey, which we played. It was really fun, even though my team lost 1-0. We learned a traditional Mapuche chant and danced in a circle while Armando sang and played the drum. It was a tradition-filled morning. But very interesting and fun. Then we ate lunch and clambered back on the bus for a surprise from Isa and Katty, which turned out to be a 2-hour cruise on a beautiful lake called Nahuel. It was gorgeous outside, there were pisco sours and Cristal and music and everyone was in fantastic spirits. Afterwards we went to a cabin on the lake, where, while awaiting a delicious asado, Rosie, Amalia, Tim, Justin, Joseph and I stripped nekkid and ran in to the (not actually that cold, but still really cold) water while everyone laughed and looked vaguely uncomfortable (wusses). I was the first one out, and I put my boxers back on and went over to talk to everyone. Justin got out, too and he and I chased Durham around, and a german shepherd who lived on the property decided to attack me. I have lovely scratches on my sides and leg, photos of which will be posted as soon as I upload the ones from this trip. So that was joyous. My comically bad medical luck continues. But the dinner was good and then we went back to the hotels and created a fantastic Halloween party, great costumes and all, out of stuff from our rooms (Amalia and Durham bought a couple things, but everything else was totally improvised). Alex and I wrapped our comforters around ourselves, our pillowcases around our heads and carried the decorative pillows from out beds and the bedside table and lamp and our towles and went as our room. Rosie went as trash, complete with banana peel and partially-full water bottle. Gaby was a very convincing Unabomber, Ester was the Chilean flag, etc. That combined with awesome music (them song for the trip: Ridin Dirty by Chamillionaire) and boxed wine equalled fun times.

This morning we woke up, ate breakfast, piled back onto the bus, toured Concepción briefly (verdict: nice setting, not much there except 1.5 million people), got back on the bus and came back to Stgo. Bus ride not unpleasant, I read a bunch of Bruce Chatwin's collection What Am I Doing Here?, which is good reading but really kind of old-fashioned in a way that made my uncomfortable. He speaks of himself as a progressive, open-minded world-traveler, but the fact is he's still mired in paternalism and the combination is awkward. He's well-meaning, to be sure, and his experience and wisdom and observational skills are still valuable even 20-odd years after the last of the stories was written, but still.... Anyhow I'm home now, ate dinner, checked my email and the news, and now my eyes are starting to glaze over, so I'm going to cut this baby off with this: Despite bad things happening, this was a happy weekend. 'Night!