January 12, 2006

Well, the volcano, Volcan Villarrica, showed itself today, photo attached. It soars over the landscape and dominates the skyline in a way reminiscent of the way Etna does in Sicily. It’s active, and at night, we’re told, you often can see fiery stuff coming out of the crater on top. The last true eruption was about 20 years ago.

We spent the early part of the day in the town of Villarrica, a typical Chilean town, to get the feel of it. It’s not at all third-world. Unlike rural Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, small town and rural Chile has a very European feel to it, probably because after the Spanish conquest the native population was decimated, and the Spanish brought in lots of Europeans, including a substantial number of Germans, to settle the land. What we’ve seen of Chile is modern, with no poverty in sight. Villarrica, however, is the home of the largest concentration of Mapuche that is left, and there is a museum with some artifacts. There is also a Mapuche village where you still can see their culture and crafts. Attached are four photos of Mapuche life: a young woman dressed in typical Mapuche headdress and breastplate, a basket made of cow’s udder (they really use these!), a very large and somewhat crude loom on which they weave large, somewhat crude blankets, etc., and a long, coiled (but it straightens to play) hollow tube, made of cow intestines, with a mouthpiece (and some have a cow’s horn on the other end), which is played like a horn. They really make use of the entire animal! The udder basket, by the way, is stiffened and shaped, not soft, and it is done so that the four teats function as legs. Weird.

After lunch a relaxing afternoon at the pool and in the hot tub, a siesta, and dinner.