I went to Chile and all I got was an upset stomach and a phone that can no longer send texts…

Well, it’s not that bad. But I’ve been dragging since coming home from Chile. Of course the day I decide to expand my trip by a month and three days, I get hit by a stomach bug. But stubborn as I am, or rather, as Texan as I am, I sit through Mexican dinner for Cinco de Mayo. Probably not the wisest choice, but I did opt for tortilla soup instead of enchiladas verdes. Some day I’ll go back to sample Frida’s enchiladas, or maybe even one of the recipes taken from the book Como Agua Para Chocolate (anyone else remember the chicken in rose petal sauce?) but Mexican food is not cheap here; it’s more of a novelty. But el seis de mayo is when it really hit me, so I flopped in bed until meeting Annemarie at a health foods store/restaurant in her ‘hood, where I sipped on a banana-soy milk-tofu-honey smoothie. They make those in Argentina? Yes, they do. And now I know to look for them. But after that I was completely drained and stayed in bed to watch Motorcycle Diaries. It was really cool to see the scenes in Valparaiso, having just been there. And the scenes in Peru were breathtaking. This got me majorly pumped for our trip to Machu Picchu; but it turns out flights to Cusco, Peru are like $600… so I will be looking into other modes of transportation, even though the bus from Lima to Cusco is a whopping 26 hours. I figure it’s worth it.

(scene from Motorcycle Diaries shot in Machu Picchu)

(no, I did not take this picture, but hopefully some day soon I will)

But today I felt much better: toast for breakfast, a spinach empanada for lunch, and an apple for dinner. Real food! I need to be better at that. Three months is too long to pretend you’re on vacation. (Even though I guess I am.) So today I picked up my laundry and went to the locutorio to have them fix my phone. But they just gave me a number to dial and that wouldn’t go through and so of course I bought more minutes but I don’t think that was the problem. Leandro (ah, my saving grace!) told me to go to the Movistar store in Calle Florida and have them look at it. Apparently the same thing happened to his phone when he went to Santiago last year. What is it with Chile being some sort of black hole? Anyway, as soon as it works I will have to call Leandro to thank him; as he’s invited me (and Jenny) to a polo game on Saturday. And with this much advance notice, I don’t think he’ll back out.

So it’s only 9:45 and I think I’m in for the night. Annemarie let me borrow some of Damian’s movies so I’m going to settle in and watch My Kid Could Paint That, some art documentary I’m sure Annemarie made him download.

Oh, and happy 4th birthday Evelyn & Grace! I heard you two had a big day at the beach...