a long night's asado

[asado basically means "grilled", and an asado is a Chilean-style barbecue.]

Bennett's host mom was having an asado for her 50th birthday. At the last minute I decided to go. He lives in Catapilco, which is sort of near Zapallar, maybe, but we didn't really know. He's also not one for detailed communication, so our directions were something like "Take the micro toward La Ligua, get off at La Laguna, do something else, and then get off where there's two fruit stands." What actually happened:

1. Steve and I meet Heather in Viña.
2. After some debate about where this might land us and at what time of day, we get on the micro for La Ligua and ride for well over an hour.
   
3. In Ventanas, where Leigh Ann and Jeremy live, the micro stops. As I'm looking out the window, I realize I'm looking at Bennett, Leigh Ann, and Jeremy all jogging to get on our micro. This helps our confidence considerably, since we're going to Bennett's house.
4. We all get off at La Laguna and wait for the direct micro to Catapilco.
5. When it comes, Brandy and Carol are already on it.
   

We probably reinforced any stereotypes that the gringos all know each other.

Corrie was already at Bennett's house, and I felt a little weird about throwing a horde of gringos at his mom's birthday party. We rivaled the family for size: 10 of us, maybe 17 of them. I think it was Brandy who reminded us that while it was a big reunion for us, it was Rudy's birthday and we should keep that in mind.

I finally had chorripan! This is just grilled chorizo on a certain kind of roll, with optional toppings; the chorizo with the salty bread here somehow makes it unthinkably delicious. Then a bunch of other food, and then we discovered the difficulty in going to a party at a tiny house with a lot of people out in the country where you can't go home: Chileans very casually stay up incredibly late, and if you want to separate yourself from the party early, you're probably out of luck. I dozed a bit sitting upright outside on the patio, then around 2 AM I crawled onto Bennett's bed with a few other people, and then finally around 4:30 or so, the family started thinking about clearing out places for people to sleep. They were all down by 5 AM, and I slept a fine sleep until 8:30 or so. By 9, Heather and Leigh Ann and I were on our way out to the micro stop, and I reached Valparaiso around 11.

I can't take too many more of that kind of weekend, unfortunately.