Free the Finger!

No, this isn't about my good buddy Taj.

But my left ring finger, which I had broken over a week ago at Torres del Paine, is now splint-free. But now that it's not being supported, it's starting to hurt, and typing is still a chore. So there still may not be regular blog entries for the week, and I'm still going to refer to the park in Patagoia as Torres del PAIN. In any case, I tried to play a guitar at the Santiago mall the other day, to no avail, so hopefully I can make progress there now that I'm liberated. We have weekly Thursday musical jam sessions, "jueves musicales" as they're being called here, so by next week I should be up to speed.

Speaking of health, the Chilean health care system is remarkably modern and efficient. They had me in and out of there in 10 minutes. And the doctor was cheery and even seemed to understand my broken Spanish. Hate to promulgate stereotypes here, but it's good for a Latin American country. Of course, the Chileans will be quick to point out that Chile's life expectancy is only nominally behind the US, 77.85 to 76.56, respectively. Not bad for a country that wants to put mayonnaise on everything...