August 19th -2010

Dad's birthday - 60! Priority is to find a phone or working internet and make a call. I get through... glad to hear his voice. Following I go for breakfast at a local restaurant, thinking of my parents back home. My mom has given him a ticket to Chile in one month - I'll be picking him up at the airport in Santiago and we'll have ten days together. A highlight.

I jump into a collectiv cab with Amalie (the nun) and her mother around noon. We arrive at the hotspring an hour later. There is a simple hostel connected to the facilities, so I get a room - turquoise and spotless. A bed stands in one corner, a table in the other.
We all go to the hotspring, which to my surprise is more like a private primitive spa. You pay around one dollar and get 15 min in your own room, which consists of a little cave from where the steam rises - a natural steambath. The temperatures vary from 35 to 55 degrees C.
When I emerge from my bath the ladies are still in theirs, so I go to lie in the sun.

When I awake the tiny mother is sitting on a chair next to me. We wait for her daughter to finish, before going for dinner and saying goodbye.

I spend the night in my room - river flowing outside - writing. More quiet then its been for ages...