Life at the Lodge

Just made a run into town in my new 1970 Land Rover (well, the owners) and thought I would give you a quick shout. Life here has been splendid so far, jumping right into our "hosting duties" which means essentially we are expected to just bullsh*t with the other guests--a tough gig I should say.....thus far we have been doing it sans cocktails so nothing horribly inappropriate has been uttered at the dinner table, but you we´ll see if that holds. Foot in Mouth is a disease neither of us has been vaccinated for. The owners, Tom and Mariela, are about the most genuinely kind and fun people I have met on this trip so far and give me a renewed faith in my occasionally cynical view of humanity. They also seemed to hold a supernatural ability to pick a winner as it only took them a couple of hours to conclude Petro and I were of the chosen breed.
Although not much of an orientation to our new life was given, my favorite directive by Tom so far was "if that happens, take all the guests and hide in the hills" (referring to what to do if a recent 8-man armed robbery on the neighboring lodge happened while Petro and I where holding down the fort). To avoid such an act we started a rumor around town that we killed a drifter in Chile, so hopefully that dissuades any potential bandidos.
According to our friend Elizabeth, this lodge was featured on the Travel Channel a couple of months ago, so you betcha this is going on our currently defunct resumes.

Off to schmooze,

9 to 5 Brian