With my journey to and from Rapa Nui, I have now traveled over 19,614 km (12,078 km from before + 3,768 km to Rapa Nui + 3,768 km returning) or 12,188 miles!
I took the bus a lot this week, including some buses in parts of Santiago where I don't usually travel, like the commune of La Pintana in the south of the city where the Mapuche cultural center is located. I'm getting much better at figuring out which bus to take without using my smartphone app, which is good because a lot of places don't have WiFi!
The cultural center we visited for the Mapuche is a combination community and educational space and a center for natural Mapuche medicine, which the Mapuche offer as an alternative to modern medical treatments, depending on the needs of those who wish to use it. We spoke with some representatives of the Mapuche community here in Santiago and learned a bit about the current state of the Mapuche people today.
Many of the issues that the Mapuche face in present Chilean society are the same problems that Native Americans encounter in the United States, including lack of visibility, discrimination, and poverty. On our trip to the cultural center, we were told that few residents of Santiago visit the center, and that foreigners like ourselves show more interest in the culture and history of the Mapuche than the Chileans do.
