More Dangerous Less Fun!

My good buddy Craig from Kidder Creek told me of this story where him and a bunch of his friends from home were rafting on the Klamath river. Craig explained to them that they could 1 of 2 routes. Either Rattlesnake or Dragons Tooth. When asked what the difference was between the two he said that Rattlesnake was a fun run with little risk and Dragon's Tooth was more dangerous and less fun. They decided to do go with Dragon's Tooth. They had fun with Craig's play on words and "More Dangerous Less Fun" became their motto for that entire trip and was chanted frequently. Its a bit of an oxymoron I think because sometimes more dangerous=more fun, or at least more dangerous usually means a good story. South America is "More Dangerous Less Fun." Allow me to explain. My very 1st night in Santiago Chile won there soccer game for the COPA cup. Feeling very celebratory some guys from the hostel and I went into the main square to celebrate with the Chileans. We were chanting and jumping and having a great time when all of a sudden the crowd turned on us. Wallets were stolen, cameras were taken, and even beanies were being yanked off guys heads. Luckily we had Paul. Paul was probably responsible for most of the attention anyways. Seeing as how he is a 6'6 265lb monster of a man from New Zeland, he gains a lot of attention. But his size was useful this time as he battled through the crowd and created a hole for us to escape through. We escaped with no casualties and a guy who had lost his passport actually ended up recovering it. Some people had wallets stolen and luckily I didn't have anything on me for someone to steal. There are actually quite a bit of protests turned to riots lately in Santiago over a number of reasons. These usually end with tear gas and water cannons used on the protestors by the police. Oh ya fun fact, I guess Chilean tear gas is so bad that it is illegal in some countries. I hear its nasty stuff, but I also heard that eating a lemon will help with countering its effects. I hope I never have a chance to test that. Chile is one of the more modernized countries of South America so I only imagine that the stories will get better and better. I leave for Argentina tomorrow and don't start orientation until the 25th of July. I am getting a little better at speaking Spanish but it is still hard to understand. Chilean spanish is a little different because they talk in slang and drop the "s" on a lot of words. But as with most things I know it will just take time.