Viajando y Llegando

(From Saturday, 2/9/08)

I´ve been on the road for a little over four hours now. It´s been four hours of endless flat. Farms of corn and cows, splashes of of marshes and shallow lakes, trees, skies like paintings with perfect puffs of whites and greys. A huge patch of sunflowers just passed by - incredible black faces staring out at me.

It´s familiar and strange. It´s the farmlands of Indiana or Ohio or Kansa or Iowa with the brightnes turned up. The greens are lusher, and the trees! I can´t figure out what it is about the trees here. They´re pines in the desert. There are random patches of them, like they´ve been planted for the purpose of creating a barrier or a shelter, and they´re so varied - all different texture and colors. It´s so beautiful.

This bus is amazing - definitely the way to travel here. I have a deluxe, super-cushy seat, a foot rest that extends all the way, so I can fully stretch out my legs, and I can lean the back of my chair all the way down. It´s like flying first class, just much better scenery. There´s a steward who hands out snacks and meals and beverages. Vino mas tarde, tambien! I´m very glad I chose to travel this way instead of flying. So relaxing - like train-riding - and so much to see. We are supposed to arrive in Bariloche around 10 AM tomorrow morning, and I´m scared I´m going to miss something amazing if I fall asleep!

There are these little "stations" we stop at every hour or so to pick up a new passenger. Basically dirt roads in the middle of nowhere. And, as it was at the bus station in Buenos Aires, it´s always a family affair. A whole carload of folks comes to see off their loved one, all standing outside and waving as we pull off down the road. It´s so old-fashioned. I love it. The deluxe bus is clearly a luxury - and a big deal.

The economic standing of this country reveals itself in little things like that. In more obvious ways, too. This afternoon, a homeless teenager stole the tip I was leaving for my waiter right off the table, right in front of me. Several of these boys had been prowling around this cafe in the bus station. I guess there are no rules against begging in BsAs because it was not the first time in the last month that beggars had approached my table, in the middle of a meal, to ask for money or food. Today, while I was waiting on my food, I watched as one of these boys asked another customer for his leftover fries. When the customer said, sure, fine, the boy just reached his big dirty hand out and grabbed them up right off of the plate.

I had a stack of six 25 cent coins sitting on my table, and when I stood up to heave-ho my enormous backpack onto my back, the kid approached the table, calmly picked up the coins, and just walked off. As he reached down to take them, I said, "No!" I couldn´t even think, I was so dumbfounded by what was happening. He sort of smirked at me, said, "Yes!" and hurried off to snicker about it with his friends. The cafe was crowded; there were tons of witnesses, but I felt totally helpless. Of course, worse, I took several steps away from the table, walking off after the guy, and then realized I had left my smaller backpack on the table. Thank God it was still there - the beggars here work in pairs; one distracts while the other steals.

Several customers told the waiters what had happened. I just stood there, speechless and beginning to burn with anger. One of the waiters headed off after them, but I doubt he accomplished anything. It´s an insignificant amount of money - 50 cents US - so I just walked away. But the way the whole episode made me feel was awful - an ugly mix of embarrassment and fury and disgust and confusion. I´m sure that kid needed that 50 cents more than me or my waiter, but it was the arrogance with which he took it that enraged me. I felt revolted by him and his poverty and his desparation, and I felt revolted with myself for being so revolted by him.
Of course, this wasn´t a dangerous situation by any means, but it was definitely a good lesson. I´m really careful with my things, but I also expect a certain amount of decency from other people. It´s stupid that I can´t trust that if I leave a tip on the table, it won´t be snatched up by a passer-by. Not stupid. I guess I´ve just been spoiled by a world where nobody´s that kind of desperate (or at least the government´s doing a good job of keeping them away). Naivety stikes again.

Anyway, before I really embark on my travels, I am going to try to lighten my load a bit. If your backpack´s so heavy you make yourself vulnerable every time you put it on, that´s a problemo!

I was just surprised to look down at my watch and see that it´s 8:15 PM. It looks and feels like it´s about 3 PM. These long days are good for my health, I´ve decided. I should be sunflower! These fields of sunflowers are breathtaking - looks like a nice place to spend some time.

***
(Sunday, 2/10/08)

I woke up around 2:30 AM this morning and peered out the window to find a sky full of stars. I´ve never seen anything like it. Never seen so many stars. It was incredible. Several times recently, I´ve seen Orion in the night sky over Buenos Aires, but he was always pretty lonely up there. Last night, I could see Orion (because his stars are brighter than others), but he was almost hard to make out because his space was invaded by thousands of little stars. The entire sky was covered. More stars than sky. Gorgeous. How do I explain what it feels like to be laying in a very comfy little bed and to wake to such an incredible sight? How can I explain getting lulled back to sleep by such a sky?

I woke again around 8:30 AM to find the landscape totally changed. The flat farmland had been replaced by rolling yellow hills, the land totally barren of trees. There were tufts of shrubbery - broccoli-like bunches of dry greens sprouting up from the rocky earth and the long, yellow grasses.

***
(Today, the present)

I didn´t finish that because we shortly thereafter arrived in Bariloche. It was facinating, though, to watch the landscape change - to watch those dry, yellowed hills grow into mountains full of pines and deep blue lakes. All in about an hour! I was told yesterday that that yellow area (that´s all I can say about it - yellow), is called "The Step," anywhere in the world. The transition area before the mountains. Anyone know anything about that? Dad-0?

We arrived right on schedule, and I was just bubbling over with excitement as we pulled into Bariloche. It´s unbelievably beautiful here. And cool! I stepped off the bus with a bit of a shiver! By afternoon, it had warmed up significantly, but the mornings and evenings hacen mucho frio!

It´s a smallish resort town - about 100,000 residents, I believe. Tourism is their main industry - skiing in the winter, and everything you can think of in the summer. Hiking, biking, camping, paragliding, etc. Eeeeee! It reminds me vaguley of any town like this in the States - Jackson, WY, Boone, NC. Many of the houses are built in that Alpine style, like the houses in Hound Ears (what is that place called, Jordy? Hounds Run? Hound Ears?) in Boone. Little wedges of houses, built so the snow just slides right down the sides.

I knew my friends Nicole and Kate were just finishing up here, and I managed to find their hostel when I left the bus station, so I got to spend a couple hours with them, catching up, sharing stories of the past two weeks, eating lunch, eating chocolate. (Bariloche, for whatever reason, is famous for it´s chocolate - there are about four chocolate shops on every block. Just what I need after daily helado in BsAs!) Anyway, very good to see them again - they left early this morning for El Chalten and the parks down thataways. Torres del Paine, I believe. Perhaps I will see them mas tarde, no se.

Around 6 PM, I walked myself over to my new house. And yes, this time, it´s a real house -with a back yard and everything. I´m enchanted by this family and their life here. (I keep wanting to write in Spanish, and I´m really trying to restrain myself, by the way.) The parents are in their 50s, and they have a total of five children, three of whom are in their mid-late 20s and have moved away. The others are a 17 year old boy and a 13 year old girl. There´s a real K-9, a german shepherd, who tried to eat my arm yesterday (but I said, ha! Esta bien!), and tres gatos! One´s a little Siamese meowser, who looks a bit like a kitty I once knew named Sue, and the other is an unremarkable little kitty, and the other is a gigantic grey beast. A puma, I think! Reeer! I cannot remember the names of any of these animals - they´re all Spanish. Apparently the german shephard only understands German. (Yuk, yuk, yuk.)

The house is a home. I love it. Everything´s wooden and it´s full of clutter and pictures and history. Very lived in. My kind of place. They leave the windows open during the day, and the kitties wander in and out, and the dog stands up on his hind legs and peers into the windows, so left out! Last night, when I was in bed, trying to fall asleep, I kept getting rudely startled by the dog, who was trying to open my bedroom windows from outside!

It´s a real family kind of family, too. Home-made, sit-down dinners around the table every night, with educational TV afterward. Eerily like my own upbringing. (NOVA´s on tonight, sweetie! Oh boy!) Anyway, it´s perfect.

And...the school is directly across the street. I had my first round of classes this morning, and I´ve been put into 2B, even thought I just finished 1B and should be in 2A. But because the school is significantly smaller (maybe 30 students to BsAs´200), they have merged some of the classes, so 2A and 2B are together. I´m not feeling terribly lost, fortunately. I think 2A and B are mostly for improving listening and talking, so it´s a lot of conversation and not so much new stuff.

There were 12 newbies today - 4 from the US (including me), one from Germany, 6 from Switzerland, and 1 from Austria - so that´s good. And mi amigo, Eric, from BsAs is here, so that´s muy bien, tambien.

The activities the school organizes are almost entirely outdoors, and I´m going to do as much as I can! I think now, I am going to wander down to the center of the town (just a 5 minute walk, maybe - this place is very small) and try to get some info on day hikes. Perhaps I will even do one today!

Allllllll of this is to say, I am happy. I think this is going to be a great couple of weeks.