Down to the last spoonful...

Well! As they say, it´s the home stretch, the final inning, the last play... In the end I was totally reluctant to leave Africa, and already started dreaming about the next trip. It took 2 full days to get from Cape Town to Buenos Aires; though just across the water, I had to fly 'via' Dubai, in essence crossing the length of Africa twice, before reaching the Atlantic. The flight from Dubai to Sao Paulo itself was over 16 or 17 hours, my longest single flight ever, which gave me time to catch up on a few flicks that I hadn´t heard of. 'Stardust' was good fun I thought, and 'August Rush' - have you seen it? - was absolutely beautiful. Not often I´ll say that about a movie. I also watched some of 'The Long Way Down', that motorcycle journey where Star Wars dude and his friend rode from the UK down to Cape Town; they covered a lot of ground that was now familiar to me, and I already was missing the places as I saw them on screen. The flight was late getting in and I missed my connection, but there were people at the gate to assist (third party employees of course, wouldn´t expect that from an airline), and thanks to an extrememly helpful guy everything was sorted out in no time and I was on the next flight to BA. However this meant arriving in the middle of the night - or is that the morning? - and then waiting around the airport until the hostel where I planned to stay opened the next day.

 

Needless to say when I arrived in Buenos Aires I was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to sleep all day, but after a couple hours' nap I had this overwhelming feeling that there was this new place just out the window waiting to be explored. Like a little kid on Christmas morning poking you in the forehead, 'Wake up, waaaake up!!' Indeed who can resist the voice of curiosity when it chases away any hope of sleep. So I went out into the gi-normously hu-gantic city for a first glimpse, returning in the evening with a used 'South America on a Shoestring' guidebook I found in a local bookshop. I was wishing my spanish was better as there were bookshops galore with lots of good deals (not that I have any room in the budget or the backpack, but...).

 

If I haven't mentioned it before - though you may have heard this once or twice - I´m really not a city person. BA is a really nice city (did I mention it´s HUGE?) and the more time I spent I found that it's not just a nice central area and then a bunch of crummy streets on the periphery like in many places, it´s a gigantic sprawling grid of clean main streets, fancy cafes and restaurants, interesting buildings and cool statues and sculptures. But indeed the rush and traffic was only good in small doses from my perspective, so I spent most of the time seeking out parks. There´s a nice nature reserve at the river´s mouth (all the water in town is brown but I think it´s natural since it´s a giant outlet?) where it´s possible to escape the rumbles and growls of passing cars for a few kilometers. Then there was this park with an enormous metal flower sculpture; in the center of the flower you could see some kind of computerized stuff, and the stamen had glowing red tops, but the best part was at sunset when I realized that the flower had actually started to close! Past this area is the botanic garden which is small and kind of pleasant, but most notable for the multitudes of cats living inside the gates. There´s a sign at the entrance saying something to the effect of, 'don´t dump your pets here'; evidently it´s an issue.

 

If we truly are what we eat, I would have to suspect that many Argentines are made of sugar. There must be 3 or 4 sweet shops on every street corner, whether for chocolates or cakes, or grocery-store-sized shops which look normal till perusing the aisles you see that there´s not actually any real food. Breakfast was provided each morning at the hostel, and consisted of coffee/tea, a sugary orange drink, and bread with butter and dulce de leche (aka caramel, mmmmm). I started to think I could get used to though, it if it didn´t kill me first.

 

The other main objective for the last week was planning the next stage of the trip: the final 5 weeks. I came up with a few possible itineraries, and like a true addict kept wishing for just one more... just one more week!! It's never enough. I´m trying to get the most out of the last days, fully aware that soon I'll be looking back and wondering what happened to the last 14 months, and why I'm living somewhere and going to the same job every day. It was a real challenge to pare down all the things I wanted to see & do with what was actually feasible. When you travel a lot, choosing places is a lot like choosing faces: deciding who might be worth spending the time and energy to get to know, fully aware that you'll soon be on your way, and even though you know you're passing up infinite great opportunities for connectinos or experiences, there's just no way to invest in them all. Sometimes you just have to talk to someone, other times you don't even say hello because it will soon become a goodbye. Flipping through the guidebook was a lot like this, skimming over parts that could have been so good, trying to find the places I was really interested in, even though I really want to see all of them. There are a lot of miles to cover, but I managed to work out an outline with a few good stops.

 

Saying it will be tight is an understatement. With not enough days to spare and 2 extra days in the outline that I don´t have to spare, I decided that sitting still any longer would only cheat me out of other places, and left Buenos Aires without knowing if this itinerary will actually work. Time was not the only consideration either; shoestrings ain't what they used to be, especially with the ridiculous decline of the dollar (go USA), and after pricing out bus tickets it occurred to me that I was going to run out of money before the trip was over. Yikes. Work isn't an option for me in this part of the world (especially with only a few weeks to go) and the credit card comes with brutal consequences when used overseas... so I resorted to the most merciful lender I could think of, the Bank of Mom. She kindly agreed to loan me some dough (with 'terms' that go beyond generous) which means I can start eating again! This might be an appropriate time to say that I'm not by any means a financial wizard. If nobody understands how I can travel for a long time on wages that tend to be half of other peoples', neither do I. I'm just blessed. Even though I work hard and live really simply, it's not enough. And though I totally suck at budgeting, somehow things always work out. For this trip I have blown my entire savings, sold a few things and tried to keep expenses to a bare minimum, but without a few surprises along the way (for example my whole family being ridiculously generous at bday/Christmas time) I don't think I would have made it. So thanks to all of ya!! This is your adventure too, I hope you're enjoying it.

 

Yesterday I arrived on an overnight bus at the big town or little city of Mendoza. The bus was probably the nicest I've seen, and I had a front-row upper-deck seat which meant windows all around. Lots of stars that night, meal service to boot. Speaking of flicks - I'm a little out of the loop but you probably knew this already - they made a new 'Knight Rider' movie, and oh my goodness did it s-u-c-k!! I didn´t think it was possible to out-do the original in lameness, but they managed it. Took some time out of the bus ride anyway. I spent yesterday at yet another park, a huge one and really good. But the purpose in coming here was to somehow get into the mountains, which looks like it may be more feasible down the road... so I´ve got to catch a bus shortly for Uspallata. Apparently they filmed part of 'Seven Years in Tibet' here... I've got big expectations.

 

Gotta run, here's a quick quote for the road:

It is said that time is money and the truth is that it is much more than that: time is the moment of your existence and that has no price. It is your chance to be here and now, it is your linear way to experience life.  

- 'Aconcagua Summit of the Americas' by Marucio Fernandez