Argentina Update and Quarterly Review 1

Hello from Cafayate,
I´ve been in this little wine town for 2 days, which have been quite nice. However, with deadlines looming on making it to Machu Pichu before I leave South America, I am going to leave tomorrow, possibly spending one day in Salta, then heading to Bolivia. This is a cool "little town". It seems smaller than it really is, and has made it´s mark on the map because it can grow wine. It has seen an influx of wineries (most within walking distance) over the last few decades - most wineries here are under 30 years old, which also means that the wine they are producing is simpler (not as complex as the older grapes). It seems touristy here, but I think it is because of the time of year. January being Argentina´s month off. There are Argentines everywhere on vacation, so every place that I go seems a bit touristy. That being said, this town has a lot of charm and a lot going for it. Wine, obviously being the big draw, but it is nestled in what I think is a canyon. I say think, because I wasn´t paying too much attention on the bus ride. I´m pretty sure we decended. Anyway, there are rock formations and rich red hills that jet out. The scenery from the bus ride itself, makes it worth coming here. There is trekking and day hikes, some which you´ll see pre-Inca remnants like cave paintings and weird holes in rocks, which were apperently used for both grinding corn and something with interpreting stars. Or, whaterfalls, or ATVs, or whatever. I haven´t enjoyed it as much as Mendoza, but I made some pretty good friends in Mendoza.

Speaking of the touristy aspect, I made friends with 3 German girls here. One happened to make friends with some Argentines who are at a campground just out of town. They invited her and friends to have drinks and food with them. At about 11 we went to the campground, which we found out when we left that we weren´t allowed in, but being South America rules are more like guidelines. There was a group of about 15 that had randomly met eachother during their January travels, but you would´ve thought they were lifelong friends. They welcomed us, including a dude (me), with open arms. We had brought some wine which we never got to because they were drink Fernet and coke (I think it´s called a pachamama -could be way wrong since this also means mother earth - and is very Argentine). I don´t know if you are aware of this, but Argentines can cook. Esp. BBQ without sauces. Unbelievable. If you ever meet an Argentine and they offer to grill something, by god if you don´t let them I will track you down and slap you right across the face. I don´t know if I´m getting the point across that they are the best cooks I´ve come across. I hear Aussies are good, but even they praise Argentina. Anywho, they cooked us food and shared their booze. I did my best to speak Spanish with them. I am getting better, but I am still uncomfortable trying to hold good conversations with anyone. So, I was a little uncomfortable. I get now how foreigners must feel in a group of native English speakers. Anyway, I was a bit uncomfortable for a little, looking at my watch, until they started playing music and dancing. Not that I danced, but it took the presure off having to hold conversation. I have some video of it, which I´ll upload to my facebook. In the end, I stopped worrying about how I was perceived, cause I don´t think they cared, and just had a good time. Oh, and one note, it is a social norm here to kiss on the cheek. Even dudes will. Some will and some won´t for dudes they just met. It is kinda funny to make a kiss, not planted of course, on the side of a dude´s face you just met. Funny, but you strangely fall into it too.

Anywho, it was a little tough leaving Mendoza, not because of the city itself (fun, but still just another city,), but because of the people I met there. There was a group of about five us us that were getting along really well. Along well enough that we all could have travelled together. That is a fairly rare occurance. Every now and then you find one or two people that you could travel with, and sometimes do, but a group of people that gets along well enough to do so is rare. It´s too bad that we all were had different directions we were going and at different times. It would have made the Bus ride a bit more tolerable. In the middle of the night I´m talking 2 kids puking this time, snoring, a kid crying, and during the next day nasty smells like someone shit their pants. I´m hoping that I can meet some people in Salta or whatever, to travel a bit through Bolivia with, but I realize, what will be will be. If that is what is available to happen, it will.
I think that is what I need right now. Some good travelling companions. You´ll go through phases while travelling. Sometimes you´ll want to be alone, visit small cities, do no tourist activities, stay a long time in one place, etc. Somtimes you´ll want to make good friends and hangout all the time, do tourist things, visit big cities, stay only a day, party, etc. The thing is you never know. Nor do you know when that will strike you. You can´t plan a trip saying, I only want to visit the small, non-touristy places, because at some point you´ll go, "man, maybe I should go with these people that I´ve made friends with to a big city." Or some variation of that. Point being, make only one goal per country or per month and let all the other things fall into place. You´ll burn out if you don´t listen to your needs or wants. Just know going into it, you have no idea what you are going to feel like at any given point and you´ll leave yourself open to great experiences. Anybody will tell you the highlight of their travels are the unexpected things. The things that they gave into because they gave themselves the opportunity to experience them, like some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy - you are open to them so they WILL happen.


Ok, so it has been officially 3 months since I left. I figured I´d do a quarterly update just to see the differences from where I started and later, the differences from now.
How´m I doing? For the most part pretty good. Occasionally, I do get a pinge of homesickness. Today, I actually missed, for a milisecond, something about work. I don´t remember what it was, but just that feeling. It went away immidiately as soon as I noticed it. I´m not judging myself. I get it. There is something to the comfort of routine, till you realize it, then the fact that was one major reason for leaving makes it go immidiately away. I also still miss a particular person quite a bit. It has gotten easier, i.e. I don´t get super emotional, but I still think about this person all the time. I´ve met some incredible people, and there are of course girls that I´ve been attracted to. I know I am supposed to be enjoying living in the moment here and shouldn´t be comparing them to her, besides, that is a fool´s task. I would like to say that when I am living in the moment, I don´t, but when inevitably removed from living in the moment, I do. That´s just something I have to be OK with. I can think about her and casually observe my behavior and learn about myself. I´m thankful that we haven´t lost contact. Other than that, I have found myself wanting some companionship lately (as mentioned above about Mendoza). I loved the isolation period in the Amazon, but it made sense then. Here in Cafayate, I feel a little longing for some friends to travel with, not the brief relationships in each city or travel buddies I´ve had who were more because of convenience. I find myself looking forward to other parts of my trip too much and not being present. That being said, I understand that this is part of travelling and I am still loving it. These are just minor parts of travelling. I know I will come back here for a longer period of time and Brazil (for a lesser period of time).
Healthwise, I´m hanging in there. I keep doing shit to my feet. The streets/walkways in Latin America , are terrible. Just when you think you found a good walkway, BAM! You stub or slice your toe open on some jagged part sticking up. My ankle has finally reached normal proportions, but still hurts. I´m hoping by the salt flats, it´ll be ok - assuming I stop retwisting it. I could use more sleep, but that seems to come when not in big cities, which is the most of the rest of my time in South America.
Things I´ve learned - practical things like how to open a beer with a lighter, things about cultures like my post on Colombia, life things like slowing down and being OK with things and not constantly trying to stay in control (you must figure out how to do that here. There is a common saying all over South America; tranquillo. It doesn´t have an exact translation, but the jist is, things will happen and there is no use fretting. "You´re boat will come, who knows when, but it will. Just relax and enjoy yourself now" or from the experience in Colombia "yes, your car is fucked up in the middle of nowhere, but you´ll be fine. There is help, who knows how or when it will get here or what it may look like. But, everything will work out the way it´s supposed to." - Tranquillo), I´ve gained some spirituality (I know, me spiritual), but I have and I´ll post it sometime when I´m bored. Most of all, and partly due to the spiritual experiences I had in isolation on the Amazon, I´ve learned to let go of things. I´m not great at it. It takes practice and I constantly catch myself slipping back, but I at least learned it and can catch myself.
Funds - I´ve spent about 3-3,500 in three months (not including plane tickets). Could I spend less? Yes. I´m new to this remember, so I´ve made a few mistakes along the way. Mistakes that are always blessings. That dollar amount also includes several tours. Tours are expensive (except in Bolivia). My Amazon tour cost about $100 a day and that was because we had 4 people. I´ve also moved a lot - so far I´ve taken 4 long buses in Argentina at about $100 each and smaller side trips in all the South America countries. If I weren´t moving slower and less and not doing tours, I could probably knock that down to about $2,500 and still be living pretty nicely (eating out and entertainment). If I wanted to live really cheap, I could stay in spots longer and find hostels that would exchange some work for rent (I´ve met several people doing this) or get a job or whatever, cook myself, and not spend too much on entertainment, and it is feasable to knock that number down to about $1,000 (that´s about $15 a day). If it was your goal to dive into a certain culture, I´m saying you could do it for about $15 a day here if you scrimp.

I gave relfections on Colombia and Central America, here are mine for Brazil and Argentina.
Brazil is too big to make these type of judgements. It´d be like making grand sweeping statements about the US. Besides, I was only in 2 parts - Rio and the Amazon. I can say this: Brazil is awesome, it is wild, unpredictable, and has a energy that you can feel. They have problems with destroying the thing that makes them truly unique. Obviously, I´m talking about the Amazon. They are converting large swaths of the Amazon to plant bio-fuels. These portions are so large that they are changing the climate so much so, that it is affecting weather paterns (irreversably). In other words, if they stopped growing and said we´ll leave it to nature, the Amazon would not grow back there. And on a single person basis, they litter the Amazon and look down on indians. Of course this is not everyone, and I don´t want to say that every Brazilian I´ve met is this way. Some I´ve met are very upset about it and some just don´t realize the problem. Many Brazilians don´t make it to the Amazon in their entire lives. But, the major problem is that this is what is driving their economy and if they stop these practices their economy will take a big dive. So, while there are obvious answers, they aren´t easy answers. That being said, it´s too incredible to not go back and spend several months there in the future.
Argentina. What can I say. It´s fucking awesome. It doesn´t quite have the magic that Brazil does, but it makes up for it in other ways. It has a great culture for tea and wine. It has Patagonia. Everywhere is beautiful as are the people - so far they are the most beautiful women, and most per capita as well, I have ever seen (supporting my theory about latitude/beauty ratio in South America). It is less expensive than home, but with all modern convniences. It does have a bit faster of a culture than the rest of South America, which is unfortunate (unless you only have a week or two here). It has architecture and friendly people. It has every single outdoors thing you could ever want in enormous volume. They are some of the best cooks, meatwise, in the world. I can´t say enough about this place. If you had a car, you´d probably never leave. Like I said in a previous post, it´s out of my hands, I´ll be back for a much longer period (and next time I´m going to be fluent in Argentine Spanish).

Anyway, while I liked Colombia and parts of Central America, I don´t see myself making as much as an effort to get back to them when there is Argentina and Brazil.

Alright, boys and girls, that´s all I can think of for a quarterly report. If you can think of some things you think I should add to it, please leave a comment and I´ll come back and update the Post.