I got what I came for

Sitting in the Bariloche airport today as I wait for my flight to Buenos Aires, in the heart of the Patagonian winter. It is a pretty good wintry mix storm raging outside and I have to say that I have enjoyed my two and a half weeks of winter this summer. It wasn’t harsh by any real standards; rather the weather felt much more like the build up to winter we get in November or early December many years; cold, often rainy, crisp mornings with relatively mild days.

A good storm rolled in on Friday and deposited a fresh foot of snow that I benefited from yesterday at Cerro Catedral. The snow was of a quality that was unexpected given the lack of major snow in the preceding two weeks and the views are unsurpassed in my skiing experience. Thoughts of the resorts around Lake Tahoe kept coming to the surface as I stood on top of the treeless peaks. In one view the huge sprawling steppe stretched as far as the eye could see. One hundred eighty degrees the opposite sat massive imposing peaks covered in flutes of snow as they jutted out in between the low (high) clouds they reached as they rose out of Lake Nauhl Huapi.

Bariloche was a nice place to live for the time I spent there – a bit touristy and a tad expensive but welcoming altogether. My Spanish has improved a great deal, and I had my first dream in Spanish the other night; a sure sign that the language is taking hold, and quite an odd experience that left me awake for some time after. My host family was truly wonderful and there was a very home-like dynamic that developed between the two Dutch girls, Ana and myself. I returned to the house last night to drop off some music for Ana, Nantha and Marique had just returned from Chile, and we all talked like a big family, laughing, saying goodbye; it was very nice. Staying there was almost like a second class; Ana spoke no English and I had to do a lot of translating for the Dutch girls initially and still on some things even to the end. In coming down here I certainly never expected to be a translator for anyone.

A small feeling of nostalgia has already begun to rise up occasionally as I wrap up this amazing time; soon I’ll be back to life in the States and this will all be a wonderful memory. I’ve seen some real poverty and wealth, been in situations that were fairly nerve-wracking and others that were as comfortable as can be, and I loved them all. One thing I had wanted to pay special attention to was similarities between the many different worlds I was privy to over the last month plus. Funny little things like both Nicarguans and Thais using plastic sandwich bags as the general carrying apparatus for liquids from soda to soup. There was certainly never a conversation between the two peoples, but somehow they just figured out the same solution to their carrying issue. Pace is another similarity that the Thais and Nicas share, the easy going “we’re not in a hurry to get there because well, eventually we just will,” was an lifestyle that I very much appreciated.

My connection to Argentina has been on the whole rather different. In Nicaragua and Thailand I found myself more connected to the people, traveling alone without hearing English at all in Managua and staying at the school with Roy were very, very different than living with two Dutch girls and hanging out with travelers from all over the world in Bariloche. The connection felt much more like tourism than cultural immersion; there just weren’t really opportunities to do that in Bariloche. Granted I lived with an Argentine and in that respect I surely developed an impression of the people as much as any one person could be expected to represent. I don’t know what exactly I was expecting; the first two worlds are so wholly different than the third in terms of general wealth. As an overall impression, there is one running theme that I believe you can find all over the world: people want to be cared for; they want to express their appreciation and enjoyment of others; all people want to enjoy themselves and share that with others.

These next two cities are going to be pretty intense, Buenos Aires is a city of 13 million – New York City: 8.5 million. The city has something like 7 or 8 neighborhoods of varying character. I’ll be staying in Palermo, great nightlife, cool places to eat and lots of partying until the next day - it can barely be called the same night when the party ends at 8 am. There are a few people from Bariloche that will be there at the same time, so I’ll meet up with them and we’ll see what BA has to offer. One other stop for certain will be La Boca, a very cool artist community on the far western side of the city as it stretches out along the Rio de la Plata. I’m too consumed by Buenos Aires at the moment to think too far ahead to Rio de Janeiro, but there are some general touristy things that I’ll do there on my first trip, with hopefully more to come in the future.

Alright, just began the decent into Buenos Aires…oh I almost forgot, I got my shoes back the next night in Thailand just in time to toss them off before jumping in the pool at 7 am that morning. Lucky.