El Vago en Suramerica

It was a great decision to go to Iguazu falls, a 17 hour bus ride well worth it.

On the border between Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina, is a bizarre urban agglomeration composed of the cities of Foz do Iguacu in Brazil, Ciudad del Este in Paraguay, and Puerto Iguazu in Argentina. Also at this site is one of the mightiest waterfalls on the planet, the region’s principal tourist attraction.

Also in Iguazu is the world’s largest powerplant, a hydroelectric dam providing 25% of Brazil’s electricity, as well as 90% of Paraguay’s. Impressive statistics, and the structure itself is no less impressive. Not beautiful… the incredible thing is looking at this massive hunk of concrete, and contemplating the magnitude of work, energy, manpower, and raw materials that went into creating it and that continue to operate it.

I visited only the Argentine side of the falls, my second day in Iguazu. On the way to the bus station, I ran into a friend from England I had met in Medellin, Colombia. We went together to the falls, and were utterly stunned by the spectacle.

The following evening I took another bus back to Buenos Aires. I spend Sunday wandering around the city, mentally preparing for my flight home. At 8:20 the plane took off, arriving in New York at 6 AM. I got to Boston at 9:35…

My parents and siblings were waiting for me, and I rushed over to hug them. Farid was there as well. It was good to see him.

That evening, I saw some friends, and the next day my granparents arrived from Florida. The following day my other grandparents drove down to visit from Amesbury.

It was a bit of a shock… I’m home. And EVERYTHING, more or less, is the same. Its as though i never left. I’m not too sad about being back, but not too happy about it either. I dont know what to think yet.

Security. It feels empty here, a bit boring, but secure. That is my impression until the moment. Here I have friends, I have family, I have a house. I can use a car, and I have a kitchen with food in it.

There isn’t so much adventure, except in re-learning a city I knew by heart. I used to feel that these streets were MY streets, and now I’m almost a visitor, almost a foreigner.

Speaking English isnt difficult, but I still speak it like a Latino. I’m proud of that, though.

I can’t stop thinking of my trip. It has been my existence, my life for the last 8 months. There was nothing else. I was always meeting people, getting on buses, learning new cities, partying, seeking adventure, planning, thinking.

And its all over… bizarre. I almost thought it would go on forever.

I wonder if I’ll ever be able to something like this again? I sure hope so.

Buenos Aires.

A different world, perhaps?

But today, Horacio translated an Argentine saying for me: Argentina is composed of many different worlds.

Latin America is a million worlds, a great collection of places so completely different from one another and yet somehow similar, and all sharing this same identity.

What is Latin America? Americans countries where Spanish or Portuguese is the national language. Is there anything else? Perhaps Colombia shares some traits with Ecuador, which is a similar country to Peru, which in turn is very much like Bolivia… but in what ways is Bolivia like Argentina? And in what ways is Argentina like Colombia, or Ecuador?

They are different worlds.

On Monday, at 6:30 in the evening, I took a taxi to the La Paz bus terminal. I booked the next ticket towards the south of the country, a 9 hour trip to the city of Potosi. It was an early morning change of buses, and I was soon on another bus to the border with Argentina at the city of Villazon. From there, I purchased a ticket which would take me to Buenos Aires. I left La Quiaca, on the Argentinian side of the border, at 9:30 at night, and arrived in Jujuy at 1:30 am. The bus was to leave at 5:30 from Jujuy, so I had 4 hours to sleep on the bus before departure. On Thursday morning, at 6:30 am, I arrived in Buenos Aires.

It was a trip of three nights and two days.

The first day, in Bolivia, was a trip through some spectacular but decidedly empty scenery: huge, copper-colored mountains and winding valleys, all devoid of any signs of life. The road was bad, but it gave a cool sense to the journey. This bus trip showed Bolivia to be a country that perhaps looks a bit like the American West did as it was settled for the first time, a land of tiny frontier towns and cowboys and broken dreams. We stopped to eat in a dusty little village that looked like the most isolated place on the planet, seemingly sustained purely by this daily flow of buses down the one highway.

The following day in Argentina was a bit different. We had entered a fertile land of green, of fields and forests and modern-style rest stops. The was good, and we could drive at 100 kilometers per hour for one of the first times since I left the United States. It`s a long way to Buenos Aires, but it seemed like we were flying.

It was a weird twist of fate that I spent a total of 60 hours in transit from La Paz to Buenos Aires. My trip both began and ended with a 60 hour bus journey. I`ve come full circle. The adventure has, more or less, come to an end.

Buenos Aires is famous for being the “Paris of South America,” the cultural capital of the continent, the most European city in Latin America. Perhaps its true. Almost everyone here is of purely European descent, and there is almost no black or indigenous inhabitants. The city`s dance, the tango, is a European art. People here speak differently than anywhere else, and they act differently as well. I don`t know if its true that they are so arrogant, though they are famous for thinking highly of themselves. I do know, however, that many residents of Buenos Aires have no idea how to dance latin music.

There are things I like about the city. I like its architecture, its parks, its wide boulevards, its incredible food. I like the convience it offers. Here, they have big walk-in pharmacies and extensive book stores absent in other countries.

And there are things I don`t like so much, as well. The streets seem calmer and emptier than in other Latin American capitals. People here stroll in the streets, the drive around, they meet their friends on street corners, but they dont LIVE on the streets like they do elsewhere. Everyone is more civilized, but sometimes too much. It doesnt seem quite chaotic enough. Finally, discoteques dont get crowded until 3 am, and stay open until 7. Its fine if the party goes late, but what the hell do you do from 9 pm until 3 am? Sleep?

I am living at the moment with Horacio, a family friend who lived with my grandparents as part of an exchange program AGES ago, and his family. I`m sharing a room with a hyper 9 year old, Franco. Everything is going excellently.

I have some very touristy final plans for my trip… I would like to take a boat to Colonia, in Uruguay, on Wednesday, and spend the evening there, returning to Buenos Aires the following day. It is only a three-hour journey. Then on Friday, If I can find a cheap flight, I`ll fly to the Argentine border with Brazil and Paraguay to visit Iguazu falls on Saturday. On Sunday I`ll fly back to Buenos Aires to catch my evening flight to Boston. I arrive home at about 9 am on Sunday.

It will be a hectic end to the trip, but I think it will be lots of fun as well.

I hope to see everybody soon.

Love,
Dan

Rock On!

The last week has been GREAT. I love Bolivia, just for being more different, more anything-goes, than almost any country I`ve visited.

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