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Snippets from this Week

By Daniel Lins - 2008-12-15

!A mi me gusta Argentina!

I really like Argentina!

Today is a great day! The sun is shining, there is no wind, and I am inside with a full belly. We are taking a rest day.

Stark contrast to our days on Friday and Saturday, which included hours of headwinds, rain showers, mountain passes, and three broken spokes.

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MIKE AND I are uploading at a gas station/WiFi point called YPF, while Chris and Dan are back at the camp. It is headquarters for a yacht club called Clubo Nautica, at the end of town. Really, it’s just a barn with some Kayaks in it and a makeshift kitchen and bathroom. We camp in our tents outside, and there are a few other travelers who sleep inside. It is safe and secure, but not too luxurious.

Copy this into Google Maps at http://maps.google.com/ for our Exact Location!

"-53.79874,-67.682031"

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I WAS EATING some bread and jelly at the table in the barn, and some Italian travelers were talking with the Argentine hosts next to me, in Spanish. I’m still slow with my comprehension, so I only caught snippets…

"Marmelado…muy barrato…todo el dia" <Laughing> "...Entiendalo…" <they all looked over at me in silence>

"Jelly…very cheap… all day long"... "He understands"

So, They were laughing that we Americans eat Jelly with our bread at any time of day. For us, Peanut Butter and Jelly can be breakfast, lunch, or dinner. But for our new friends, it was such an absurd thing to see me eat Jelly at any meal besides breakfast. It was also an anomaly for them to see an American living so frugally. It rocked their world see the Americans, normally kings of the economy, living on a strict budget. "What is happening to the world when American tourists don’t spend money??!"

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DAN WAS EXERCISING in the barn on our day off from cycling. He’d do some pushups, then situps, and then a few other contortions that I don’t know the names for. After a while, he had worked up quite a sweat and was breathing hard. At one particularly loud "huff," our foreign friends looked up from their game of pick-up sticks and laughed in unison. Then they all raised their glasses to display their typical form of "exercise."

It’s a different world out here where "exercise" for the sake of health is unheard of. But people appear very healthy. Very few locals are overweight, and they all seem hardened by the active lifestyle of the country: working outside, outdoor recreation, and walking/cycling to work. They laugh at our addiction to the internet and to our cameras.

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PRANKING

A few days ago, after we fixed Dan’s broken spokes, we camped behind a high embankment near the road. After eating breakfast the next morning, Chris found the "hygienic paper" and waddled off toward the woods. At the barbed wire fence, he tripped over the dilapidated post and got tangled up. His maledictions were so hilarious that we all laughed at him! A few minutes later, the rumble hit me and I tramped off into the woods, vaulting the fence with ease. I smiled inwardly as I thought of what a great jumper I am.

Upon my return, I found the rest of the team packed up and ready to go… And all staring at me with smirks.

"Why is your bike over there?" Chris said mischievously.

I looked, and saw my bicycle on the far side of the fence, where the cows were, nicely packed up and fully loaded. My heart sank. I knew how heavy the bike was, and couldn’t imagine how they got it across the fence fully loaded.

"How’d you guys do it? I don’t even think TWO of you could lift my bike," I scoffed.

"Oh, we didn’t do it. Your bike is trying to escape! It thinks it’s a cow! You’d better catch it before it starts Mooing!" they replied impishly.

"Bah!" I hopped the fence. They must have unloaded it piece by piece, moved it, and then loaded it again just as tediously. I grabbed it with two hands and lifted with all my might, intending to show them how their patient efforts would be foiled with a simple application of my superior might.

I got it over the fence in one heave, amidst raucous laughter and to all of our surprise: including my own. With the joke over, we set-to and got on the road.

But the joke was on me, as it was actually too much weight and my back muscles have been sore for 3 days now.

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OUR FIRST LLAMA

sighting was yesterday! It ran away from us with its long neck stretched out in front and swaying with each stride.

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Time to go! Let’s eat some empaneadas!