Unusual situation - I returned. I am back in Pico Truncado and it feels like a shore after a bit of sailing on the vast waters.
It is a small town of perhaps some twenty thousand people in the middle of a Patagonian everywhere. I came here one cold night, perhaps some two weeks ago, and searching for a place to stay, entered a random church. I asked nothing, just watched. It was my first time in the Baptist church; I wondered what made them different. I stood when they stood, sang when they sang and listened when they listened. I remember the priest was talking about obedience to the employer and a prayer was made for those out of work.
The woman whom I sat next to offered me a caramel, asked where I was from and where I was staying. She was kind. When she heard I had no place to stay, she stood up to go to speak to someone and when came back told me that there was nothing to worry about. That night I was to stay in a hotel and have a generous dinner with Lorena, her boyfriend Luis and their friend Sergio in a nearby restaurant. My first day back in Argentina had already made me feel very welcome.
The rest of the journey South that unrolled from There and Then feels a dream full of surprises, presents, new friends and kindness. The road embraced me and carried me, opened homes to shelter my body, peoples´ hearts to share the experience. I camped only once, and that too when I wanted to in the picturesque surroundings of Land of Fire National Park. Truck drivers when giving me long rides turned out to be psychologists and philosophers, my co-travellers and lovers of the horizon. When I left, I always left for good, the road was waiting, the few experiences of return to the same point or meeting people twice along the way I had had, did not give me much hope to see my friends ever again. The partings were sad, but at the same time hopeful - the road always brought me "home" – a special place prepared for me, the family I was to meet expecting my coming. I did not look back, but enjoyed every moment of the journey, always exciting, always new.
Yet I am again in Pico Truncado. Indeed, a very unusual situation. Despite the tempting rides – Alberto whom I was travelling with from distant Ushuaia offered to take me all the way to Mendoza; Mario who had picked me up when I was just 50 kilometers away from my destination said he was going to Valdivia in Chile.
I touched the Atlantic Ocean on the crossroads, a place called Caleta Olivia and turned the direction towards inland. People were surprised to see a backpacker in such a place - the area, bare of any vegetation, did not lead to any obvious tourist destination. Young Guillermo who picked me up as I was walking in the middle of that desert said he was wondering where I was going.
Truth, I had forgotten my glasses in Lorena´s office and so chose to return to Pico Truncado. I have lost plenty of things before, of course. My first pair of glasses I suppose is still somewhere in Nicaragua – left them in a gas station, my ID card is in China, a green woolen vest in Bolivia, my hat in someone´s car in Brazil, one diary I lost in Russia, English-Spanish dictionary in Costa Rica, one notebook with all contacts in Colombia. It could be an endless list. The difference with this time is that I remembered exactly where I had left my little black box with glasses and a small origami squirrel and that the road North was to go past Pico Truncado... so I did come back to claim them, and well, what better excuse to visit my friends.
When I told Lorena that I did not want to stay in a hotel, Marisel who worked in her shop, kindly offered me shelter in her small apartment. We spend a lot of time together, at home, or at the shop where I can use internet, or taking a walk, or visiting friends after a workday. It is good to have that time to get to know a person better and have a small break from life on the road. I was to stay here just a day but spent almost a week doing writing up on my blog, arranging photos, reading books.
Lorena was helping to organize a fashion show of a local manufacturer and invited me to see the presentation of the collection on Saturday.
It is a small town of perhaps some twenty thousand people in the middle of a Patagonian everywhere. I came here one cold night, perhaps some two weeks ago, and searching for a place to stay, entered a random church. I asked nothing, just watched. It was my first time in the Baptist church; I wondered what made them different. I stood when they stood, sang when they sang and listened when they listened. I remember the priest was talking about obedience to the employer and a prayer was made for those out of work.
The woman whom I sat next to offered me a caramel, asked where I was from and where I was staying. She was kind. When she heard I had no place to stay, she stood up to go to speak to someone and when came back told me that there was nothing to worry about. That night I was to stay in a hotel and have a generous dinner with Lorena, her boyfriend Luis and their friend Sergio in a nearby restaurant. My first day back in Argentina had already made me feel very welcome.
The rest of the journey South that unrolled from There and Then feels a dream full of surprises, presents, new friends and kindness. The road embraced me and carried me, opened homes to shelter my body, peoples´ hearts to share the experience. I camped only once, and that too when I wanted to in the picturesque surroundings of Land of Fire National Park. Truck drivers when giving me long rides turned out to be psychologists and philosophers, my co-travellers and lovers of the horizon. When I left, I always left for good, the road was waiting, the few experiences of return to the same point or meeting people twice along the way I had had, did not give me much hope to see my friends ever again. The partings were sad, but at the same time hopeful - the road always brought me "home" – a special place prepared for me, the family I was to meet expecting my coming. I did not look back, but enjoyed every moment of the journey, always exciting, always new.
Yet I am again in Pico Truncado. Indeed, a very unusual situation. Despite the tempting rides – Alberto whom I was travelling with from distant Ushuaia offered to take me all the way to Mendoza; Mario who had picked me up when I was just 50 kilometers away from my destination said he was going to Valdivia in Chile.
I touched the Atlantic Ocean on the crossroads, a place called Caleta Olivia and turned the direction towards inland. People were surprised to see a backpacker in such a place - the area, bare of any vegetation, did not lead to any obvious tourist destination. Young Guillermo who picked me up as I was walking in the middle of that desert said he was wondering where I was going.
Truth, I had forgotten my glasses in Lorena´s office and so chose to return to Pico Truncado. I have lost plenty of things before, of course. My first pair of glasses I suppose is still somewhere in Nicaragua – left them in a gas station, my ID card is in China, a green woolen vest in Bolivia, my hat in someone´s car in Brazil, one diary I lost in Russia, English-Spanish dictionary in Costa Rica, one notebook with all contacts in Colombia. It could be an endless list. The difference with this time is that I remembered exactly where I had left my little black box with glasses and a small origami squirrel and that the road North was to go past Pico Truncado... so I did come back to claim them, and well, what better excuse to visit my friends.
When I told Lorena that I did not want to stay in a hotel, Marisel who worked in her shop, kindly offered me shelter in her small apartment. We spend a lot of time together, at home, or at the shop where I can use internet, or taking a walk, or visiting friends after a workday. It is good to have that time to get to know a person better and have a small break from life on the road. I was to stay here just a day but spent almost a week doing writing up on my blog, arranging photos, reading books.
Lorena was helping to organize a fashion show of a local manufacturer and invited me to see the presentation of the collection on Saturday.
Fall-Winter collection from Maitena 
Me, Lorena and Marisel My friends gave me a new look: they sent me to a hair-salon, where I had my curls straightened, then they dressed me up and made me feel sixteen going to a party with a "false ID". It was me and it was not me. My backpacking-hitchhiking self felt so far away that night.
New look
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