Analysis...

Rhia speaking...

I´ve tasked John with the where-what-when update to try and spend a few minutes on analysis of the experience. It hasn´t even been three weeks and Í already can´t imagine being someone who gets up in the morning and goes to sit at a desk five days a week. At the same time hotels and restaurants are definitely starting to lose their appeal.

Some things we keep noticing are that huge segments of the South American population appear to be heavily pregnant. Argentinian males seem to sport mullets with an alarming frequency. People are generally super-nice, unless they´re suer-surly. There were an awful lot of Irish in Brazil. Brazillian Portuguese is a strange beast.

Being confronted with poverty happens more often here. There are shantytowns on the outskirts of everywhere, houses thrown up with whatever comes to hand. On the other hand there are lots of people who seem to be pretty comfortable. There are lots of people making small livings as well - some of them seem happier than others. The people with temporary stands to sell amazonian jewellery, or random trinkets, or pop and peanuts and the like... they seem to be doing ok. The people, and especially the children, going table to table... it´s a different story. And there´s no way to buy from one child, or give coins to one child. For one thing, who knows where the money goes. For another, as soon as word gets out, you´ll be swarmed. I guess there´s some solace in the fact that, aside from insane things like this trip, or, you know, getting married, we tend to tread pretty lightly. We´re not big conspicuous consumers - I´d rather buy second hand than branded, and we try to eat local and the like. Still, I wish I, or someone, could imagine a solution for all the hunger and poverty out there.


Topic two - things we miss.

All our friends and family, of course; the cat, a great deal; cooking at home; speaking without thinking about it first; wearing jeans; decent public washrooms; knowing where we´re going... not a whole lot, which is nice.


Topic three - details on bathrooms.

It´s funny how little this bothers me, because, overall, it doesn´t. But I´ve been playing this sort of public toilet bingo... a blackout would involve a washroom having: a seat, toilet paper, hot water, soap, paper towels, and no charge. I have not yet managed to fill the card. In fact, making a line of more than two or three is rare. It´s funny what you can get used to. I don´t expect this to improve as we head into Bolivia.


Topic four - food.

Steak all the time sounds really good in principle. I have to say I´m getting pretty meated out. It wasn´t bad in Brazil, there were lots of fruits and vegetables to be had, but around here? Argentina seems to survive on meat, potatoes, cheese, and bread. Plus icecream, coffee and sugar. It´s not my ideal diet, I have to say. The cheese in particular is pretty difficult. I´m trying to have some yogurt every day, to help the little stomach beasties along.


Topic five - travel.

The buses in Argentina are pretty great with these semi-bed seats that have integrated leg rests and deep reclines that don´t really cut into the space of the person behind you. We´ve spent a lot of time on our four to six hour hauls dozing and reading. The hitch is mainly the completely insane airconditioning, which has everyone shrugging into blankets. On Thursday night we´re going up a class of bus and trying out the full bed style, taking advantage of an overnight ride to Salta - if you have a 13 hour trip, it´s probably best not to waste a whole day, we figure.
Long distance bus travel seems to be the same most places. Lots of empty space between cities, lots of fields, lots of cows. Lots of stopping in tiny towns you never find out the name of. There are certain albums that make a good soundtrack for that sort of thing...


I thought I was going to be deeper here... but I guess that will still have to wait.