the good, the bad, and the patagonian wind

the patagonian wind should be added to the list of wonders of the world. it is not something to take lightly.

i stayed three nights total in comodoro rivadavia. the third night was due to wind. but i came to a conclusion on that last day about the dirty ugly oil city: once you accept something for what it is, you can start having fun with it. but if you harbor expectations and negative thoughts, you will be unfulfilled and unhappy. for example, those who go to comodoro and expect something it´s not, will leave bitter and unamused. i have accepted comodoro as an extremely unattractive city, but honestly i wouldn´t want it to be anything less. i find love for it and i´m glad i stopped through it´s unpleasantness. on this trip i´m not looking for beautiful tourist cities. i´m looking for real people with real jobs and real struggles. i want to see the good, the bad and the ugly. and i have seen all three in the past two days.

surprising observation of comodoro: there are no plastic bags in the anonima (a big supermarket chain). everyone has reusable bags or just dumps everything into their gas guzzling suvs and drives away.

not so surprising observation of comodoro: there are no verdulerías in the centro.

i said goodbye to maria eugenia, emilio, jesus, laura, fransisco, lulo and machi. my first couchsurfing surfing experience was a success. they took me in as a daughter and let me use the kitchen to my heart´s content. i made granola, rice and lentils, pizza, and sunflower-flax-seed bread. mmm... they joked about signing adoption papers. all in all, i left a happy traveler.

that is, until i got to rada tilly. the mother and father had dropped me off at a gas station and i had gotten a ride in a van. we were approaching rada tilly when i realized i had forgotten my sleeping pad. up until that moment, i had never turned around for something. this time i turned around.

flagged down a car. the elderly couple were surprised i was traveling by myself. it prompted a 14km rant by the gentleman about how people have lost their human values. they drove 2km out of their way to drop me in town. a young couple picked me up and took me straight to the door of the green house. i was extremely grateful and lucky.

jesus drove me back into town and i started hitchhing again. my bad mood melted off when really nice guy drove me to the rotonda. we talked the whole way. as he was driving off, he backed up and asked if i had eaten. he offered me some fish, which i declined and i thanked him for the ride.

a big oil company supervisor picked me up next. we drove to caleta olivia. he was a stressed out big money, big business guy with three cellphones. i was a go-with-the-wind backpacker. there was not much for us to talk about.

he reminded me of new york city, in a way. people who are uncomfortable with silence and who briskly turn up the music if there´s any lag in conversation. people who need to be constantly doing something. people who measure success with number of hours logged at the office. people who run from home to office and back. people who stress when they really don´t have to. people who are not happy. he left me at a gas station at the entrance to town.

no one was picking me up. finally a guy in a pickup took me through caleta and dropped me on the other side of town. caleta had the same feel as comodoro, but with smaller buildings and less glamour.

a pickup with a cute family picked me up. i hopped in back with my bags and we took off. i really like sitting in the back of pickups. wind in my hair. observing what´s being left behind instead of what´s coming up ahead.

we passed oil rigs. churning at the dry desert ground. the blue sea shimmered. the smell was terrible. i had some weird thoughts.

jaramillo. jaramillo thoroughly confuses me. why is it here? why is there no one to be seen? why are all the houses really bright colors? i originally decided to stop by this town of a few hundred inhabitants because it was the closest town to the petrified forest. and because it had a camp grounds.

but the more i walked around, the more confused i got. these are some things i saw:

-a lot of brightly painted houses (orange, shocking lime green, light blue, red and pink, yellow, light purple, dark purple...)

-an almacen where i bought yerba, hot water, and two carrots.

-flat desert extending in all directions.

-railroad tracks.

-boy on bike.

-dogs.

-a handful of people, most of whom waved.

-a shrubby park with sad dry trees where i sat and had mate.

i came to the conclusion that i really liked this obscure little town. i liked it because it was random and seemed to serve no purpose. there was no industry, no shops, no nothing. just small colorful houses in which locals hid from curious strangers like myself. it made me happy.

this was the good. next came the bad.

i pitched my tent, but the ground was sandy and the tent stakes did absolutely no good. i weighed my tent down with my stuff. then the wind came. having nothing better to do at night, i hid in my tent after a few ham and cheese sandwiches. here´s a video i made.

around 1am i woke up. my tent walls were flapping away and i was covered in sand. i tried weighting down the tent flaps, but i got a faceful of sand. i pulled a hankerchief over my face, reinserted my ear plugs, and tried to go back to sleep.

the wind was brutal.

i woke up many more times that night, each time spitting out dirt and wishing for sunrise. sunrise finally came. i made this video.

i think i accumulated perhaps half a kilo of sand and dirt in my tent. it covered everything. it got into everything. around 7:30am i had had enough. i moved everything to the concrete bathroom.

i fought the wind as i carried everything. i cursed. i fumed. but no matter what i did, the wind paid no attention to me and kept right on going.

the owners of the campgrounds arrived at 9am and i asked them for hot water for mate. they gave me a stool that i could use to sit on in the bathroom. i packed my bag, which allowed me to get out some frustration. mate and ham and cheese sandwiches. the wind play background music.

i made friends with a lonely oil worker with a few missing teeth. he told me he came from the north looking for work, but he hated jaramillo. he was saving so he could buy a car and go back home.

finally, the prospect of staying another night in the bathroom pushed me to sit on the side of the road with my bags waiting for cars to pass. you know you´re in the middle of nowhere when you start hitchhiking in the wrong direction due to the lack of signs or any distinguishing landscape features. a car pulled over and while we were loading my monster backpack into the trunk, i found out that i was headed in the other direction.

i crossed the road and began hitching again. wind. wind everywhere.

sandra and teddy, the silent couple in a comfy car with a gps pulled over. hardly any conversation ensued. they took me to fitz roy where they had a parrilla lunch. i sat outside with my ham and cheese. numerous truck drivers invited me to ride with them. i needed a break from truck drivers. so i waited for sandra and teddy.

neither drank mate. that surprised me.

animal alert! i saw guanacos and avestruces!!!

in the end, i didn´t go to the petrified forest as was my original plan. i could have if i had wanted to. i´m sure it would have been nice. but honestly there´s no reason to do something that you don´t feel like doing in the moment. i had had a sleepless night, woke up dirty and in a terrible mood, found a ride to take me all the way to san julian. sure, i could have gone to the forest. but i didn´t feel like i would enjoy it if i did. that´s why i like my flexible travel setup. there´s nothing i absolutely have to do. there´s nowhere i absolutely have to go. if i don´t feel like it, i won´t do it. and there´s no hard feelings and no regrets.

i have no cellphone service in san julian. which meant i couldn´t contact mariana, my couchsurfing host. the cabinas were also not working. luckily the super nice locutorio guy knew mariana and directed me to her house. i arrived dirty and smelly, but she took me in! here i have my own room, internet access, kitchen access, bucket-for-clothes-washing access, and a friendly conversation companion.

i realized last night that i haven´t spoken english since bariloche.

tomorrow i leave for rio gallegos, wind permitting.