Tuesday, February 9, 2010

and then the adventures really began...

on this trip i´ve really gotten used to the idea of the backburner, a concept introduced to me by harry many years ago. the idea goes like this, there is a time for everything and it doesn´t have to be now. sometimes we have a goal or an objective and we want it accomplished now (for example: a destination, a job, a book...), but sometimes the workings of the universe aren´t aligned in a way to allow for aforementioned goal at the moment. it´s ok to set it on the back burner and wait for the right moment to arrive. no sense in forcing something that doesn´t flow.

on this trip i don´t have a rigid schedule nor a concrete path. sometimes the windy roads i tread are made of dirt and my watch skips a beat. sometimes my travel wings lift me up and carry me to previously unheard of destinations and sometimes things don´t work out as i had originally planned. and i´m ok with that.

normally i am a rather impatient person. i have my to-do lists and my new york state of mind. i like concrete ideas and plans that give a certain order to the universe. but traveling has a way of introducing new ideas.

hitchhiking is unpredictable. always. you never know who will stop, when they will stop, and where they will take you. sometimes you are left at an intersection many kilometers away from any sort of four-walled structure and are left to sing, dance and kick stones to pass the time. hitchhiking has no tolerance for rigid schedules or routes. you surrender a certain amount of control and play by its rules.

my original aim for february 5th was to arrive to porvenir in time to catch the 14hs ferry to punta arenas. but as the clock ticked away the hours on the night of the 4th, i realized my very early morning goal would be impractical. so i changed aims: simply arrive to porvenir.

i left nancy´s house around noon and walked to the main route heading out of town. it was not the ideal hitchhiking starting point. no one stopped. so i started walking.

a truck braked and i hopped in. the truck driver had moved south in search of a higher paying job. it´s a similar story to many i´ve heard while here in the south. the pay of oil business is attractive and brings many workers from the poorer north of argentina. he dropped me at the border.

stamp stamp. flagged a ride with another truck driver. we talked and talked and talked. it´s awesome when you can get passed small talk. he dropped me off at the chilean side.

stamp stamp. every car that passed was going north to argentina or punta arenas. no one was going to porvenir. no one.

i made friends with the chilean boarder control who took very good care of me. they asked every vehicle that passed if they were headed to porvenir and if they had room for one more. it got chilly at the border.

i waited and waited. suddenly a red car pulls up and my french friend dom from ushuaia jumps out. it´s amazing how close you become to people you share a few days traveling with. it´s also amazing how much a familiar friendly face can brighten up your mood! dom´s driver´s friend had room in his car so angel (a 21 chilean kid stranded at the border) and i hopped in. destination, somewhere along route 3, close to punta arenas.

our driver was crazy. a frantic chainsmoking nutcase. i´m glad that i wasn´t alone with him and that the chilean kid was in the front seat. there are very few people that i can´t stand, the driver was one of them. i took the opportunity to stare out the window and avoid conversation.

the ferry ride was uneventful, so dom and i spent it gossiping to eachother about our respective drivers.

angel´s family owns a restaurant between the argentinean border and the turn off to tierra del fuego. he and i were happy to be dropped off. i wished my good friend dom the best of luck and we said goodbye.

angel said that i was welcome to pitch my tent out back behind the restaurant. he offered me hot water for tea and advice on punta arenas. it was getting late, so i took him up on his kind offers. i pitched the tent and fell asleep super super inexplicably happy. in the end, i never made it to porvenir. and i´m ok with that. i ended up sleeping right off the highway in my awesome green tent, which was better than anything in porvenir anyway.


february 6 provided more unpredictable entertainment. tent came down and steam rose up from the mate water. before i knew it, i said goodbye to angel and turned my attention to the road. goal: get to punta arenas.

pulled over a pickup truck. two guys. wouldn´t give me a straight answer to my inquiry of their destination. i took a better look at them, missing teeth and facial scars. i thanked them and politely declined. this was the first car i had ever rejected.

pulled over a oil company supervisor. talked. he left me at the intersection to tierra del fuego.

pulled over a couple in a pick up. they were not used to picking up hitchhikers, but they made an exception because i was a girl and traveling alone. they didn´t quite understand my motives for traveling as much as i tried to explain it to them and after a little while the conversation fizzled out.

i didn´t have a particular destination in punta arenas. i didn´t know anyone. i didn´t know the city. the driver, who ended up working for the chilean government, snuck me into an official looking building to use the internet. sent a quick note to my parents that i was ok.


saturday afternoon means that everything is closed, including the tourist information office. which meant no map, no orientation, no idea what to do. so i did what seemed appropriate, i took a seat on a park bench next to an artisan stall and pulled out my mate and thermos.


i don´t know why, but i felt a force pulling me towards a particular stall. an older woman sat selling hats, bags, earrings, and scarves. i started pouring mates.

she turned towards me and started talking. elisabet, her name, was from valdivia but lived in temuco. she had a mother, 10 brothers and sisters, a husband, two children, and three grandchildren. but she was bored in temuco. her husband sat around the house and she wanted adventure. so a few months before her 60th birthday she took a chance, followed her dream, and left her family to come down to punta arenas. she rented a small room in her brother´s church and supported herself by selling her handsewn products. she praised my courage and i praised hers. it´s not easy to leave your whole life to persue a dream.

upon hearing that i didn´t have a place to sleep for the night, she invited me back to her apartment. i helped her take down her stall and carry everything back. we showered, did laundry, and cooked a generous lunch at her pastor brother´s tranquil, hobby-adorned house.

somehow we simultaneously knew that we could trust eachother. we talked about religion and fate briefly. a lot of things on this trip have me thinking.

i slept on a mattress on the floor. i slept very well.

on sunday, february 7, i went for a walk around the city. most things were closed. not much to see. i followed my feet.


saying goodbye and thankthankthank you to elisabet and her brother, i shouldered my heavy pack and headed toward the road to puerto natales. vladamir, the chilean with a russian name, dropped me off at the roundabout. i stuck out my thumb and a police car stopped. just as the officer was explaining to me that i shouldn´t be hitchhiking, a nice couple and elderly father stopped to see where i was going. they took me to puerto natales.


i read the newspaper, listened to la oreja de van gogh, and talked. they dropped me off at the door of my next couchsurfing experience. and what an experience it has turned out to be.

to be continued... and photos to come in esquel!!

3 comments:

Lisa Inglis said...

"sometimes things don´t work out as i had originally planned. and i´m ok with that."

- a roadside mantra that i always keep in my back pocket

Unknown said...

Hi! Found your blog trying to find information on hitchhiking from Porvenir to the Argentinian border. Read on a little and saw we both stayed at the same couches (Maria Eugenia and Nancy). How small can the world be? Your writing reminded me a lot of my hitched rides in Argentina and Chile earlier. Nice blog, keep it up!

ali sa said...

lisa, i glanced at your blog. i love it. hitchhiking, alone, as a woman is quite a liberating and exciting experience. safe and entertaining travels to you!

maarten! el mundo es un panuelo! best of luck to you and send me a message if you swing by bariloche!! :)

cheers!