I shoulder my bags and step off the bus into a blaze. The mid-afternoon sun limns my body in sweat as I scan the sky for the Teleférico. The cable cars bob up to Cerro San Bernardo, hanging from the line like crab apples. It is the first step in what feels, to my travel-fried brain, like a labyrinthine journey to the tiny farm community of Castellanos outside of Salta. I clamber on to the prescribed Saeta bus and bounce and jolt through the city to a soundtrack of Cumbia. People climb onto the bus, their glances at me stretch on beneath slightly arched brows.
I stare out the window, the details of the streets and blocks roll off me like stones on a pile that has already reached its apex. There are bare brick walls, graffiti-stained concrete, and masses of wires hung haphazardly across the streets. Buses, cars, and motorbikes dash across intersections like a pack of robbers fighting over the last share of loot. From the walls, windows, and rooftops, faint brownish stains reach for the street like run mascara that has been slept in. Read more...
Friday is my last day at work. Beyond the obvious oncoming lifestyle changes there’s a feeling of renovation. There’s an internal change, too. One that reminds me of an old fixer-upper or a set of antique furniture painted and re-painted through the generations. You pull on your work jeans and boots, cast tarps about, and load in the tools. Then the anticipation – the apprehension – at what you’ll find beneath the old wallpaper and layers of paint.
What will I find? To what structure will life adhere without the typical work days and morning alarms and commutes. Rather than being anxious about this, I am elated at what feels like a move toward a more natural state for me. Read more...
…as my departure to Salta, Argentina draws ever closer, I’ve decided to take some time to think about future destinations. I have a feeling that the time between trips is going to flash by, and it will help to have some preliminary thoughts I can work from… Read more...
…this is no secret difficulty waiting to spring upon me, that I will curse after the trip wondering how I didn’t anticipate it. No, this is a nauseatingly obvious obstacle, a heart-straining hardship staring me down from 15 million seconds away… Read more...
…so much of life is perception defined by state of mind, and any issues are magnified during travels when failsafe routines and environments aren’t there to fall back on… Read more...