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Date:
May 09, 2002
This part of Argentina is really boring. The landscape
has changed from the Chaco deserts to swamplands and
now flooded farmlands. Recently there was 475 mm of
rain. Everyday is flat with a headwind and we ride a
100 kilometers day after day just to escape. If we
weren't stymied by the Chaco, we should have bicycled
through Paraguay to the famous waterfalls in North
Argentina, continued through Brazil and down the
Atlantic Coast to Buenos Aires.
The incredible amounts of wildlife, like thousands of
parrots a day, are disappearing. Once upon a time some
of these areas were giant savannahs covered in palm
trees. Now, the farmers have hacked things down making
way for cows and crops, leaving square patches of
forest behind, the palm trees being choked out by
eucalyptus trees. This ent
ire area is being scraped
into the mouths of 13 million people just in the
capital city, Buenos Aires.
How many people does the world need? The hypothesis of
more people equating to more Einsteins or Shakespeares
doesn't seem to be true. In fact, I would argue it is
the opposite. For instance, we were invited to camp in
a family's yard, they had 6 children and couldn't
afford even the price of books for the eldest
daughter, Veronica, to attend college. Perhaps
Veronica was a budding Shakespeare, it was funny when
she said, "In every language a banana is still a
banana." Was she being as profound as Shakespeare, "A
rose by any other name..."?
I am still amazed at the generosity of people. The
father didn't even have one peso in his wallet -- he
showed us his empty wallet jokingly asking us how many
dollars we wanted -- yet he invited us into his home
and fed us a steak dinner. He worked when he could and
mostly for trade.
Earlier this week, I was stung by a baby scorpion
three times that had crawled into bed with me. It hurt
a lot more then being stung three times by a wasp that
flew down my shirt the week before, and a lot less
then getting my hand caught in the ceiling fan of our
hotel. The ceiling was unusually low. None of these
countries seem to have building codes that mandate
such things like constructing all the steps the same
height.
I will be crossing into Uruguay the day after tomorrow. And then a few days
after that, I will cross back into Buenos Aires. On the one hand,
I am sad to leave the Latin American countries after spending 7
months here. On the other hand, I will be very relieved to get on
the plane before the country goes on strike, runs out of oil or
the desperadoes steal all my earthly belongings.
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