FOME

I had the great opportunity to travel through Argentina after the new year and before my final semester in Chile. I find that for the most part, vacation picks up right as it´s about to end, which is what happened in my departure from Argentina. Good byes seem to bring the connections that I want, and I now know the people worth spending time with in the country I have just left.

Mendoza is a place I will want to revisit. It´s got a pleasant city vibe, set with a shining night life and great hostels, theoretical art, and natural beauty. Not too far away are the settings of rafting trips, hiking trails, mountain whatevering, and wine. There are hot springs, rosy quartz forms, both clean and nasty riverwater, and visible stars at night. Spanish is everywhere but so are the travelers of all sounds. Coffee is easy to find and the prices are really reasonable. I feel good being in a place where education through college and health care are free to normal blowjos.

The micro that I took through nighttime mountainrange was more like a short bus. It was a van, really. The discount trek was good, though definitely not sleep friendly or fast. The people smooshed in our lil ride was goodfolk, a mix of Argentinians and Chileans. My bag was the size of a passenger, which could have caused a conflict, but by way of shoving and stuffing, each person and their belongings made it on board. Including the driver, we were 12. We could call the van, "broken promises" from the lack of certain amenities, but none of them bothered me. The little jimmyrigged tv set up didn´t work; nor did the good music stations, all of which was ok by me. The promised coke and starter food didn´t really seem too appealing and I was sick of the disposable trays of shitty food that other bus lines had given me. We wasted so much packaging, and I assume gas, on the other trips in fancy buses!

So in the beginning of the trip, before I started to resent the cold, I was entirely in love with my setup. I had enough room, I was comfortable, and the cutout of the dark mountainshape against the stars was stunning. There was more community than individualism on this ride. In comparison with the bigger buses I traveled on, this was a big difference. The other bus rides were absent of eye contact or conversation, touching or connectivity. In the short bus, there was often enough an ass in my face and a joke, and comment and unavoidable name exchanges. Stops would have been miserable in the tin if it weren´t for the chatty attitude of the others with me. In contrast, stops in other buses would have just allowed everyone to roll over and sleep more.

I don´t mean to glorify mediocre to shitty travel conditions and I´m glad that I have had many more comfortable rides throughout Argentina. Seriously doubting too any notion that others on board were celebrating less waste or some kind of community atmosphere, but I mention the differences that I notice nonetheless. I just want to find the reasons I liked being on a tiny bus. Maybe I just don´t like the distance between people on the other buses or the less mutual feeling between driver and passenger. It could be the prepaid plastic food and the huge bags of garbage that they accumulate on board fancy pants buses. Maybe I just like doing whatever seems more economical because it curbs my sense of unemployment guilt though, in reality, the mini bus from ancient times is not so much of a money saver. It´s almost like taking a Grayhound bus rather than Amtrak in Sacramento, which are worlds apart in quality and close neighbors in price.

Still, I think there is a certain pulse that community brings. The bucket I took from Argentina to Chile brought that oxygen and flow where the other experiences I´ve have been dead and sleepy. Crying on other buses, for example, bothers me. The cries come from faceless things and nameless mothers, not traveling sidekicks. But when you are traveling at the hip of others, the people you are with are peers and not invaders of personal space. Their noises are just people reasonable. I walked away from the trip cross country having shared some kind of border torture with people I will continue to be in contact with and I´m glad it worked out the way it did. That said, I have to mention in reality that I was not thrilled to be dealing with customs at 4:30 am or the traffic build up before it, though conversation all the while was good and the jacket loan, sweet.

One of these gaps of time shared with other border crossers brought the topic of Chilean and Argentinian cultural differences. This topic is a golden one and I love hitting on it. Each viewpoint on the matter is interesting to me. Bring on the generalities and stereotypes! I want to hear it all. One thing insisted upon from a true Argentinian was the boring nature of the Chilean. "Fome" is the Chilean word for boring. According to this guy, Chileans don´t want to get up and seek the action, make a party happen, or do anything. They wait for things to happen. This is interesting to me, since my experience in Chile has been more partytastic than I can keep up with. I feel like I can´t keep up with the Chilean party pace in general. Any place that has clubs open all night and many people getting down till the sun comes up is impressive to me. The fact that Chileans have their own verb for party to the death, or "carrete" says something to me. Besides that, the party´s don´t get started until late, like the last meal. I´d like to see what the Argentinian party can do.

But then I want to defend the fome. Others talking about fome seem to include the reader as boring. The tv watcher, the rathernotpartyer, the quiet, seem to be the boring face of people. So is the shopper more interesting because of physical movement? The mover and shaker more compelling? What about the person that stays at home rather than hopping planes to different places? I think a lot of these ideas of boring and fun are consumption based. What about the cheapo? I´m more interested in hearing thoughts of someone who has done plenty of processing than the one who rattles off his adventures. The latter that I´ve met seems more of an insecure person in desperate need of distraction.

These very notes are just rough sketches, by the way. I don´t know if I´ll see this differently within the hour...