Mom Says I’m Running Away

Day: 203

So as my last tribute to Argentina I decided to do a little photo review of some of my personal favorites (I actually got lazy, and have some I like better but need some work in photoshop and am not putting those up) from the last seven weeks. Plus I thought I would put some beauty on this page before I get to my hotel in Mexico and sink into a Hunter Thompson style journalism and drinking binge frying my white ass on the beaches of the Yucatan Penninsula.

Good, now that thats done, it is time to be off to Spring Break! (Once again I say, My life is way to hard)

Day: 202

Uhh… Yeah…

For those of you don’t know; I got this job for three weeks down in Cancun, Mexico blogging Spring Break next month. Everything was confirmed today and I just received an email with my flight information. I leave on March 3rd, who knows the kind of trouble I’ll find in a place like this, with scantily clad college girls running around everywhere but I am sure to be drunk and up to my old tricks.

I really don’t know how my life has gotten so good.

Oh, by the way, did I mention I am excited. Who else gets an all expense paid, three week trip to Mexico to hang out with drunken college students and document the goings on. I call this my job, and I am a professional.

Day: 201

My bus was late, so instead of 8am arrival it was more like noon. Bummer.

With only two more nights in Argentina, I quickly found my way back to the hostel I stayed in last month, and began to wander the busy streets again (after a shower and nap of course). Other than the police being out in force because of this afternoons soccer match, it was just as vibrante and exciting as I remembered it from seven weeks ago. I can’t believe my time here has moved so fast…

Day: 200

So… as I mentioned a earlier, I was hoping to bring you a grand Bicentennial post in celebration of two hundred posts (of which Mom said I’d never get past Day 30), but unfortunately I ended up on a bus all day.

The only good part of the day was the Shout Out I got Rolf Pott’s website.

Day: 199

Waking up this morning, after roughly 20 hours of sleep, I was still not feeling a %100. I decided to take it easy. I managed to get to the bus station and change my ticket back to Buenos Aires from Sunday to Sat. The original plan had been to head north with Hilary and Dominic into Humamarca for the weekend then make a mad dash back to BA for one night before my flight back to Cali.

Unfortunately me being sick and Bolivian visa problems for Hilary caused this not to happen, at least I did get my ticket changed and I can have 2 more nights in BA to slightly compensate for my loss of not seeing the far north of Argentina.

The afternoon was spent with a small walk for my health and going to the movies.

It was a rather mellow day just trying to recover. Not what I hoped for in my last days in this country that has been so good to me so far. Plus it set back my plans of spending Day:200 in a giant northern Carneval celebration and has forced the monumental day to be spent on a bus for 18 hours.

Day: 198

I was awake for all of three hours today, to have some soup and 7-up. The rest of the day was spent in cold sweats in my hostel bed. Rather unfortunate.

(And, No. It wasn’t a hangover. I wasn’t that excessively drunk last night)

Day: 197

Some key factors were a Argentine girl with her babymaking parts tattoooed on her back, lots of beer, a very angry German man (who had been telling us stories about time he spent in Thai jails), Valentines Day, and of course, your beautiful hero.

Put them together and what do you get?

Fun!

In the form of a very drunk German man telling me at a bar at 1am:

“If you don’t stop touching her, I am going to kill you.” (It was actully her, who kept holding my hand, kissing me, and dancing too close for what might be called friendship.)
“Seriously?” I replied.

“Get the fuck away from her.”

“How about we play Paper, Rock, Scissors? Winner backs off?” I wittily reply (or at least I think its witty.)
“I’ll fucking kill you.  No scissors or no rocks…”

Ok I think it may be time for a short reprieve.

I excuse myself to the restroom,  Stopping by a table of people  from the hostel for a quick retelling.  It turns out the German has been here for 10 days trying to hit on this girl, who works in the tourist office, and he hasn’t gotten anywhere, some say they think he is in love with her.  Sucks for him.  He brings her around and it only takes me two hours to destroy his fairytale, I was starting to see why he might be pissed off.  But still, if you you cant close a deal in 10 days what is another night going to do for you?

Now what am I to do? Chance a very intoxicated German coming after me for just another girl I have meant in just another city?

I give him a few minutes to cool off, then sneek in and invite her to head out with me to a club that some of the others are going to.  She says she’ll meet me there in a little while after she says goodbye to some friends. I jump in a taxi and head off to a huge, packed, electronic music thumping club in the middle of nowhere. Our group is quickly seperated and I am wandering the dance floor when two other Argentine hotties start talking to me.

They want to teach me to dance.  Within two minutes out on the dance floor these succubuses hands are trying to get in my pockets to steal from me.  I am having to much fun to worry though (especially since I left everything of value in the hostel locker and only had about 20 pesos ($6) spread out between my pockets).  I giggle and keep dancing with them, hoping they leave enough for cab fare back.

After an hour of the head pounding music, and shady Argentine hotties, I decide it’s time for bed.  I find that I still have most of my money, or perhaps all (can’t remember exactly how much I had to start, but it wasn’t much). I get a taxi back to the area of the hostel and walk the last two blocks towards my bed.

Guess who I run into, sans German guy? Nadia, the girl who I was getting threats about earlier! She wanders towards the hostel with me, retelling a story of how the German told her I was such a horrible guy just trying to take advantage of her.

“But I am just trying to take advantage of you.”

She giggles, gives me a good night kiss and says “If only you were staying here longer.”  She vanishes up the street back towards the bar.

I go to sleep laughing.

What a weird fucking night. 

Day: 196

We had hoped to make it back into Calilegua for another sunrise (we have been staying in town just outside the park), but after 15 hours of hiking and birding yesterday we slept right through until way after the sun was in the sky. We did half a day of birding then packed up the car to head the two hours back into Salta for many hours of photo editing and catch-up blogging. Then, of course, beer.

Day: 195

Sorry these last few post have been light on plot. I have been insanely busy wandering the jungle looking for birds with Hilary and Dominic who says things like:

“Ahhh! Wicked! A Snow-Crusted-Pelican-Kingfisher” complete with a British accent and the excitement that you would see from me getting my first drink of the evening.
To be fair though, he did show me and name more birds than I could ever remember, and I even got to see some cool ones like parrots and toucans.

Church services, tractors, and fungus also filled the day with infinate excitement.

PS: The title of this blog is also a Dominic quote from when he got bored with watching the sunrise and wanted to go birding. I wasn’t just trying to be vulgar (not that I mind being when the situation calls for it).

Day: 194

I decided today to tag along with Hilary and Dominic heading up into the jungles of Calilegua, a couple of hours north of Salta, for some bird watching.