Right near the beach! BOYEE!!

Well, I have officially left Villa Ventana - my home for the past week, and moved on to Puerto Madryn.  As soon as I was alone, I felt the need to bust out my pocket book and take some notes.  (Again, eat the cheese up folks, it´s nice and soft, and not too sharp!)

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I stand here on the windy highway and wave goodbye to Fernando as he and Nacho drive away.  I´m glad to be moving on, but sad to be leaving.

It was perfect though I think.  1 week.  I got to know the place a bit, and made some friends.  I´m leaving the place with water in my bottle, food in my stomach, and lots of good memories of Villa Ventana.  Thank you Ferd!!  You, your friends and your family make the world a better place!

It feels satisfying though, to put all of my belongings on my back and to leave one place for another.  I can understand the appeal of the open road, sin destino y los posibilidades allí.  I double-check my passport and ticket, put my notebook in my pocket and stand calmly - waiting for the bus to take me away.  I´m just so happy that this shirt is windproof!

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So I played a game of pick-up futbol the day before I left.  That was pretty darn cool!  The guys kept inviting me along, and I was convinced that I would just make a fool of myself.  So I rode my bike over there wearing only my bathing suit and flip-flops.  ONLY my bathing suit and flip flops.  I thought "this´ll give me a perfectly good reason to say no when they insist that I play".  Sure enough, when I got there, there were disappointed "awwww"s at the sight of my flip flops, and besides, like I told them, there were 6 of them and I would just screw up the numbers.

But then a 7th showed up.  So I played.  And you know what?!  We had a damn good time, and I did alright!  I scored a couple of goals, had some fncy assists, and there was this one play where Alessio was running it down the line and I was open for the cross.  He saw me, booted it over everybody right to me, and I slammed it home!  GOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLL!!!!!  Yes, it was just like that!  There were many hand slappings and high fives exchanged, and then I walked home with two of the guys talking about my favorite sports teams.  Those of you who know might say...but McLean, you don´t really follow any sports.  And to that I would answer "well that doesn´t really make for good conversation now does it."  I will say though, that in my time spent at Fernando´s house I have become a fan of Los Estudiantes.  I also like Manchester United, but who doesn´t these days??  I mean, c´mon they´re just the popular team that everybody´s heard of...psh.

I took some notes in the Bahia Blanca bus station as well.

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This is only my 2nd time in my memory that I have been on a double-decker bus, and I must say, it´s a crazy (and comfortable) experience to be on this vehicle at the 2nd story level weaving through the city streets; the trees constantly scraping the top of the bus.  There are correspondingly loud and animated mutterings from the passengers every time we hear the scraping and banging on the roof.  Something up there is breaking, I can only hope that it´s the trees!

The Bahia Blanca bus station is clean, brightly lit, and wide open.  Stray dogs sleep in the corners and stroll through the station.  Some are looking for love, but all are looking for food.  Invariably the end up sauntering over to me, as if they know that I can´t resist giving them both - mangy or no.  There is one sleek female in particular that reminds me of Maisie who continually comes back and rolls over on her back and paws at my bag of pastries.  I can tell she´s the smart one, because in between visits to McLean I see her appearing out of nowhere with a plastic bag full of food and trotting outside with it in her mouth - 4-5 dogs trailing her.

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I arrived in Puerto Madryn at 8:15 this morning.  It´s a very nice, small beach city.  So small that I felt comfortable just walking away from the bus station to my hostel.  I´m glad that I had a place to go though I saw this place on my way there:

and it struck me as a likely trap for travelers who would walk by thinking they had just passed a mirror.

I found my hostel without too much trouble at all, and was shocked to see the extreme level of posh that I found there.  I spoke with the woman behind the desk, dropped off my back pack in their storage room, grabbed my free breakfast, and then decided to head out to my first beach of South America.

There it is folks! - The Atlantic Ocean!  I was there very early in the day and so it was mostly empty and very windy.  There are two big piers here in Golfo Nuevo.

I had hiking boots on at the time, so instead of the straight-down-at-my-bare-feet-in-the-sand shot I opted for the down-the-underside-of-a-long-pier shot as my artisitic one of the morning.  I walked down the beach without any real plan of where I was going.  I chose to go North since I was eventually going to see South and just went.  I looked down, and to my delight I saw beach glass everywhere.  Now, my only previous exposure to the search for beach glass taught me that it was a.) hard to find and b.) really cool scattered throughout a house.  I strolled for awhile, letting the wind hit me in the face as I searched for particularly cool pieces of glass.  Once I had an aesthetically pleasing handful, I found a concrete wall to sit on and stopped for awhile to read my book.  (that link goes to Amazon.com and an opportunity to buy the book)  I only mention it and link it because after my failed attempt to go the Oceanographic museum (closed on Sundays) I went back to the hostel, and something very cool happened because of this book.  (there is even a very cool story about how I got this book in the first place!)

I plopped myself down on a beanbag and started talking to a guy who was also plopped on a bean bag.  I looked across to another couple in the common area, and I could have sworn I saw her holding the same book.  I held mine up for her to see with a questioning look on my face.  Recognition dawned on hers, and a friendship was born.

Her name is Sherri, and his name is Lane.  They spend their summers working touristy up in Alaska and spend the rest of the year doing any one of a number of things.  This winter they chose South America.  We quickly discovered that we had a lot in common in how we looked at the world and relationships.  It truly was a serendipitous (ha, 3rd time I´ve sued that word today) meeting; they had missed their bus last night, and so had to stay here 1 extra day.  We decided to spend the afternoon together before their bus left this evening, and we went to the store to buy our do-it-yourself empanadas.  And we did it ourselves!  Ground beef, peppers, onions, garlic, cheese and tomatoes stuffed into tapas and then baked in the oven - we even drew the interest of Linda; a woman traveling from B.C. with her husband. 

Sherri, McLean and Lane making empanadas

(see, we´re having fun!)*

I must say, that my sense of efficacy was high today!  I enjoyed the sublimity of finding similar souls traveling, and the wonderful coincidence of meeting them here.  I thoroughly enjoyed sharing something with them that I had learned here, and then somewhat enjoyed getting positively trounced by them at Scrabble:

Yes, that´s right, that´s their travel scrabble kit with which they hone their skills to outwit even a master of words such as myself.

And YES! that is the inaugural use of my brand new bombilla!  It worked quite well, and was the first of many shared cups of loose leaf tea.  A good day.  I was sad to see my new friends go, but am sure that I will see them again, either in Él Bolson; the city they were going to, or in Alaska this next summer.

For now, I am off to the beach for a moonlit stroll before coming back for an early night.  I think I will try and wake up early and go have an authentic cup of Welsh tea. 

Oh wait!  mmmm...leftover empanadas......

La Palabra Español del dia:

Ballena: Whale  (apparently there are lots of them here at certain times of the year)



*picture possibly posed