..when to get off...¨. After over 50 hours in a bus crossing the arid Pampas to the tip of Argentinian Patagonia to the tip of my mind and back, in and out of thoughts that got tucked away in dusty crevices of my brain, unchartered feelings that erupted and waned, an anxious uneasy restlessness that could only be subdued with the trance inducing rythym of the road, I found myself pulling my ticket, already worn at the edges from so much travel, out from my pants pocket where it had been ever so neatly tucked away, just to confirm that I did actually have a destination. I needed every minute of every hour in transit to break down the emotional and physical distance I felt.
The bus was a disaster, we broke down an hour outside of B.A. because we had no headlights on a 2-night overnight bus ride. What? The pit-stop gave us all time to get bored, get loose and start conversing. My first persuiter a cute 17 year-old bubblegum chomping latin Lolita nervously twirling her hair with brightly painted cotton candy pink nails, all while listening to her headset moves in and out quick; like a shark. ¨Do you know where the bathroom is?¨ I motion to the sign overhead that clearly indicates where the bathroom is, knowing that this is a façade of a question. As expected, she retrieves and doesn´t go to the bathroom. She had sniffed the gringo out, it was her simple curiosity that brought her to me. In no time at all we´re shoulder to shoulder up against a kiosk, me fearing I´ll tell this young persuiter more about myself and the story that brings me here than I would like, I bite my lip. Hour 27, my first maté with a group of Argentine bus boys, young, attractive and simple. The beverage was passed around like a joint, tasting of tea, spearmint, brown sugar and friendship.
Maté madness!
Back on the road, back to that thought I was pondering back to the steady vibration of the wheels on the bus going round and round. The scenery was hypnotizing, I spent four hours dazing out over a monotonous landscape that could have been a 2 minute video clip on loop. I remove my headphones to hear the clapping splashes of piss waves threatening to erupt with every bump in the road while my friendly bus buddy reads an article about soul searching and conscientiousness. How can he find the answers amidst the reek of burbling bowl movements?
Níght fell and I could feel my heart sink and my mind fall into lucid dreams of the past, present, future. Wolves. Lost love. A bite. I awake and droozily peek out the bus curtain to a moonlit lunar terrain, our bus casting a long shadow out over a perk, round tit. Like an Ingmar Bergman flic, tonight the world comes in two color: Black and white. Where are we? Is this my destination? I reach again for my pocket, had to check the destination written on the ticket to remind me where to stop. Where to get off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkhLKfU7Nis
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