Not the most original of titles but hey who do you think I am? **fill in name of favourite witty writer here **? eh?
Maybe if during my trip I´d eaten a Onion Bargie... oh well..lets move on.
Is a month long enough to judge a country? I think so. Here I go. Argentina is a country with an inferiority complex fed on a diet of milenesas (chicken or beef schnitzels) and a long experience of pathetically rubbish government. When not ruled by murderous military dimwits the country has lurched from one chancer to the next, each with the economic aplomb of a pissed tourist (is this a ten or a hundred? - whatever!), which has clearly driven 90% of the population to an irrational love of breadcrumb covered meats. I think that covers it.
On the upside the hopeless mismanagment and eventual collapse of the national railway system has led to arguably the best long distance bus service on the planet. The quite staggering luxury and comfort of these buses is unsung by the locals who seem surprisingly keen to label themselves as ´third world´ and bemoan the economic woes of one of South Americas most advanced economies.
It is possibly the closeness of Argentina culturally speaking to Europe that results in this unreasonable comparison and resulting gloom - so near and yet so far. However, when distracted from pontificating on national identity most Argies I have met are uncomplicatedly friendly and hospitable.
Not least my host for my stay here in Esquel Patagonia. Lucia is a 40 something mum of two with a love of butterflies and fairies and all things spiritual. On entering her house you get the distinct impression that in her search for ´something´she has in fact found everything. There are pictures of Jesus, Buddha, dream catchers, fairies, witches, assorted Catholic saints, and although I´m yet to see it there must be an Obama around somewhere.
As a happy clapping athiest all this spiritual bumpf leaves me somewhat dismayed but fortunately Lucia´s evangelical tendencies are fairly well controlled. I do occaisionally have to chew determindly and stare at my plate when invited to enthuse about the ´real´cause of asthma or share a knowing look about her probable past life. Nevertheless, she´s an excellent host who is interested and interesting and always ready to give a hand. All in all I could have done a lot worse - I may even develop a taste for incense....or perhaps not.
When not at home I have taken to running up the local hills, or rather mountains. This lung bursting leg jellifying activity is more fun than it sounds, leaving the regular practicioner with an inner glow of pointless achievement and buns of steel.
In addition there is to be a competition of stupid uphill running in a few weeks and I intend to participate. Not only will I be able to join the choral wheezing of several hundred fellow nutbars but its all for charity - ahh how nice.
In the next post I´ll tell you how I´ve been saving the world via unsupervised internet browsing - stay tuned juanfans!
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