People #1

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I am starting a series of entries describing different people I have met along the way whose stories are worth telling for your interest and my memory.

Molly and Blake

I met Molly and Blake on the bus from Bariloche to Puerto Madryn. A long series of conversations began when they found out that I speak English. You see, Molly is a lady in her mid-thirties who travels around Southamerica with her 14 year old son, Blake and two small dogs who get the cargo well on bus rides. In fact, Blake has been traveling since he was 7. They began with a 3 year stay in Mexico and then headed south to Argentina, where they currently live. So now Blake is fluent in Spanish, brimming with stories, and has a hatful of friends spread about the continent.

Molly has always been a traveler. While she was pregnant she took one last trip before Blake was born and boarded the Green Tortoise in the US (you should check it out). Her decision to travel outside the States and not look back was heavily influenced by a severe disdain for her country and its direction and strained family relationships. She speaks passionately against the Bush government and his use of God as a pretext for some of the decisions he made.

How can this lifestyle work? Well, that was my big question. Molly works as a travel writer and is constantly looking for ways to rise above the worsening conditions of the job (lower wages, higher demands). Blake has attended school in the different cities he has been in and is currently looking into a homeschooling program that will better suit his lifestyle and through which he can learn Mandarin. On his spare time he goes to preteen discotheques and dances his heart out.

Molly is now traveling to Chile to look for a car that can serve both as transport and as a failsafe for whenever they do not have a place to stay.

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