Advertisement
Published: January 14th 2009
The Angel of El Bolson
Beautiful but not very talkative..."I design space telescopes." "I engineer lasers for eye surgery." "I am a translator for the UN." "I design wind farms." And today, the beautiful Argentine woman in my hostel said to me, "I am a high altitude archaeologist, I only work above 5000 meters, 17000 feet." Wow! I´ve met some amazing people...
On the trail in El Bolson I met two young German women who had hitch-hiked all over Patagonia, "We never have to wait long for a ride." They didn't have any serious trouble, saw Patagonia Rt. 40 with locals and had some great stories. Me, I sat on a hot stuffy bus next to a burly German guy for 30 hours, was not the same experience I´m sure, but we talked, had too...
The question I often get before I leave on one of these long trips, "Are you going alone?" Yep. Just me and a zillion other tourists. What is very different about this trip is that many of the tourists are from the country I am visiting... it is summer in Argentina and every day I meet folks from Buenos Aires who are out to see their country. Electricians, salesman, students... a fellow who
´teaches clowns´. Lots of really nice folks out enjoying the outdoors and happy to met folks and chat. In the bus, at the hostel, on the trail and on a tour, lots of friendly folks out there.
My social burden this year is that Palin lady, no I don´t know her... but it is a lot easier to admit to being an American... Folks from all over the world are jubilant about Obama. As one German said to me, "Only America could make such a change." Lets hope not, pick up the ball world and run with it...
There are interesting folks from all over the world here. And staying in hostels is a good way to met them. Breakfast or diner. Some hostels are certainly better then others. The new web sites for booking hostels often allow users to rate places after their stay. You can review these ratings when looking... which can help to find the right match... lets see... next week... feeling introverted or extroverted... what will it be...
'Have you met anyone yet?' Part 1
Advertisement
Tot: 0.085s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 19; dbt: 0.0429s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Jennifer
non-member comment
It sounds like you have met a lot of interesting people, and have been through quite an adventure in your life. That's a wonderful thing to experience.