A blog about a blog, kind of like inception.

Boy it´s been a while. I´d apologize for letting this blog almost sizzle out, but to be fair, I´ve been busy living in the woods of an island on the edge of Patagonia (near Antartica). Out here, internet connection is a luxury that comes low on my list of necessities, you know, after plastic bags to wrap my feet in under snow boots and before peanutbutter sandwhiches. Yeah, I´ve reorganized my entire list of priorities. It´s been liberating.

For reference, a photo of what my "backyard" looks like:

Yep. Cold. And this was taken before the recent snow fall. Now we have ski slopes, but no skis. We do, however, have inflated life-saver-like devices what we use as sleds. I think I´ve crushed my coccyx and possibly a few internal organs.

Anywho, I´d like to tell y´all that I´ve been getting back to the writing. But before we dive back into the whole hashtag-memoirs-of-a-hitchhiker series I´ve been spouting out before the sabbatical, I´d like to share the latest blog I´ve written. Yeah, I know, I wrote a blog for a blog that wasn´t my blog, which I have all but ignored for over a year. It felt almost like a vivid inception-like dream of commiting regicide - if the king were a little-read journal on some interwebs.com, and regicide meant ignore. But hey, we must destroy to create (Shiva reference because sometimes I let my hippie show).

Back to the blog, I´ve recently teamed up with one of the most beautiful souls I´ve run into in these humble travels that have become my life. Jessica Brookes is a yogini, healer, writer, traveler, photographer, reader of poetry, and all around swell superhero of a gal. Founder of The Shanti Space  and Jectaspecta, she´s been featured on The Telegraph, so you know homegirl´s legit.

The blog post talks about a little adventure Karma Yoga (a little project of mine) had with Qultural Nomade, and how general hippiness ensued on a patagonian beach. I´m sure you´ll dig it.

Thusly inasmuch and what´s most importantly of all, click on all of these links because this is how we writers feed our faceholes.

Pura vida!
ERK

Puerto Madryn con Javier y Sol

Waking up in Patagonia. Breathless.

I collapsed onto the ground. We had hiked about 20 kilometers with huge knapsacks on our backs. The sun was hot. I laid down on the rocky cliff overlooking the ocean and fell asleep for a few minutes. I dreamt briefly of California. No real place in particular, just cabins made of rough-hewn timber sitting underneath the Californian sun.

When I woke up, the sun was beginning to skirt the horizon. "We should probably set up the tent before it gets too dark to see anything," I said to Lyndon.

"Where? Right here?"

I looked around, "Sure, why not?" We were on a rocky cliff overlooking the ocean. The tide was already beginning to recede, baring a glistening rocky coast, rubbed smooth by the lapping waters. It was beautiful.

So we set up camp, placed our bags in the tent and, as if by cue, twilight came. I suggested we did some yoga, Lyndon agreed, so we did a variation of Chandra Namaskar (Moon Salutation). Synchronizing my breath with my movement under nothing but the light of the moon and the few stars peaking through twilight with the sound of waves behind me, I felt completely at peace. Even the cold Patagonian air stopped it's slow creep into my bones. I felt warm and happy.

Fully enveloped in the night, Lyndon and I sat at the edge of the cliff overlooking the ocean and pulled out the bottle of whiskey we'd been saving since Bahía Blanca. We drank and talked about yoga, hitch-hiking, and how nice Javier and Sol were for lending us their tent. We had arrived the day before, cooked up a mean dinner of pineapple vegetarian curry. Discussing things to do, they suggested that we take the hike we just took to get to the point where we were now sitting and even offered to lend us the tent we were now using.

The night was unbearable. The wind picked up and at one point, I was convinced ogres and trolls were outside, growling and shaking the tent. I barely slept, gladly welcoming sunrise. The wind was still roaring in the morning, although a little more subdued than during the night. I decided to do a few rounds of Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutations) to greet the sun and I instantly felt better, as if I had a full night's sleep. Waiting for Lyndon to wake up, I grabbed my camera and explored the surrounding landscape. I even bumped into the herd of wild horses Lyndon had suggested trying to tame the day before.

On the hike back to Puerto Madryn, 20 kilometers seemed to be a shorter distance than when we had hiked it yesterday. We ended up staying with Javier and Sol for a little over a week, being delayed by rain. But it was nice. They had a notebook of recipes shared by the travelers who have passed through their home, all vegetarian recipes because Javier and Sol refuse to harm animals. I taught them how to love vinegar like a Filipino, Lyndon shared his ANZAC biscuit recipe, Javier taught us how to make bread, and Sol gave me a list of foods that help regulate seratonin and melatonin, helping to combat insomnia.

Javier and Sol playing with lights in the dark.

When the rain had looked like it had passed, we decided to continue the trek to the end of the world. Javier outlined the best way to get back on Ruta 3 to continue hitch-hiking.

"So you guys heading to Comodoro Rivadavia for sure?"

"Yep, found a couchsurfer willing to host us. Left his number and said to just call once we've arrived." I don't do well with goodbyes. With our departure set, I could already feel my voice growing awkward as I spoke.

"Be careful in Comodoro Rivadavia," Javier said in a serious tone that worried me a bit. "I've never been, but I've heard stories of travelers being robbed. It's a city built on oil money, so it's huge and hardly gets any travelers. The ones they do get, I hear they treat poorly."

"La Ciudad Gris," Sol said with her signature seriousness wrapped in a smile. The Gray City. "I don't know why they call it that, I've never been," she continued. "I just imagine a city with tall buildings under a perpetually cloudy sky."

Maybe Comodoro Rivadavia would be like a gritty Seattle, stuck in the age of industrialization. Looked like we'd find out.

The Arrival: Puerto Madryn

It was still dark out when Miguel came knocking on the truck. Time to head out. We drowsily rearrange the contents of the carriage, pull out the makeshift stove from the day before, boil some water, pour the mate herb into the gourd with a little sugar, pour the water, sip, pour, pass, and we were off.

Miguel was obviously hung over so we rode in silence. We pass two tiny towns before Miguel informs us, rather somberly, that Puerto Madryn is a ways off of the highway. His proper Spanish was back so my ears didn't have to bend over backwards, getting lost in translations, stitching meanings to sounds. He said he would drop us of at the junction, and from there we could hike about five kilometers to town center or we could try hitch a ride. When we reached the junction, we hopped off the truck. A little over 12 hours from when we left the Estanga home, we had made it about 700 kilometers. Not bad.

"Mucha suerte y buen viaje! Cuídense, locos!" Miguel yelled as he waved, honking his horn as he drove off, continuing down Ruta Nacional 3.

We crossed the junction from the national highway into a feeder road and began walking. Thumbs coming up as vehicles passed. No one stopped. The road went downhill from the highway, causing cars and trucks to coaster at a speed inconvenient to stopping for hitch-hikers. We didn't mind too much. It was kind of nice to stretch out our legs after being cooped up in a truck for so long. We breathed in the cold air and passed the guitar back and forth, strumming chords into combinations to fit the landscape.

As we round off the main highway, the cliff gave way to the sea. I looked, blankly at first before it registered. This was the first sight of sea my eyes had taken in since leaving the Philippines almost a year ago. Before Buenos Aires, I had always lived by the ocean. Buenos Aires was a port city, but its waters formed a river, with Uruguay looming in the distance. Here, there was only open ocean. It was still early morning and Puerto Madryn was still clinging to a thin, misty fog. I thought of San Francisco, California. It was beautiful.

At the border of the town, there was a check point. There are check points all over Argentina, where officials check to make sure you aren't bringing in anything non-native and highly invasive. Some check points spray vehicles with some sort of pesticide for extra measure. I looked at this check point from a distance, wondering if it was being manned at the moment. Didn't look like it. Vehicles passed without stopping. Good. No problems.

As we got closer, I noticed a uniformed man stepping out onto the sidewalk, taking his post. He was wearing a bullet-proof vest. He looked ready for battle. Fuck, what do I do? My mind started to run, will he shoot me for not having documentation? We got closer. I got more nervous. I take note of my pace. Too fast and he might ask, "What's the rush? Are you a terrorist? Show me your papers!" And I'm fucked. Too slow and he might ask, "Why are you walking so slowly? Bag too heavy? What are you hiding in there, bombs? Show me your papers!" And I'm fucked.

We got close enough for eye-contact but I coolly avoided it by casually looking over the guitar as I non-chalantly slung it over one shoulder.

Fuck, did this look too movie-like? Was this attracting more attention?

We arrived at a distance that required eye-contact so I look in the guard's direction.

My heart stopped.

He was looking away.

Was this a good sign or a bad sign?

He turned his head and made eye contact.

I smiled and gave him a slight nod. He did the same. And I continued to walk past him, trying to keep from running as far away as possible before he realized he could stop me and ask for documents I didn't have. But after a few deep yoga breaths, I found my center and I was able to continue in the same non-chalant pace.

We'd passed a few of these control check-points with Miguel on his truck, but they never seemed to notice us stowed away in the carriage. This was in the broad light of morning and we were clearly foreigners. We were bound to have something not suitable for passage. But nothing. Just a smile and a nod. Maybe it wasn't such an impossible feat after all to try to hitch-hike into Antarctica without a passport.

Then I realized, that was just a city border. The guard was probably still half-asleep. Antarctica might be a bit more complicated.