Following Iguazu I took an 18 bus journey back to Buenos Aires. I once again took the 'Super Camo' bus, the one with the fully reclining bed and first class service. They forgot my vegetarian food (which is quite normal in South America in general I am finding) and shock horror, my TV screen didn't work.
Now, before I booked this journey i didn't even know that each seat had its own TV screen. But once I knew it was a must have. You know the kind of thing, something you didn't know existed but cannot live without know you do know. So this TV not working really irked me.
I was irked. This thing I had never knew existed now didn't exist. This was not good enough. I wanted to complain. They could do nothing. They were hospitality staff, not technicians. I was still irked. Then it struck me, the ridiculous nature of the situation. I sat in quiet contemplation for some time considering this. Actually I wanted to sleep, I wanted to read, I wanted to write. This was a blessing.
I can have such a tenancy to react before considering the situation. I was certainly thankful for this chance to once again see my tenacious ego in action. "I want to control the situation and have it way I want it!!!".
When something annoys us, it is not that something that annoys us, it is our conditioning and programs that run from our unconscious. It is our wantant to control, to have things the way we expected them to happen. In short it is us that annoy ourselves.
American comedian Ron White summed it up quite well: "I believe when life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade...and try to find someone whose life has given them vodka, and have a party."
Life is certainly what you make of it. How you respond to it.
So I got back to Buenos Aires and went immediately to the Ferry to cross the channel to Uruguay. Prior to traveling, all I knew about Uruguay was from the Simpson's where they were going to South America, Homer looks at a globe and sees Uruguay and exclaims "U R Gay... hehehehe".
This joke didn't really wash with my Uruguayan friend Andreas in Peru. He didn't seem to mind though as he had heard it many times before. I had come to Uruguay on his advice, nothing to do with the Simpons's though but he was one of the most interesting people I had met on my travels. He had got me in contact with his girlfriend Alé as he was still traveling.
Alé met me outside the dance studio where Tango and Salsa lessons awaited. My natural prowess on the dance floor was going to make this easy. Of course the fact that this natural raw talent in my mind doesn't seem to convey itself to my limbs is but a small mute point. I am a musician, I have rhythm, I can tell when the start of the bar is, what the time signature is and can tap a mean beat with my fingers on an invisible piano.
When it comes to applying this to even just my feet, never mind my legs, hips, waist and all those other wobbly bits and bobs dancing incorporates, well lets just say that my rhythm is non-transferable at this time. But Salsa is Fun, the capital F is important here. It is probably easier when one is not wearing flip flops, but when one is traveling one cannot be picky about ones footwear.
The Tango lesson, my fourth, taught me the main steps I had already learned. Trouble is that the 4 of us beginners were left on the side lines a little. Our teacher, who looked remarkably like a thin Gordan Brown without the gammy eye, never smiled and was only interested in the intermediates. So we sat and chatted. I am very lucky that most people here speak English.
Montevideo is a beautiful city, it seemed very 'first world' actually. Like Buenos Aires the buildings spoke of the money of days gone by. They whispered about the days when people cared for them and maintained them, before all these new bland faceless buildings were placed around them.
"The good old days", they often said to me as we relaxed around a park "was where it was at".
The vibe is relaxed and friendly. The people lovely if not a little quirky. This difference of which I speak is their love of the Tea 'Maté' (pronounced Ma-tay). This in itself is no more strange than our apparent love of drinking tea at 5 O'Clock, the belief of many a South American.
It is the manner in which they go about this ritual. The Maté cup is a wooden vessel usually with small feet as the bottom of the cup is rounded. It is filled to the brim with the Maté tea leaves and a silver metal straw protrudes from within as one couldn't use ones lips on the cup, oh no, that would not do. At the base of this straw is a filter to hold out the leaves.
The water is added from a flask that they diligently carry under their arm. Okay so even this might seem not too unusual in itself. However the flask is usually between 1-2 liter, so carrying the cup and the flask is not subtle. Especially when the person is trying to smoke, drink Maté, hold a flask under one arm, talk on the phone and walk. Always fun to watch. So yeah as you walk around you see smart, hot young business women all dolled up with their cup and flask, you see policemen with it, youths hanging out with it, the homeless with it and all manner of other quarters of society with this large appendage apparently attached to them.
So hanging around Montevideo was great fun, I hired a bike to see the city. I had great intentions. This was healthy, this was good for the environment. After 30 minutes I had had enough. My days of bike riding have waned somewhat, my stamina and strength are not what they were. On top of this the mosquito epidemic they were having for the exact 3 days I was there meant that every time I stopped near grass or water a cloud of these critters would descend like a miniature army of helicopters intent on refueling. I am not squeamish, really I am not. But 20-30 mozzies land on me is enough to make me question my vegetarian 'no killing of anything' policy. They didn't care about the spray, they laughed at it, said it was like chilli pepper and just added flavour. These were the hells angles of mosquito's. They were on a road to hell and needed blood to get there. I feel a MWAHAHAHA wouldn't be out of place here...
Or perhaps they were simply being mosquito's and doing what mosquito's do. Who knows? My host Alé insisted that this was not normal for Uruguay and that I had just come in the one period of the whole year this happens. Lucky me.
The Argentinians and the Uruguayans pride themselves in having the best beef in the world. They don't really understand the word vegetarian, even when i see people order steak in the restaurants it comes with a small lettuce leaf to add colour and nothing mroe I think. I once asked for something vegetarian in a cafe in my pigeon Spanish. The lady asked if I would like a ham and cheese sandwich. Apparently a pig is a vegetable in this area of the world. Eating cheese sandwiches and chips tends to get a little samey after a while.
An oasis of food came in the form of Nameste, a vegetarian restaurant I found on www.happycow.org This wonderful calming place was so good I had lunch here and came back for dinner.
Nameste is an anient Sanskit word from nepal and India. It is a term commonly used for greetings and literally means "I bow to you", I feel a certain humbleness with this simple word, it implys acknowledging the others humanity and their radient inner self. I think I shall continue to use this.
So back in Buenos Aires I literally had 4 days left of travelling. These final few days were spent relaxing and seeing a couple of friends. First was my friend Vivi whom I had met in Cuzco and later in Lima. A very special soul, I feel we have bonded wonderfully and I hope to know her for many years to come. She is a musician and introduced me to her friend's father who teaches Tango piano. I had an hour long lesson of learning the rudimentary rhythms of the tango standards. It was awesome. Tango is so sexy to play; such swing and passion as my fingers slide and glide and run up the crispy chromatic riffs.
I also met with my friend Julia (of course in Spanish she is Who-Lia), we have emailed each other for 10 years and had never met. Not quite sure how we even met online now. We had a wonderful evening though.
Not getting into the club we had intended upon as my walking boots didn't meet the shoe requirements was a blessing in disguise as my last night traveling was spent discussing matters of the heart and of the universe.
Julia, her boyfriend Nick and I talked for the best part of 5 hours and drank Stella late into the night. I don't really drink much at the moment, but this being my last night I felt the need to celebrate my travels. To celebrate everything I had seen, the kindness I had been shown, the experiences I had experienced, the people I had met and through all of this the path I had found myself on awakening me to me ego. To see emotions and thoughts as something that I have but are not me. To realise that everything in the universe is connected and that everything that we do is important. I realised how important it is to take responsibility for ourselves, to bring our attention to this present moment, to let go of trying to control as the only true control we ever have is this letting go, everything else is illusionary, not wrong, just not real. There is no right or wrong, that is perception, perception is created through conditioning. In the bigger picture of the universe one thing happens and leads to another, all we can do is either enjoy the ride and enjoy the changes or fight against it. I choose the former. In the words of Ewan McGregor in Trainspotting, "Choose Life". But what exactly is life? Well, I shall be looking at this one in later posts.
So those of you that have joined me on this journey through this blog, I thank you. I have had many enlightening and encouraging words from some of you that have inspired and conveyed love to me. I truly feel humbled and privileged by the opportunities I have been given and the people I have met. Thankyou to the universe for this and thankyou to everyone even remotely involved in my journey. I love you all. (:
