I have reached an interesting juncture in the posting of my travel emails. Following the last email posted -
Wine Country en Espanol - I only sent out two more emails from the road before Jax and I returned to the States. I will post those emails here, as I have posted previous emails, but you may notice that the following emails have a distinctly different tone than others I've shared with you. The reason for this difference is that Jax and I had also reached an interesting juncture. The relationship was over - neither one of us talked about it, but I think we both knew. We just sort of kept on keepin' on, pretending like everything was fine.
In a little town south of Mendoza, Jax and I had a bit of a medical emergency that shaped the course of our travels together. We returned to Mendoza, where we learned first-hand the bureaucracy of a foreigner staying in a government-funded Argentinian hospital for five days. The hospital administrators obviously didn't like the fact that an American citizen was receiving free care - it was very clear that they would provide emergency care as needed, but that we should have enough money to pay for care at a private hospital, rather than receive care funded by Argentinian tax-payers. We did have money, but we didn't know if it would be enough to pay for private care, and we were afraid to move to a new hospital. We had gotten ourselves TO a hospital and as far as we were concerned, that was the important part. So Jax and I stayed at the public hospital, where we were constantly encouraged to transfer to a private institution.
A translator was provided for us so the doctor could explain that foreigners usually prefer to seek care in the private hospitals because, as described in excruciating detail, theft and personal injury are rampant in the public hospital. Ironically (or maybe not so), a translator was never provided for the doctor to explain his diagnosis, or the treatment, or medications, or any of the things that were keeping us up at night. Luckily, we could understand just enough Spanish, and we both have just enough medical knowledge, that we were able to consult with my dad and mom (a doctor and nurse, respectfully) via telephone and feel like we had a solid understanding of what was happening. And for what it's worth, we never had any trouble with theft or "personal injury" at the hospital. In fact, with the exceptions of the hospital trying to get us to leave, and the confusion of trying to translate medical terms from Spanish to English, and the fact that patients at the hospital have to provide their own meals, our hospital experience was actually very smooth and pleasant.
From Mendoza, which is on the west side of Argentina, we flew to Buenos Aires, on the eastern coast of the country. Jax and I spent a few incredible days together in Buenos Aires, which I'll tell you all about in my next blog post. But we only had a couple of weeks left in South America before our flight home to California was scheduled to leave from Lima, and I had the Travel Itch again...BAD. I wanted to see as much of South America as I could before we had to go home. Jax was going to stay in Buenos Aires - that part was certain. I just couldn't sit still. I didn't feel good about leaving Jax, but he was with friends, and he understood why I had to go. Besides, by that time the emotional distance between us felt monumental, despite (or maybe because of) spending 24 hours a day together, and I think that as a direct result of that, the idea of traveling alone - without Jax - was not as scary as it would have been otherwise.
I didn't have any plans or intended destinations, but I did have money and I had two weeks with no obligations. So one afternoon while Jax was exploring with friends, I visited a travel agency in Buenos Aires and consulted with an agent as to how best to spend my remaining time in Argentina. Forty five minutes and $600 later, I walked back to our hostel to meet Jax, with two round-trip plane tickets in my purse - one between Buenos Aires and Iguazu, to the north, and one between Buenos Aires and El Calafate, to the south.
It was the first time I had ever made plans to travel alone in a foreign country. And that, my friends, is what my next few blog posts and travel emails are about. Coming soon, with photos! :)
Take care and travel safely!
This shot was taken in the beautifully eclectic neighborhood of La Boca in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Jax and I had been wandering through the neighborhood, casually shopping and taking in the sights, and we decided to stop at this little cafe for a glass of wine. Right after we sat down at one of the sidewalk tables, the couple in the photo began dancing the Tango, right in the middle of the street! At the end of their dance, the couple invited patrons of the cafe to dance with them (for tips, of course). I resisted at first, but the draw of Tango in the street was like the draw of karaoke - it seems like a really bad idea at first, but once the idea marinates for a few minutes, it becomes irresistible. So I let the man pull me up out of my chair and into the street, where he tried to make my awkward steps look graceful, to the laughs and cheers of other people in the street.
