transition time

Dan: We had a nice going away BBQ on FRiday night. The folks at the hostel were really cool about letting us do our thing. Not knowing how much carne feeds how many people, or how many people would come, we ended up with enough leftover raw eat and chorizos to have a second, less formal asado the next night too. It was tough saying adios to so many people, but we were able to get most of our business done ( we were able to sell a guitar and a cell phone to an ecuadoran band staying at the hostel) and catch our bus to Santiago, Chile where we met up with our buddy Aaron. We all stayed at a mega hostel Casa Roja in Barrio Brasil that has a swimming pool and bar. This place is a well-run operation, but staying there makes one forget he is in South America at all. English is certainly the lingua franca; Aussies, Kiwis, Irish, British. Last night we met a couple from Mpls, one of whom works at the Wedge coop on Lyndale. We had mutual acquaintances. They are just starting out a similar project to what Lou and I have been doing, so we had a lot to talk about.

So we hung out by the pool, did a little bit or tourism (finally checked out cerro Santa Lucia) but genrally just tried to enjoy our last few days together before sending Lou back to the US of A yesterday. She's probably still in the air right now. Now I have to try to make the transition from being a team player to a solo artist. I went to the bus terminal last night to look for tickets and I was a complete mess. For almost a year we have done almost everything together. especially while traveling, minute decisions are always negotiated until we figure out the best path. So last night I was trying to decide between destinations, dozens of times and prices from half a dozen bus companies and didn´t know what to do. I bounced back and forth between bus company desks for an hour before I sat down and had a beer and realized what my problem was. I was just going to have to pick one on my own, without the organizational skills of my spouse.

Bueno, there are, of course, emotional aspects of the transition but this ain't one of those mushy blogs. To give you an idea of my distraction, I accidentally put salt into my mate this morning instead of sugar.

Today my main missions were to do this blog and change my cell phone from Argentine to Chilean, then sit by the pool and read. Tomorrow I'm headed back towards Patagonia, this time on the Chilean side. I going to meet Sergio in Coyhaique (I'm not sure if that's really how it is spelled) , hopefully by Xmas, where we are going to stay at his uncle's place and see what happens from there.

addendum: It´s 6:00 and I still haven´t completed my missions for the day. I´ve been killing time (lunch, a movie, coffee, bothering travel agents) waiting for the return of my phone. The lady at the kiosk is very apologetic that her boss is already 2 or 3 hours late with my "liberated" phone, but I can´t help but feel that maybe Chile and Argentina aren´t so different after all. It takes forever to get something done. Worst of all, the sun is getting low so the poolside relaxation will have to wait for another day.