Unfinished Business

Unfinished Business-

After nearly 9 months off the vagabond trail I’ve decided to return for some unfinished business. During the time away from my blogging the vagabonding quietly persisted, however, no individual trips lasted for more than a week at a time and in the meantime I was back home in vegas reconnecting with beloved friends and familiar surroundings. By all intents and purposes my trip, journey, sabbatical, whatever you want to call it, had come to and end. I explored a handful of job prospects and made progress in some entrepreneurial pursuits, but nothing had an immediate call to action giving me this 1 final window of opportunity. My last hurrah. The pièce de résistance. South America! The fact that I missed out on long travel in South America was like an unshakeable booger on my finger, but the deciding factor for this departure was more about something else.

Only 6 months after returning from the simple and peaceful third world experiences I was blessed with over nearly 18 months of backpacking, I quickly found myself lusting for “things” all over again. I remember knowing for sure at one point during my travels that I would never again buy a luxury car I didn’t need. I was positive of it, couldn’t be convinced otherwise… Sure enough after only a few short months of subliminal stimulus and sultry advertising I’m back thinking to myself how sick the new Corvettes are, how nice the redesigned Escalade body looks, or how the Porsche Cayenne could be the perfect all around car, how great my living room wall would look with a stacked stone finish or how amazing it would be to have a vacation home in Lake Tahoe. Why am I so obsessed with Mecum Auto Auctions and why am I even sitting at home watching Beachfront Bargain Hunters or Million Dollar Houseboats at all? I’m convinced that part in the Bible about not coveting thy neighbors goods wasn’t written with the foresight of HGTV in mind. That shit is poison. I went as far as sketching out what a perfect man cave would look like if you had unlimited money (Seriously I still have the drawing. It’s pretty sick) … At any rate, a crayon written quote I read 2 years ago on the wall of a New Zealand hostel came to mind that rings true; “TV is a gateway drug”. But my conformity back into consumerism aside, there was yet another thing that was the final straw for me. Something that thankfully I am not finding myself returning to, if I was ever there at all, (though I suppose I was on some level), but on the contrary I now find hard to stomach. It’s social posturing. People that base the purpose of interactions on amount of Twitter followers they can gain by it. Self important people full of bravado as opposed to confidence and more interested in being seen than having fun. On my most recent trip to Park City I was reminded just the kind of distorted audience the Sundance Film Festival attracts to this otherwise idyllic mountain town. Socialites from all corners are vying for dinner reservations at the trendiest restaurants, private parties, colored wristbands, media red carpets, people jostling their way to the doorman in sub freezing temperatures and every person more important than the last. As I’m walking down Main Street of Park City with my brother, pondering this warped ideology to myself, a Bentley GT slowly drives by with a metallic chrome finish so brightly buffed that it reflected the street lights like a mirror. It seemed a necessity right at that exact moment to return to the unknown blissful filth. I felt like I was loosing my compass and needed a reminder of what’s important. And with that I am back in pursuit of Simon & Garfunkel’s quote from The Boxer; “Seeking out the poorer quarters where the ragged people go, looking for the places only they would know.” I’m outta here again.

The one major change on this trip will be the pace. In about the same time I have allotted for this trip I tackled exactly 15 countries in Europe last year. On this trip in South America I will be hitting 3, MAYBE 4 countries. Part of that is no doubt the proximity and ease of travel between EU countries in relation to South America which is, well, the exact opposite of that. By all accounts travelers in SA are recommended to give themselves +/- 2 days on each side of flights and/or overland travel due to frequent, and even expected, delays or cancellations. I am mentally prepared and ready for this. Which, of course, is easy to say now and we’ll all see how I handle it when it happens.

My main priority is Patagonia. A region of vast, untrodden expanses such as the product of a wanderers daydream in search of perfection. Pristine, grandiose vistas miles away from any major city and worlds away from everything else that exists, especially chromed out Bentley’s. An excerpt from Lonely Planet summarizes this of Patagonia; “The ethos is built on deep solitude and bullying weather, the going isn’t always easy. but that’s probably what hooked you in the first place.” I am completely self contained for this trip. Not since leaving New Zealand have I traveled in this manner. [Tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, cooking stove, random kitchen essentials, all the normal clothes you just need for living life, extra pairs of hiking socks, 2 jackets, 2 base layers, camera chargers and all that crap, a carton of cigarettes, log of Skoal, a handful of cliff bars, first aid kit, toiletries bag, and a couple of books. I even managed to find room for 6 dehydrated camping meals, 6 packs of instant oatmeal and about 2 weeks worth of instant coffee]. Upon landing, if I so desired, I could walk directly out into the wilderness from the airport and live perfectly comfortably for about 10 days without picking up 1 more item. Now here is the remarkable part; I managed to fit all that into a 75 liter pack that weighed in at the INSANELY light grand total of 36 lbs!… At any rate this snapshot of my packing list gives illustration to what I’ll be doing most of the time. Long multi day hikes into the Patagonian wilds. I will be avoiding any major cities as much as humanly possible and avoid forward planning whenever time permits. This is a credit to the experience of my travels. As much of a learned behavior as the desire for a shiny new sports car. Unfortunately this assumption also means less frequent blog posts. Without a reliable power source I’ll be forced to conserving my phones battery power in case of an emergency, or even just to use the flashlight for a few seconds in a pinch. In the past my phone is where all the note taking, composition and editing when down. A luxury I don’t expect to have as often this time around.

Patagonia is an immensely large area that stretches most of the way up the spine of Chile and Argentina’s border. My main concentration will be the southern portion. This inspired priority #2; Antarctica. Yes, Antarctica. A friend once asked if I wanted to ever visit Antarctica. To which I responded-“Don’t ask me stupid questions”… Of course I want to go to Antarctica, what traveler does not want to Antarctica!? Since I’m going to Patagonia, I will literally never have a better, and more cost effective, opportunity to explore the ice continent. This, however, is not the simplest of riddles to figure out for a budget conscious adventurer. Waiting to find a last minute deal, sometimes a day or 2 before departure, could mean the savings of as much as 60% off of an extremely expensive proposition. I have to give myself time on the ground to figure these things out, which gives me the perfect opportunity to dive directly into priority #3; Learning some Spanish. The town of Ushuaia, Argentina is the southern most town in the world and is where most of the Antarctica expeditions depart from. It also just so happens to have a Spanish School. Voila!..Or should I say ¡ahí está! (“There it is”). At the end of another 40 hour travel “day”; (Vegas-Los Angeles-Sao Paulo-Beunos Aires-Ushuaia). [This blog is being posted en route from the international terminal at LAX ]…By the way this will be my 3rd 40 hour travel day (door to door) of my journey. I can write a whole separate blog about how it seems to take almost exactly 40 hours to fly across the world, but that’s for another time and beside the point. I will be arriving in Ushuaia where I’ll be posted up learning Spanish during the time I search out a good deal for Antarctica. I began taking Spanish lessons on Rosetta Stone a few weeks ago once I decided on the trip. My brother also gave me a few verbal lessons leading up to today’s departure. The one thing that’s for certain in regards to my progress in the new language is; the more I learn the more I realize how little I know. I am currently extremely unconfident (on a scale of 1 to 100 I’m like a 4) in my ability to communicate with someone using Spanish alone, but I expect that to change shortly after necessity presents itself. No matter what happens I’ll always be conscious of keeping one credo in mind… Go slow and Tranquilo!

Bob