A note on logisitics

I´ve been travelling for exactly 3 weeks and 3 days. It is almost unfathomable to think that it´s been only one month since I left a great job, a crappy apartment, wonderful friends and Portland winter. Missing work (Stockholm syndrome) and friends aside, the trip so far has been excellent.

Today I ate lunch with a gentleman from Bogota. He surprised me, asking exactly what it is that I do from one day to the next. When I speak about my trip, mostly I just name a few places and that´s enough of an answer. But he wanted to know, in detail, what happens when I get to a city, where I go, and what I do. It was an excellent question, one that I was happy to answer for him.

What happens is this: three weeks and change ago, I got on a train, and since then, I´ve mostly been in motion. Some nights I sleep on the bus and some nights I sleep in a hotel or at a friend's place. When I sleep on the bus, I wake up at 6-7 am in the next city. The first thing I do is walk a lap around the bus terminal to stretch my legs, then I begin meeting basic needs- bathroom, coffee, empanada. I buy a newspaper, spend an hour waking up, and then head into the city.

To get into town, I find the nearest street where buses are running, and ask about to find the one that will take me to the centro. Every latin american city that I know has a true center- a zocalo or parque central or plaza de armas. Once I get to the center, there is food, hotels and places to walk. Museums are near by. Everything is found by asking. Preguntando llegas.

I check into the hotel, and if I´m tired, siesta. If not, walk walk walk walk walk. I stop to eat, to see museums. More often I am on my feet. Along the way I talk to folks, ask directions, remember places I see. Since I have not had guidebooks or maps, most of the mapping and orientation is done in my head. Right now I could tell you where there are three different peluquerias in Cartagena, or the street with arepas con queso, or the street with brochetas. I know the best places to get bread and the best to get juice. I have a favorite place to make calls, which is quieter than a couple other places.

And so, my entire life and routine revolves around my human being needs, and my trips needs. For many people it would be weird to travel so fast, to see this certain slice of the cities I visit. For me it works, and it has worked well. So far I´m happy and healthy and haven´t been robbed. If I think to long I wonder why I´m doing this- where am I going and for what purpose? But most of the time I´m happy to have an empanada and some juice and to do whatever´s next, and that´s ok. And it´s ok that my itinerary doesn´t look like anyone else´s. It has its own logic and I can follow that.

My room is covered in wet, recently "washed" laundry. There are some strange things that happen in my personal universe in the name of functionality- I learned from an Austrailian traveller that it´s best to find a change of clothes that you like and when it´s time to wash, to get into the shower with your clothes on and wash. And that works for me.

I also walk in lots of circles. I circle around things that I want, like a particular street vendor, to gather information. I touch my passport about a million times an hour and I probably do bizarro things that I´m not conscious of. I fuck around with cassette tapes a bunch. On the remote island of Bastimentos the kids had ipods. I´m still using a walkman, and I have about 8 tapes, and the Carribean climate keeps messing them up so that each time I want to hear Joan Baez or Janis Joplin I have to spool the tapes back together. This makes me look strange to strangers.

To wrap this entry up I want to brag about how small my backpack is. It´s sooooo small. I can carry it all day long and it doesn´t matter. It is light and has three changes of clothes and a walkman and whatever I´m going to read next- right now it´s Moby Dick and Lonesome Traveller- and that´s all. I love it love it to travel so light and have so little.

So tomorrow I will wake up and see the Castillo de San Felipe and leave for Medellin and repeat this glorious cycle. Until soon!