Argentina - On the way to Puerto Madryn

I'm in El Calafate, in the southern most part of Argentina, just before you hit Tierra del Fuego and the end of the world. It's a small town of 15,000 that grew by 2000% over the last ten years because of the tourist trap created by the Moreno Glacier discovered by Francisco "Perrito" (little dog) Moreno in the late 1800's. Actually, I don't really know when he discovered it but let's just say the late 1800's. Won't talk about that today however. Today, I am going to talk about Argentenians.

I said good bye to Mar del Plata after a nice leisurely day of suncooking, reading, running to go to Puerto Madryn. Sat beside an 18 year old Argentenian kid named Mariano on the bus. Mariano lived in Puerto Madryn but was doing summer school in Mar Del Plata to get his grades up so he could play basketball. It so happened that he was the godson of Manu Ginobili's mother (an All-Star in the NBA who plays for the San Antonio Spurs). Not that I really cared but I was the one who brought the name up...hmm...basketball + Argentina + San Antonio Spurs = something to talk about with an Argentenian basketball player. Ok, after we made useless basketball small talk for about 5 minutes (the depth of my basketball knowledge) Mariano asks if I want half of his sandwich. I don't even know this kid and he is offering me his sandwich. I was taken aback. Here is a kid that has to take this crappy 17 hour bus ride with this cracker Canadian he doesn't even know and he's offering me his dinner. I wasn't that hungry, I mean one can only have so many ham and cheese sandwiches a day. More on food later.

Time and time again, Argentenians have shown me their generousity and kindness. This is a country that was considered one of the wealthiest countries in the world at one point (8th) and after the devaulation of its currency in 2002 has undergone some serious change. People are happy and proud here. Their peso might not have much purchasing power (CDN$1 is a little more than 3 pesos) these days but they make the most of it. Just imagine if our Canadian dollar went from 87 cents/ US dollar to 27-30 cents. Good times? Um, no. He knew he couldn't finish the sandwich and probably figured I was hungry. Most people I know would have probably saved the other half for later (including me). Just made me think, that's all. We talked in English the whole way. He was just learning English and although we could have talked in Spanish, I wanted to give him something in return...help a brotha out knowwhaddaimsayin? He asked if I liked Linkin Park, Green Day or Linkin Park - I said, yeah sure - and so he was insistent on offering me his cd player to listen to any of those cd's. I didn't want to eat up his batteries (they can be expensive here), but after about 20 reminders/ pleas, I listened to Linkin Park.

Watched about 3 Will Smith movies in a row, in Spanish, after that and then called it a night. We woke up at 7am or so and made it into Puerto Madryn shortly after. The bus ride sucked (felt more like a tropical rain forest on wheels) but I survived because of Mariano. I'm gonna bounce. Long day today. I am going to Chile tomorrow to climb some mountain thingy with all the other Lonely Planet touring monkeys. It's called Torres del Paine. More on that later. I still have to get a bus ticket. Ciao for now.