Who said that hitchhiking is dangerous?
I arrived in Santiago in early November in search of adventure. I made my way in the desert north and a week later, I drove from San Pedro de Atacama in a rented Nissan 2x4 pick-up from Seattle with one, two Australians and a Quebeqouis, all I had encountered in the last seven days. Although I was the youngest and least experienced pilot group, my friends agreed to let me drive after incessant pestering.Thankfully, bureaucrats not so clever, but very tedious Chilean overlooked the fact that my New Jersey provisional license doesn 't allow me to drive out of state as I crossed the border in Bolivia. My companions and I spent four days in the Atacama desert, sleeping under certain starriest sky in the world, swimming in hot springs, geysers erupt watching, amazed flamingos they fed on crustaceans in salt lakes , through canyons, climb sand dunes, chasing llamas, and receiving second degree burns from the sun. We've got the car stuck in some fifty yards of sand from the road and 30 km from the nearest town, but perseverance, 90 minutes from the spinning wheel, and creative use of a carjack us income on the highway. All those years of Spanish studies proved really helpful when I had to talk to the police to arrest us for illegal camping. For us, every obstacle seemed another opportunity for an exciting challenge and the tour is easily become the greatest adventure of my life until late November point.In, Mendoza I left and started walking toward the west along the road to Argentina 7 with 30 kg on the back and my thumb. My travels taught me to expect the unexpected and no equipment or gear could help me prepare for the unexpected optimism that a provision and an open mind. On Wednesday morning, I knew that hitchhiking is an inexpensive but slow to cross thousand kilometers of road between Mendoza and Buenos Aires. I had no idea that hitchhiking is a revealing exploration of Argentina culture.I working class met two Argentine truckers, Pipo and Vincente, a YPF gas station just off Route 7 and I asked if Pipo could give me a ride to Buenos Aires. He agreed to carry me, but said it could take some time to reach my destination. We immediately bonded over our mutual dislike of Chilean culture and our common interest in beautiful women passing by. (I confess that I seriously overstated my point of view to put me in the good graces of Pipo.) In my first verbal exchange with Vicente, he asked me if I thought that 10 pesos (about U.S. $ 3) was a fair price for renting a prostitute.We spent several hours at the mall browsing products including radios, computers, DVD players, clothes, thongs, refrigerators and mobile phones. Pipo and Vincente amused by choosing random elements from the women's section of Carrefour (South American equivalent of Sears) and asking me to try them. Vincente finally opted to purchase a lawn chair, a suitcase, soap and shampoo. He spent a total of 258 pesos (82 U.S. dollars), about one third of her weekly salary, about half of my weekly budget in Argentina, five times the price of a steak in a restaurant 500 grams top balance, and 26 times the amount estimated Vincente just pay for dinner hooker.At, my friends assaulted with a barrage of jokes funny, and always slightly annoying. "He wants to know your name," Vicente told the waitress voluptuous, "he does not know just how to ask in Spanish." Stephanie ". the waitress told me through his long floating eyelashes.As I turned my head back to the table Argentina tasty, I found the shoe Vincente where my plate had been. When Vincente continued to encourage me in my flirtation with the waitress, I reminded him that I had a girlfriend. Demonstrate his evil spirit, he stressed that it was the ocean and would never know. He said that in Argentina it is rare, even expected, that men cheat on their wives and girlfriends. I guess it is not so different from the U.S., but at least maybe the American men try to be less visible in their infidelity. Truck drivers average age laughed. Later, around the course in the desert, I had the chance to pay back with Vincente my shoe up on its implementation. "He learns fast," said Pipo sidesplitting guffaws.By by Wednesday night, I had already spent countless hours in the QuickyMart YPF, watching the playoffs and World Cup Reading History Love Nicole Krauss. Captivated by the culmination of history in which a Holocaust survivor who seeks meaning in a life in which he lost everyone and everything he loved, I was constantly interrupted by irreverent jokes Vincente. As I read, my fellow passengers sitting next to me watching porn on mobile phone Pipo. Technology has really done wonderful things. During halftime of the Brazil / Uruguay game, a pair of prostitutes entered the service station. Their clothes revealing that qualified as clothing by the most liberal definition of the word makes little effort to disguise their figures less than appealing. My friends asked me if I wanted to have sex with one of the two. It was even mentioned that I care. I politely left declined.The prostitutes. I continued my book. They continued their porn. A few minutes later, Pipo tapped me on the shoulder and showed me a video of a young girl with two monstrously large black penis in her mouth. He asked me if my girlfriend was involved in activities shown in the video. When I told her she had not, he said, assuming it would only complicate our relationship. I started a new chapter. He started a new video. After Brazil beat Uruguay, 2-1, Pipo withdrew his cell phone porn and told me that I could sleep on top of the truck where his friend I would not be embarrassed by the morning dew or the police. I spent most of Thursday and Friday with Pipo cousins who live in Maipu (the municipality's urban sprawl on the outskirts of Mendoza, where I met Pipo). They were very friendly and open and willing to share their cooking carnivores with me (a bit of a shock to my largely vegetarian diet). During lunch, we saw men of honor in television, which has inspired a debate on racism in the United States and the rest of the world.Pipo and Vincente Yanqui praised their friend (me) at all camioneros their colleagues and anyone else with whom they happened to speak. Both drivers had never talked with a North American prior to my knowledge. As exciting and interesting of our meeting was for me, it might be interesting for them too. "It is not shit like us," Pipo would tell his friends. "He reads books and poetry. He does not sleep with prostitutes. He remains faithful to his girlfriend, even if it is thousands of miles. "This last point so shocked and disappointed nieces Pipo seemed very intrigued my blond hair and blue eyes.Once we left on Friday Maipu evening, I began to realize how different Pipo was of his colleagues. His incessant shouts and humiliating women has decreased. Conversation went from cat to politics. We talked about Bush and he told me that before meeting me, he thinks that all Americans were conservative warmongering idiots like our president. He told me about her family situation. When he was my age, not knowing what a condom was, he had his first son. "I had a girlfriend, we approached each other, we are excited, and she became pregnant," Pipo said. He had a daughter two years later with the same woman and another son, three years after that with another woman. He and his children now live with his girlfriend and her two children from previous lovers. Pipo alone sustains everything, and he has not heard of one of his exes in hours after leaving years.Two Maipu, we arrived in San Luis, where the family lives of Pipo. I spent the weekend sleeping on the floor of his living / dining room, eat home cooking, visiting cousins more than I could count, and tell the audience captivated my travels and the U.S. . Although I was itching to get to Buenos Aires, I was sad to leave San Luis Sunday afternoon. Pipo and his family had shown me so much hospitality and gave me one of my best travel experiences ever. Monday morning, five days after leaving Mendoza, I said goodbye to Pipo at a loading dock on the outskirts of El federal capital and go in Buenos Aires, one of the largest cities in the world in search of my next adventure .
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