but you carry them with you on the soles of your travelling shoes" -
The Be Good Tanyas, The Littlest Birds
I meant to put up this photo while in Salta, but never got round to it. These two guys (Gustavo and Edgardo) were two Argentine doctors (heard that one before) that were also cycling around Argentina. It doesn't take much to get chatting to fellow cyclists for obvious reasons, but these two guys were extraordinarily friendly and within half an hour they'd invited me to join them for the Asado (an Argentine barbecue for those of you who don't know, the Argentine national dish by a long way and almost definitely the main reason for the high incidence of pancreatic and colonic cancer here) they had planned for that evening.
Gustavo and Edgardo explained that they were trying to make their trip about people and stories rather than places, and were carrying around a video camera with which to record them. Apparently a Spaniard from the Falklands was something of a rarity from their point of view, so I was more than happy to oblige and face the camera to tell my story before we ate our weight in beef and killed off a couple of bottle of wines into the early hours (see bags under my eyes). Gustavo surprised me at one point by asking me how I coped with the loneliness. Evidently an experienced tourer, he knew full well that there was little point in asking whether it was a problem or not and jumped straight to how I dealt with it. Caught off guard somewhat, I simply replied: "I don't, really. I just try and avoid it", to which he simply nodded knowingly.
In other, more cheery news, the observant among you will have noticed that yesterday I passed the 3000km mark. It's not much of a milestone this far down the road admittedly, except that when I was, ahem, "planning" the trip 3000km was around the total distance I expected to travel. More as a result of underestimating distances than a goal that I'd set, I hasten to add, but nonetheless enough to make me reflect and find myself somewhat surprised, it's difficult to explain just how distant this seemed the day Toops and I first set out on the road some 3 and a bit months ago. Other than by "3000km away", of course.
Gustavo and Edgardo explained that they were trying to make their trip about people and stories rather than places, and were carrying around a video camera with which to record them. Apparently a Spaniard from the Falklands was something of a rarity from their point of view, so I was more than happy to oblige and face the camera to tell my story before we ate our weight in beef and killed off a couple of bottle of wines into the early hours (see bags under my eyes). Gustavo surprised me at one point by asking me how I coped with the loneliness. Evidently an experienced tourer, he knew full well that there was little point in asking whether it was a problem or not and jumped straight to how I dealt with it. Caught off guard somewhat, I simply replied: "I don't, really. I just try and avoid it", to which he simply nodded knowingly.
In other, more cheery news, the observant among you will have noticed that yesterday I passed the 3000km mark. It's not much of a milestone this far down the road admittedly, except that when I was, ahem, "planning" the trip 3000km was around the total distance I expected to travel. More as a result of underestimating distances than a goal that I'd set, I hasten to add, but nonetheless enough to make me reflect and find myself somewhat surprised, it's difficult to explain just how distant this seemed the day Toops and I first set out on the road some 3 and a bit months ago. Other than by "3000km away", of course.
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