far and away, part 1
dec. 25 - 9pm eastern
awoke well before dawn to a quick shower, eating what might go to rot in the fridge, and then hop a taxi to portland international. tam was slow to rise, but once out of bed was a trooper against my oh-so-early alarm. we boarded and flew without incident.
the girl next to me traveling to virginia for the holidays lives a couple of blocks from my old duplex on everett. artist, keeping it together, working on her masters degree. she joins us in a round of scrabble in which we both beat her handily.
ran into dwan at pdx. she´s on her way to india. she was actually on our flight to d.c. before connecting to a flight to switserland and then onward.
just goes to show how small portland really is.
sitting now in dulles int´l waiting for our somewhat delayed flight.
i note that i am anxious in a lot of ways, but not as i was a over a year ago when making the trip to spain. now, i am wondering if i am ´doing the right things´whereas last year i was caught up in the the ´leaving my old life behind´thing with much sadness involved. today, it is almost all fear with only tinges of grief. what will happen to me? where am i going? what will i do? will i be happy? fed? secure? the plane leaves in a few minutes and tam looks at me expectantly. am i doing the right things? is this what we need? questions.
dec. 26 - arrived buenos aires about 10:30 local time. once through customs and the money changers, we taxied to the estacion constitucion where the taxi driver told us to ´be careful´. indeed, this train station sits at the terminus of rail lines extending into the southern suburbs, and judging by the teaming masses of humans clinging to every habitable surface of the commuter trains leaving the station, places fairly low on the economic scale.
we were able to purchase tickets for bahia blanca and had about six hours to burn before the train. tam brilliantly suggested we take the subway (subte) to the central city and have a decent lunch. we hopped on the next train to av de mayo and found a german pub immediately upon exiting the underground.
good food and a litre of beer later (and tam very proud f herself in finding a vegan meal on her first attempt), we walked the several blocks east to the Plaza de Mayo which sits just behind the Casa Rosada (pink house), the office of the president.
the plaza de mayo has become the de facto starting point of all sorts of rallies and protests since the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo began their silent march in demand for full accounting of the dirty war´s Dissapeared. the casa rosada´s balconies being the place where the perons and others spoke platitutes and passionately to throngs of argentines in the square below. the mothers still make their way arounf the square every thursday at 3:30.
today, there were no mothers, but the police were gearing up for some sort of worker´s rally. rows of cops in riot gear were forming and large crowd control vehicles were taking positions around the plaza. the areas adjacent to the casa rosada were ringed with riot fencing and television crews were jockying for prime parking spaces with thier satillite vans.
at least the protests go off on schedule. i´ll get to the trains in a bit.
we returned to the estacion constitucion along with half a million other folks at about 5:30. tam braved the informacion booth to ascertain the track our train was supposed to be on. after waiting some time, we boarded our coach, anxious to be away from the city and a good night´s sleep on the overnight trek. i was disillusioned in a matter of seconds.
awoke well before dawn to a quick shower, eating what might go to rot in the fridge, and then hop a taxi to portland international. tam was slow to rise, but once out of bed was a trooper against my oh-so-early alarm. we boarded and flew without incident.
the girl next to me traveling to virginia for the holidays lives a couple of blocks from my old duplex on everett. artist, keeping it together, working on her masters degree. she joins us in a round of scrabble in which we both beat her handily.
ran into dwan at pdx. she´s on her way to india. she was actually on our flight to d.c. before connecting to a flight to switserland and then onward.
just goes to show how small portland really is.
sitting now in dulles int´l waiting for our somewhat delayed flight.
i note that i am anxious in a lot of ways, but not as i was a over a year ago when making the trip to spain. now, i am wondering if i am ´doing the right things´whereas last year i was caught up in the the ´leaving my old life behind´thing with much sadness involved. today, it is almost all fear with only tinges of grief. what will happen to me? where am i going? what will i do? will i be happy? fed? secure? the plane leaves in a few minutes and tam looks at me expectantly. am i doing the right things? is this what we need? questions.
dec. 26 - arrived buenos aires about 10:30 local time. once through customs and the money changers, we taxied to the estacion constitucion where the taxi driver told us to ´be careful´. indeed, this train station sits at the terminus of rail lines extending into the southern suburbs, and judging by the teaming masses of humans clinging to every habitable surface of the commuter trains leaving the station, places fairly low on the economic scale.
we were able to purchase tickets for bahia blanca and had about six hours to burn before the train. tam brilliantly suggested we take the subway (subte) to the central city and have a decent lunch. we hopped on the next train to av de mayo and found a german pub immediately upon exiting the underground.
good food and a litre of beer later (and tam very proud f herself in finding a vegan meal on her first attempt), we walked the several blocks east to the Plaza de Mayo which sits just behind the Casa Rosada (pink house), the office of the president.
the plaza de mayo has become the de facto starting point of all sorts of rallies and protests since the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo began their silent march in demand for full accounting of the dirty war´s Dissapeared. the casa rosada´s balconies being the place where the perons and others spoke platitutes and passionately to throngs of argentines in the square below. the mothers still make their way arounf the square every thursday at 3:30.
today, there were no mothers, but the police were gearing up for some sort of worker´s rally. rows of cops in riot gear were forming and large crowd control vehicles were taking positions around the plaza. the areas adjacent to the casa rosada were ringed with riot fencing and television crews were jockying for prime parking spaces with thier satillite vans.
at least the protests go off on schedule. i´ll get to the trains in a bit.
we returned to the estacion constitucion along with half a million other folks at about 5:30. tam braved the informacion booth to ascertain the track our train was supposed to be on. after waiting some time, we boarded our coach, anxious to be away from the city and a good night´s sleep on the overnight trek. i was disillusioned in a matter of seconds.
posted by warpup at 3:10 AM
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