Liar's Dice

We Need to Leave This City Because We Have a Flight to Catch

Tomorrow evening, the planes are leaving Buenos Aires for California. Lesley and I aren’t on the same flight. We’re on two different ones that leave at the same time. It’s a little weird. She’ll end up in Sacramento, I’ll land in San Francisco. I think I layover in Houston. Anyone trying to have breakfast in Houston at 6:15am on Wednesday, I’M THERE.

We left El Bolson on April 19th (as promised). Isabel, Lesley and I hitchhiked to Chile. It was comically easy and fun. We never waited more than 20 minutes for a ride, and people were incredibly kind. We felt lucky. Our faith in the universe as a safe place to be grew exponentially.

Since then we’ve been on the road and keyboard access has been limited. That is a sentence I look forward to not writing for a long time.

The big news is this: we are flying to California tomorrow and we will be there on Wednesday. We are currently in the home of La Colo (remember her?) and her unbelievably wonderful and welcoming family in Buenos Aires. There is a baby dog, and a baby human here. (read: heaven). Below are some notes from the journey.

disclaimer: I wrote a lot about the guys who drove us, but Lesley told me it was boring the way I wrote it, and I agree with her totally. IT HAS BEEN ERASED.

disclaimer disclaimer: Lesley correctly told me to FIX it. Not erase it. BUT I ERASED IT.

apuntes del camino

April 17 Reko
The trees are changing color. Everyone who has lived on the East Coast is saying, “Big deal, Mikayla.” I’m saying OH MY GOD LOOK AT THOSE TREES LOOK AT THOSE TREES. Every day the mountain is more red at the workshop.

I’m going to take some photos first.
No no, keep working I just want to take some photos. Then, we’ll all say goodbye.

I take a picture of Leo and Gabi and Gera in front of the mountains. They discussed for a minute which would be the best place. I was joking, “on the ladder!”, “on the roof!” Gabi actually said, “Bueno” and started assessing how they would all get to the roof. Gera was looking at me. THE MOUNTAINS, BOLUDO Leo said. Okay, mountains.

I take the photo. They all look geeky and happy. They  must have posed for this photo 1 billion times. I go to give Leo a hug first and he says, “wait…I think it’s time for a hug from the community.” He winks. Ailey and I are thinking of starting a band called EXCUSE ME, COMMUNITY.

Without speaking, Leo Gabi and Gera envelope me in a group hug and begin to HUM. I am in a brother sound bath. One inhalation, two inhalations, three inhalations…HUMMMMMMMM…the sound bath continues. Right before what would be the fifth inhalation Leo says, “NOW…just. Keep. Walking.”

Ciao Reko. I walk off the mountain and into town.

JUMPCUT

April 22 Valdivia, Chile

We see sea lions heaping. We take ourselves to the ocean and eat seafood empanadas drowning in avocado. You cannot beat the ocean. Things are sublime.

April 26 Valparaìso, Chile
Isabel leaves and we are heartbroken. We do a lot of walking around and sitting on benches that look over the water. We talk about who would love Valparaìso most.

April 29 Valparaìso, Chile
We get an email from Isabel. This is part of it:

“I’ve decided though, as something to hold onto from being in the southern hemisphere of the world, where you ladies still reside, is that time is irrelevant and that nothing is innately boring. WE CAN DO WHATEVER WE WANT.

And we can do whatever we want thousands of miles away from home, and zero miles away from home and that ultimately it doesn’t matter as long as the things we do make us happy and set us free. My sister said something really interesting to me which was that traveling is exploring freedom- and that our responsibility when we come home is to incorporate that sense of freedom into our everyday lives and work and play, finding a way to be happy in a not so adventurous time- because finding work or school that allows that sensibility, is freedom too.”

It is uncommonly clear and sunny. Lesley and I drive through weird, fancy, Viña del Mar and end up on another beach. We repeat the past. We come to a second unanimous agreement that you cannot beat the ocean. We agree that Mountains do a similar thing. You can’t beat either of them. Even with each other.

It is 8pm and I am an hour early to meet Viktor for dinner. I write Isabel a letter on a napkin because time is kind of irrelevant and nothing is innately boring.

May 1 Santiago, Chile
I drink a huge glass of red wine and write an email to Kylie. This is part of it:

“One week countdown. We leave for that big, shiny, land of the free (what?) seven days from today. It’s odd because there were moments on the farm when my immersion in the new world was so complete, I could imagine dropping down into myself and turning the clock inside out and beginning a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT CHAPTER. But now that we’re back in the city, back in the frat house hostels, back to “single serving friends” (circle c Chuck Palahniuk via Lesley Hollingsworth), I just can’t wait to be home. I am poor, I am tired, I am homeless, I am not cut out for life in a frat house. I’m spending money and struggling to stay open and connected to the present moment.”

May 2 Santiago, Chile
I meet up with Matìas and we go to the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo. I met Matiàs when I was in Chile a few years ago visiting Daniel. The exhibition is mostly from the late 70’s and early 80’s. Then we go to a bar that is very crowded and full of happy people and folkloric music and we talk about democrats and republicans. I decide I love Chile. Then we talk about how uncomfortable it can be to put a price on what you make. On the one hand, the value of art is subjective. On the other hand, don’t we have to live?

We meet a man who tells us he is poor and old (he is also drunk, but he doesn’t say that) and that he likes interrupting couples and groups that are clearly in the middle of conversations to see what their reactions will be. He does a few very good impressions of the people who scorn him. He keeps asking for our forgiveness. Matias says, “I don’t need your forgiveness, man. There is nothing to forgive.” But he keeps going on about forgiveness, and the sex that he is surely preventing Matias from having with me, and eventually we leave. We walk in Santiago for a few hours. We talk about what people need when they walk up to your table in a bar. We talk about open relationships.

May 3 
Lesley and I take a 22 hour bus to Buenos Aires. They play “My Sister’s Keeper” again, just like they did on the 22 hour bus to Bariloche three months ago. AGAIN WE WEEP THROUGH THE WHOLE THING.

Some photos to go with all of this shortly. 

love,

Mikayla