Crossings

I will not wait to love as best as I can.  We thought we were young and that there would be time to love well sometime in the future.  This is a terrible way to think.  It is no way to live, to wait to love. 

~ Dave Eggers

I am circling around God, around the ancient tower, and I have been circling for a thousand years, and I still don't know if I am a falcon, or a storm, or a great song. ~Rainer Maria Rilke

This past week I said goodbye to Cochabamba and began the journey north to Lima.  After a pleasant yet mostly sleepless overnight bus to La Paz and several hours waiting in that freezing den of a place they call a bus station (oh no, I won't need my hoodie, the only place it'll be cold will be in the La Paz bus station and I'll only be there for a bit... gah... stupid logic) I was headed toward Lima with only one small obstacle left in my way; the border.

Let me explain one of the joys of international travel to those who have never been graced with this particular experience.  Many countries open their borders to international travelers for one reason and one reason only; money.  They want our dolla dolla bills yall!  These countries want us to pay the park entry fees, the overpriced taxi services, the overnight at the Sheraton, the tasty local dishes, and then, thank you very much for your time, they want us to leave.  This may sound harsh but really it's quite sound logic (unlike that bus station thing).  Many developing countries want foreigners money, but not their influence.  Money builds schools and provides salaries, influence brings McDonalds and celebrity TV shows.  To help maximize the dollars spent and minimize the corruptive cultural influence, many countries grant tourists 90 day entry visas.  If I was a country, and let's not disregard this as a serious career choice for my future, I'd probably do the exact same thing.

Anyway, getting back to the story.  I had entered Bolivia on this very same 90 day tourist visa, and then promptly decided to stay about 190 days.  No bueno.

In some countries, like our own, overstaying a visa entitles aforementioned country to send agents to kick down your door and force you (and your family) out.  In Bolivia, fortunately, this doesn't happen, one must simply pay a fine.  I was prepared for this, and knew that I could be made to pay a pretty hefty sum by the border guards if they deemed that appropriate.  I also had heard stories of others who simply waltzed through the office, got their stamp, and moved off without so much as a glance at their overstayed tourist visa.

Unfortunately, I wasn't that lucky, but a funny thing happened once the guards realized I would be their catch of the day.  There I was, unlucky gringo who had WAY overstayed his visa.  Let's fine the snot out of him!  They calculated and calculated again, counting each day I was over and adding up the fee to present me with a grand total.  Bam.  There it was.  Now pay!

But to everyone's surprise...  I couldn't.  I had very little cash on me, as I try to do whenever I travel... actually I guess I try to do that whenever I do anything.  Well, go get more out of an ATM.  Okay, where's an ATM?  Umm... where IS an ATM...  Bill do you know?  There's one in Puno.  That's 4 hours away.  Oh right.  There's one on the Peruvian side.  At the Banco Central?  Yes I think so.  No that one closed last year.  What about on Calle Anticucho?  Next to the jeweler?  The jeweler's on Calle Orgallo.  No the other jeweler.  On Calle Anticucho?  Yes that's what I said!  No that's not an ATM, that's an arcade game.  Cesar do you know where an ATM is?  What?  An ATM!  This gringo needs to pay us.  Oh, there's one in Puno...

... and on and on it went until, like a group of office workers who've overlaughed an already overtold joke, an uncomfortable silence descended on the small little room where we all stood.

How much money DO you have?  That's it?  Let me see your wallet...  Bill, he's not kidding... What should we do?  I suppose we have to let him through.

Passport.

Stamp.

VICTORY!

Two hours later, after my bus had already left me far behind, I was finally in Peru!  Sometimes the highly ineffective and inefficient system works your way...


I didn't know it at the time, but almost in the same hour while I was struggling to leave the country, my grandmother was passing away back home, in peace and surrounded by our other family members.  I had had the opportunity to briefly talk with her two days earlier, knowing full well it would probably be the last time we spoke.  She lived a long, hard, and rewarding life to a ripe old age, and it was her time to move on, just as it was mine.  So while I crossed a border from one South American country to another, she crossed her own border into eternity.

Grandma, I remember talking with you about the saying that goes, "When you were born you cried and the world rejoiced, now live your life in such a way that when you die the world cries and you rejoice," and you did just that.  There are many of us who will miss you for a long long time, but the memory of your smile will stay with me forever.  I will never ever be able to forget the way you shielded your face with your hands whenever I told a joke that made you laugh.  It made me never want to stop telling them.

U R Special
U R Blessed
U R Loved

I love you.  We'll dance again soon.

Surprised by Joy... in the Form of Paragliding Accidents

There was one thing to be done before I left, an awkward, unpleasant thing that perhaps had better have been let alone.  But I wanted to leave things in order and not just trust the obliging and indifferent sea to sweep my refuse away.  So I went to see her. - The Great Gatsby

I don't want to scare you, he said, but I can very clearly see you dying nobly, one way or another, for some highly unworthy cause. -Mr. Antolini (Catcher in the Rye)

So I was paragliding the other day, 2000 feet up in the air, when...

Okay hold on, hold on, let me try that again.

So I was 2000 feet up in the air, paragliding, when...

No wait,

The other day I was paragliding, and as I was soaring some 2000 feet up in the air, I realized I was a pretty lucky guy.  Much better.

I suppose if there is one place I can safely gloat it should be my blog right?  Well here's me gloating.  Gloat gloat gloat gloat gloat.

As a final hoorah for my time here in Bolivia I decided to take a paragliding course with the guys here at Andes Xtremo.  Cochabamba is one of the cheapest and best places in the world to learn, so I decided to go ahead and pluck paragliding from my "that'd be cool some day" list and put it firmly in the "did that" list.  Okay okay, I don't actually keep a list, that would be somewhat lame, but you get the idea right?

I could give you some amusing anecdotes about my awkward takeoffs and near death landings, but instead I'll regale you with the story of what happened not to me, but to a friend of mine here.  Her name is Natalia (changed to protect her identity... but actually not changed at all tee hee) who came to Cochabamba from Moscow just to paraglide.  She already had received training and was set to go, but on this particular day happened to come across a dangerous combination of strong winds and unfamiliar equipment.  As she came in for her final approach of the landing zone she ended up being swung out to the side of her wing and smashing into the ground, breaking her left foot in ten different places.

(I suppose this is the part where I have to stop gloating about the whole paragliding thing)

After undergoing surgery at a local hospital and having six different pins placed in her foot to help reset her bones she found herself quite unhappily stuck in a Bolivian hospital waiting on her insurance provider to pay for the medical bill.  You see, here in Bolivia you are physically prevented from leaving a hospital until you have paid the bill, which is a terrible system as it discourages a vast majority of the poor from ever even seeking medical treatment because they know they can't afford the bill.  (I've even heard that if a bill cannot be paid then patients can be sent to jail, but that's entirely unsubstantiated)

Anyway, i'm trying to focus on the story here.  Where were we?  Yes.  Natalia.  Stuck in a hospital.  Unable to leave.  Bored to tears.  All of us at Andes Xtremo were extremely concerned for her, obviously she's not having the kind of travel adventure she was hoping for.  So what do we decide to do?  Well, what any concerned friends would naturally do in this situation; break her out of the hospital.

I'll save you the details, in part to minimize evidence that could be used against us, and in part because I wasn't physically there for the actual event. ;)  Needless to say, through a tricky system of "taking a walk down the hall to stretch the good leg" and "where does this door lead?" and "run run run!!!" and "well carry her then" and "don't forget her crutches" Natalia managed to break out of the hospital with the help of several nameless friends.

Thirty minutes later we were celebrating back at the Andes Xtremo office.  One injured Russian, two crazy Irishmen, four sweetly endearing Bolivians, one fiendishly good rock-climbing Argentine, and myself.  We sat around our makeshift table, a loaf of bread, a few bottles of wine, some hastily made spaghetti, and a ridiculously over-sugared cake split between us.  We laughed well into the night (although not too hard because it hurt the leg), and enjoyed our spontaneous fellowship.  As I sat around the table with my new friends Kurt Vonnegut's Grandfather's words rang through my mind, "well if this ain't nice, I don't know what is"  (you'll have to read A Man Without a Country if you want more details on that particular saying).

The point, friends, is that if you let it life can surprise you with joy, even in the midst of seemingly tragic events.  My guess is Natalia would have preferred a different journey through South America, but the one she has is the one she was given, and her decision to enjoy it (not just that night but continually day after day) has brought her an adventure she will never forget.

That night, after goodbyes were said and friends began to disperse, Natalia was dropped back off at the hospital (well, a half a block from the hospital actually, so no one would get in trouble) and returned to her room with a handful of nurses clucking over her and ensuring she was okay.  She was released a couple of days later.


Quite unassumingly I've fallen deeply in love with the place where I'm at, and even though it continues to change that is a love I hope to carry with me, to new places and new friends and new daring escapes.

For friends in Texas, I'll be around in a couple of weeks.
For friends in LA, see you in June.
For friends everywhere else, carry on!


For friends who think that last little segment was cheesy, :-p


Ciao