Leaving El Chalten

My mom joked with me that 'Stillness' is an appropriate title for my blog, and I've probobly lost most of my audience in the last weeks of inactivity. I'm in danger of being wiped off the bookmarks page.

The truth is, I've been living quite thrifty the last three weeks, for I lost my backpack. Yep, just about all of it: tent, sleeping bag, cookpot, cherished copy of Moby Dick, moleskine journal, passport, clothes... just about everything that had enabled me to live autonomously, buying only food, cooking fuel and the occasional hour on the internet. I have had to change my pace quite a bit. Since the event, which I would rather not recount in full detail, as there is certainly a fair amount of culpability and excess of faith on my part involved, I have been working and getting to know many people in this beautiful town that sits at the base of Mount Fitz-Roy and Cerro Torre, two world-class mountaineering destinations.
I've been living in a refugio/hostel, where much of the time I have been the only guest of Jesus and Natalie, who have two sons with red red red hair, and are expecting a third maybe next week. It has been an amazing experience, listening to the music of Jesus' band Siete Venas, drinking mate, listening to them banter at the dinner table. I have had to pay for it, and for many new clothes and for my food, by working during the days. I have been employed in one fashion or another just about every day for more than two weeks: mostly I am fixing bicycles, and as there are no bicycle mechaincs here and I still have my toolkit, I fixed maybe fifteen bikes in town. I'm not making much money, but enough to pay for the hostel and my food. I was also employed for six or seven days building a wire fence, installing posts for the fence, and then painting the underside of a wooden roof to protect it from the fierce winds.
All the while, I have been waiting for a dear friend I met along the way to send me a tent and sleeping bag and some clothes from his house in Cordoba. Thank goodness for friends! Many people have really helped me during my time here, and I now have several good friends who live here. Part of the triple bottom line we talked about at the CCC, in a way.

I have all that I need to continue my journey, and though it has changed quite a bit, I am excited to continue. I cannot go to Chile and the Torres del Paine, but I can visit the Perito Moreno Glacier, for which I am setting out today. After that, I am heading east towards the coast, to try to ride to Buenos Aires. I don't know if I will make it all the way, but there are buses and it is safe to hitchhike, I am told, so I will have options. And, at least, an adventure.

For all those of you who have been worrying about me and my whereabouts, I apologize for my negligence in communication. If you have experienced the frustrations of computers in Argentina, you can understand that this has not been at the top of my concerns. Thanks to everybody who has helped me through this difficult time. Your patience and love is greatly appreciated. I'm still soaring, though I crash landed back to earth for a moment.