In honor of our less than mark we will retail a few stories of our last several days!
We stopped in a small town called Punta Balastos because we did not want to camp in the desert because of how many thorns there are. (You walk out to pee and instantly your shoes have 50 spikes in them youch!) We chatted with the police and he told us where we could find a store to buy a few things for the evening. When we got to the store the owner kindly met us and instantly asked if we were going to stay in the town that night. When we said yes, she said we could stay next to their house and have a shower. We proceeded to talk about many random things like if we like peanut butter and whether or not we are afraid of ¨middle eastern looking people¨. Anyhow, we passed a wonderful night with Manuel and Graciela!
Two nights ago we were in Belen. We wanted to buy walnuts because there are lots of them in the region. We went into a small store to see if they had any and the owner told us about neighbors who harvest walnuts. We went there and met some curious kids and Christina promptly invited us to two bags of nuez! They are quite tastey. And they go well with our pomegranets (spelling?).
Yesterday, we saw a sign on a house saying raisins for sale. We decided to stop in and ask about them. We were met by a real friendly women and her sister who just finished freshly drying raisins. They are best with the seeds inside. They also sent us off with four ripe pomegranets which are wonderful!
Dogs here in Argentina are oddly nice. When we stay in a campground often a random dog shows up and accompanies us everywhere we go...literally. In Cafayate a dog followed us to the stores, chased down motorcycles along the 1 kilometer walk into town and chased off other dogs that would be near us. Goofy. But, at times the dogs are tooooo much. For example, in Los Nacimientos a dog kept trying to come into our tent!! It was more than wierd though because it kept rolling over, and Merilee and I were sure there was something wrong with it. But it was just ubber friendly. Anyhow, to get rid of it we had to throw water on it and chase it down the road.
Speaking of over friendly animals though, once, we were riding through nothing but sagebrush and desert sand when we saw two dogs coming towards us. They were not barking, but being a bit evasive. We have learned that when dogs don´t bark they are usually more dangerous, but these dogs seemed alright and when they got alongside us they just trotted along. Then, all of a sudden, in the distance we see an animal SPRINTING towards us. It was about a kilometer away and running full tilt down the empty road. As it drew closer we saw that it was a llama. Merilee and I kinda got to one side of the road to let the running animal by, but then it stopped right next to us and started headbutting us lightly and smelling our legs and arms and just being plainly odd. We really did not know what to do with this friendly llama. Both the dogs and llama followed us until we made it to the turnoff for a small house where they stopped and perhaps waited for their real owners to get home and feed them.
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You tales of the dogs and llama are quite interesting. Maybe all different kinds of people take care of them as they come and go so they are friendly to all. Your trip continues to be very interesting.
ReplyDeleteLove, Dad
Uh, try less than 1,000. 926 to be exact.
ReplyDeleteYeah, you're averaging about 70KM a day. You'll be there in the first week of May.
ReplyDeleteHow funny - a lama! It's really amazing how different dogs are from one country to another. The way they're treated really makes a difference. Mom
ReplyDeleteI had similar experiences with wild dogs in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Most of them were vicious, pack-oriented animals that wanted nothing to do with people. If I ran in the morning (for exercise), the packs of dogs chased me. I had to run with a stick in one hand and a rock in the other, and frequently had to stop to deal with the critters. If I ran in the evening, however, they just laid in the shade and lifted their heads to bark at me as a I ran by. There were two specific dogs, however, that sought me out every time I was in their vicinity and basically begged for attention and affection. One on my running route from home, and another at a job site. They seemed to wired quite differently than the rest of their canine cousins. Either one of them would have gone home with me, but that would have been considered an insult to my Saudi landlord, who lived on the 3rd floor of my building. I still can't believe you guys crossed the freakin' Andes!
ReplyDeleteAlso, the llama's behavior reminds me of the camels in Saudi Arabia. The camels who wandered around the outskirts of town had all been domesticated at one time in their lives. They came up to be petted. If you started petting one, the rest lined up behind him, as if waiting to be loaded up for the next caravan.
ReplyDeleteare there people who don't like peanut butter?????
ReplyDeletePatrick, we´re pretty good at math ourselves. We´re going to Uruguay first! Bre, yes, everyone should like peanut butter, but it´s an unknown phenomenon here. Carl, that´s so funny about the camels! I would love to see that one day. And we know what you mean about carrying sticks and rocks. Argentina is the first country where dogs haven´t attacked us while riding. Just one more reason why we are loving it here!
ReplyDeleteOf course you're going to Uruguay on the road from La Rioja to Santiago. Suffer well. :)
ReplyDeleteQuoting Depeche Mode I see... :c)
ReplyDelete