July 18th 2019
Next goal: Iguazu Waterfalls and hopefully into more warm weather. We are such sensitive creatures ....there is only a certain range where the temperatures are comfortable for humans and then there are also individual preferences.
We left hot, uncomfortable Florida in the middle of the summer: From the frying pan into the cold. To be fair, it really isn’t THAT cold here. During the day it’s been quite comfortable in the late 60s or even beginning 70s - at night it varies between 42 - sometimes even in the 50s. We don’t have our puffy, fluffy down, super warm sleeping bag with us anymore, so we dress up with most of our clothes when we head to our comfy bed in the tent with the light, thin “summer” sleeping bags. So far, we were able to set up one night with the kind Bomberos (Firemen)
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and then another porch kind-a-situation in a campground near the river. We were the only guests and the owner let us build our tent in a sheltered area, off the wet, cold ground with a sweet view of the sunset.
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Why I travel the way I do: I like having my few belongings that all fit on my Gurly bike all there right with me...never need to go far to get my cup, my tea, my toothbrush, my lotion, my food, my book, my glasses...everything I want/need is right there in reach. My personal life has shrunk to the bare necessities and I know exactly where everything is (it usually takes a few days after leaving home, before I get it down). I hardly ever put something in a different spot and when I can’t find something....well, let’s not go there....
Establishing everything I need and all is in the right spots, the world around me is huge and changes daily. I am OUT THERE ! Exposed, free, vulnerable for better or worse. This is the world we all live in, love in and it owns us! I dive in... every single day.
And then there is this thing about differences.....the frustration not being able to communicate in my languages ...getting around words and “speaking” with gestures and all I can come up with. Misunderstandings....different products. I can’t get that chocolate that I love and I am used to, not the toothpaste I declare the best, not the food, the spices, the teas ....I can’t get the right fuel for my camping stove....not the body lotion, not the sauce I like for my pasta. And then there is something else...new things that don’t exists in “my” world....the funny thing is, I can’t think of anything right now! Ha!!! What I am saying is, that I am deeply humbled - over and over again starting with every country new again and again. I stand there like “a cow in front of a closed gate” and can’t figure out how it works and how I work in it, but it takes a while and then I can.....slowly....and what was important, isn’t anymore .......Doesn’t sound like it is for everybody........Me? I am thriving: my heart, my soul, my intellect, my body gets tickled through this kind of life. It’s not comfortable or easy and I like diving into a book, staying in the same place for a while and take a breath...”veg out”.
Yesterday we rode all day in the headwind ...gentle rollers, big highway, trucks swooshing by, cars honking....we were pretty much done when the sun threatened to deprive us from its last warming rays. James and I stopped at a turn to a village and discussed wether to turn in and look for a campground or keep going and take a chance to find something near the road we are already on. Somehow I felt pretty confident to keep going, even though my “cranky meter” had gone up into the red.....James’s wasn’t much different, but he hadn’t seen the little sign: “Termas” on the side of the road a few km before. We don’t know at all - could be closed (after all, it is winter here and we are so off season)...could be long gone...could be nothing....could be great...big range of possibilities and the setting sun in the west. James said: “your call” and we went (of course!). It was about 5km after the last turn of our “last chance” to head into the (safe?) village..........A big, lit up gate, a welcoming smile....a reasonable priced heated room ...use of the hot springs until 9pm...breakfast delivered in the morning at our door. Yep, you guessed right: Our moods switched instantaneously - we played in the hot, healing, salty springs until we were pruned up, fell into our comfy, warm, clean, huge beds and didn’t even remember the day in the headwinds.
