July the 25th La Cruz, Argentina on route 14
After riding ourselves soaked for three days we are giving up on the good weather for now and staying put in a little hotel here in La Cruz, Argentina on Route 14 north. The depressing, dark and dirty room the day before just didn’t cut it. It was a cheap hole next to the road - leaking roof and spotty electricity ....a little wifi, just enough for a tease.
This town here could be nice....it has some colonial architecture and beautiful parks that even look good on a grey and rainy day.
The muddy, slimy, uneven cobblestone roads make it hard to take the raw eggs from the groceries store back to the hotel, though.
We got here mid day yesterday...took a while to get comfortable figuring out the wifi, heater, the defective outlets, leaking faucets, the bidet.....oh, the bidet...I have a love/hate relationship with it: Ultimately every bathroom should have one, in my book! This is the best invention since sliced bread!
But, they’ve got to work properly! In these cheap little hotels (surprise, surprise they even have them) one or the other faucet of this contraption doesn’t work, or the cold is were the hot ought to be and numerous times I turn the middle for the spray while I stand there looking at it and it shoots up in full force sending me screaming out of the bathroom, hitting the ceiling after it either hit my face or something else....
It’s nice to have a kind, old and willing host who tries to get us comfortable enough, so we decided to stay another day/night. He even got us a heater, after we asked. The water in the sink is “portable” and we got ourselves some food (yes, all six eggs made it without a scratch....I cycled SO SLOW, like riding on raw eggs...I even got off Gurly to walk across the railroad tracks!). I got us some movies downloaded on my iPad- TV series like “The Last Czars” and Keith Richards “After the Influence” and even a silly, but fun series called “The Marvelous Mrs Maisel” takes us out of here and into a different world for a little while. Aside from that I also got some great books to listen to or read...thanks to my new love, the kindle, I got plenty - no need to panic. The thick wool blankets in the room help a lot when nothing dries - not even with the heater going 24 hours a day. BUT, it’s part of traveling the world and in some ways, I admit, I like it! Every little bit we get accomplished (like getting the eggs back to the hotel) gives me some kind of a thrill. I also know all is temporary - the good times don’t last forever either. I am just tickled pink that I am able to do this!!!!! I am sitting here with my down jacket, double layer of still dry pants, my feet under the wool, the heater humming (I hear it, but can’t feel it), clothes and gear hanging on every ledge I could find in this tiny room
a cup of Yerba Mate in reach, my iPad on my knees, Lucinda Williams singing about “Lake Charles”
while the rest of the world is burning up....THAT is scary...looking at the news, the whole middle is in a heat wave and people are dying...global warming is a real thing.....and listening to some/most Argentines talking about world politics is also a real thing and scares me out of my mind. What happened? Why are leaders like Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro popular in Argentina?
Maybe the language barrier is a good thing in this situation.
Not quite sure how to act/think about this...it never helps to argue anyways.
Getting hungry...the rain doesn´t let up, but there is a little family restaurant 30 muddy steps away....guess we are heading that way. Cooking in this tiny room is always a gamble - carbon monoxide is a real thing too.
Movies for dessert!
