yu-en-me ´a man who leaves home to mend himself and others is a philosopher, .. he who goes from country to country guided by blind impulses of curiosity is .. a vagabond.´ - oliver goldsmith

..you can damned well accompany me through the misery
too!

i started feeling sick about a week ago, and since
then, i´ve knocked on Death´s door, and been invited
in for a personalised guided tour. last saturday, i
shivered, sweated, vomited (then had to swallow it
again because i had nothing in the tent to throw up
into..), diarrhaeoed, hallucinated, and ached beyond
belief. then i woke up the next morning, thought
´shit, i feel worse´, and did all of the above all
over again, but this time, with more feeling. for 4
days, i didn´t leave the tent except to relieve
myself, or get water from the lake, and each sortie
was a huge effort. i´m feeling mildly better now, in
that i´m able to get up and walk more than 100m
without feeling like i´m about to keel over. that
said, i´m still unable to keep any food down, - i´m
absolutely starving as a result, but balking at the
sight/smell/thought of food. going to the bathroom
drains me (in every sense possible), and i´m
constantly feeling like my innards have been scraped
out with the roughest grade sandpaper, flipped inside
out and put on the long-cycle of an industrial
washingmachine.

i recently came to this small area called Lago Puelo,
where there´s slightly more life (internet at least)
and taken the luxurious option of staying in a crowded
hostel, at least for a couple of nights.

being sick has forced me to slow down dramatically.
not that i was having difficulty appreciating the
beauty of this place anyway, but sitting by lake
futalaufquen in the Los Alerces park the afternoon
before coming here, i was amazed by how pretty the
lake gets when the sun glints off it with a gazillion
little sparkles. add to that the mirroring effects of
the water against the tree trunks and leaves, the
occasional pair of aquatic birds soaring low over the
water, the sound of the waves lapping against the
shingle beach, - i could not think of a better
hospital to recuperate in. and when a friendly group
of 20-something-y.o. argentines started playing gentle
rock ballads on the guitar later that afternoon, i
thought i´d truly died and gone to heaven. (until i
sat up and almost fainted from the effort.)

random observations/funnies that have kept my mind
occupied:
- when i first got here, i kept switching over to
french by default when i wasn´t concentrating. now,
when i occasionally meet a francophone, i have to
concentrate to stay in french, and not switch over to
castillian by default. good news for my spanish, i
guess?
- sign in most buses here: <it is prohibited to open
windows in winter or when it´s cold>.
- it takes roughly 1 month to get used to walking on
the ´correct´ side of the road/path (right, as opposed
to left in australia), but a bit longer - up to 2
months - to get used to looking the right way when
crossing the road.
- grafitti: <carla, i love you with all my soul and
all my heart. you are my LIFE. 4 months>. i´m betting
they split up within weeks of scrawling that..
- i was surprised when Italian Dude wrote to me saying
that i had square balls. ´WHAT??!!´ i asked him, and
he had to explain that it´s an italian expression
meaning that i was courageous. god bless languages.

bueno, apologies for the slightly less-than-chirpy
tone of this email, but ´tis hard indeed when one is
struggling to control sphincter and upchuck reflexes..
photos will have to wait another few days, and for
those who´ve written personally, the replies will be
coming slow and steady - i´ve been without internet
access for so long, i´ve forgotten how to socialise
online..

i remain valiantly yours,