Posting Up

I´ve been laying pretty low for a few days. I didn´t want to needlessly worry anyone, and I feel great now, but I caught a bug going around the hostel in mendoza and showed up in Bariloche feeling pretty nasty. After arriving at the world´s worst hostel, where my room had no curtains, no pillows, and where i got locked out for two hours when they gave me the wrong key, I did something I´ve never done before; just walked out to find a new place. The hostel offered to give me a free night´s stay, but who wants a free night in a dump? Anyhow, I walked down the street and found a hotel, where for the princely sum of 30 dollars a night I got a sparkling clean room with a view of the mountains, a tv with 4 channels of movies in english and a big comfy bed. I´ve spent two days basically sleeping and watching movies, and now I feel perfect. I also shaved my beard I´ve been growing the whole time down here (won´t get to grow one of those for a few years). It´s a bit of a shame that I couldn´t get out and explore the hills here, but a few days under the weather in a 5 week trip isn´t bad.

One thing worth mentioning is linking up with the Israeli travel trail. There is a pretty well worn path of Israelis who get done with their military service and go off to travel in South America for 6 months. Bariloche is definitely a stop, there are even signs in the restaurants and shops in Hebrew. I met a great group in Mendoza, and even sang a late-night round of Ba´Sha Na Habah´ah with some Israeli army vets, a Hebrew song I learned in swing choir at Curtis HS. A long way from Tacoma, no?
Also, it´s nice being able to talk about my job in coversation, as the Israeli vets obviously have no problem with military affiliation. And apparently the TV show JAG was a big hit in Israel. I´m quiet about what I do with Argentines, they tend to have very strong feelings about the military as an institution. I can´t really blame them, Argentina´s military murdered 30,000 of their own people barely 30 years ago. Still, even when I´ve tried to explain I´m a lawyer in the American Navy and not a corrupt policeman in the Argentine Army, a few kind of assume I´m a fascist. Better to just say I´m a lawyer for ´the government´ back home.

Now I have to figure out my itinerary for the next 10 days. I think I´ll cross into Chile tomorrow or the next day, spend a few days in Valdivia and the Chilean Lake District, then up to Valparaiso and Viña del Mar on the coast for the tail end of the week. I´ll be in Santiago next weekend, then back to the states on the 18th.