Sandra asked me to insert his last mails, and Peter is happy for me to do that, so here they are:
Friday in BA
Hello again,
Took the bus to the Cemetary this morning. Now I have ridden all forms of public
transportation. Once you know how it is really easy.
Cemetary is incredible. Huge. Row after row of humungus tombs with narrow walkways
in between. Have photos of Evitas.
Then walked about two miles to the railroad station and took some photos of the trains. Went next door to the bus station to check it out. Wow, its about the size of 6 Washington Square Malls.
Thousands of people. Nowhere any English spoken. It took me about 45 minutes to figure out the proceedure. First you go upstairs and find your bus line and get your ticket from over 200 booths.
The rub is you don t take your luggage upstairs, so you have to leave it downstairs with somebody to
guard it, and then trade off so the second person can go upstairs and get their ticket.
I think I will take Dick to the bus station on Saturday after he settles in and we can both get
our tickets at the same time in advance. Then we will have them and can go directly to the boarding dock
on Sunday without too much trauma.
Lightening and thunder and heavy rain today. Supposed to clear and have sunny weather when
we start railbiking.
Getting ready to go to the football match.
Will right tomorrow.
Love,
PEDRO
======================
Wednesday in BA
Hi Sweetie,
If you were here I would say [Hi Sweaty[.
These foreign keyboards are very different and I can not find much of the puncuation.
Today I took a 24 hour tourist bus. You can get on and off at many points along the route.
Entire round trip takes 2 and one half hours. I spent several hours in a section called
La Boca. It is very old and much like old Key West but more so. Very touristy but really fun.
I walked outside of the tourist area and through the real La Boca. Fascinating. After taking
quite a few photos I was stopped by the policia who nicely told me no cameras outside the
tourist area. Fortunately I was pretty much done by then.
BA just goes on forever. The main streets are very wide, 6 lanes or more, and the side streets
are very narrow and European. Lots of trees like Portland. And the Jacarondas are incredible
and in full bloom.
The dress code is non existant. Most everyone very, very casual. There is such diversity that no one
looks at you, which makes it very comfortable. I do stand out because of my height, most South Americans
are much shorter, and because of my beard, which few have. Also, there are very few bald men. I wear my
baseball cap but only young boys wear them here.
Phoning is a hassel without a phone in the room. There is no privacy in the small lobby. As long as the
email works I will send letters every day and call less often.
The weather is suppose to cool off which would be a godsend, at least while in BA. Not sure yet where I will go tomorrow. There are so many areas left to see. Much of the city is very dirtly and jam packed with people.
Traffic is madness. Seems like all the sidewalks have been recently bombed. They are all broken up with
big holes and loose stones, brick and tile. The people don{t seem to notice.
Hope this reaches you. Love you. Because of the heat and the humidity you are better off in Oregon.
Your hubby,
Peter
==================================
Hello from BA
Hi Sandy,
Everything went like clock work. Arrived at 11am, went through customs, found my bags immediately, exchanged money, got taxie and was at hotel by 1. Very hot and humid. Hotel is on really run down street where they are tearing down old buildings. Looks like derelict row. Once inside the hotel it is clean and charming. Wonderfull
roof garden and breakfast area. Much superior to our place in Paris and close to all the sites, etc. No airconditioning but has a big ceiling fan. It is suppose to cool off at night. Could^not be happier for $39night.
Friendly English speeking staff.
I forgot to bring Dicks email address. To save time, please forward this letter to him. you can find his address in my address book under Richard Smart. His address reads something likerailcycle@adelphia.net. I am going to copy him in but don{t know if I have the correct address.
I think we are 6 hours ahead of you here in BA. I will call you later.
Love Ya, Peter
==============================
Tuesday Dec 1 ¡Patagoniattyt
Hi Sweetie,
If this letter is badly typed it is because these foreigh key boards are hard to use.
Lots of stuff in different places.
It took all morning to put my bike together. He said it took him 100 hours to build it.
After seeing how complicated it is I believe him.
After we got it together we discovered the shifing mechinism on the handlebards didnt work.
We could not fix it so I rode into town on the bike to a bike shop. I couldn´t find it anywhere although
some people tried to point me in the right direction. No English spoken. While I was driving around
Franciscos wife and son were on the way to the vetenarian to take in a Heron with a damaged foot.
Story to follow. I followed them to the bike shop but there was no mechanic on duty. They gave us
the address of another shop and I had the defective mechanism replaced for $4.
Packing to ride the bike has been really tough. Can't get everything into the suitcase so will have to
strap my tent, sleeping pad, my full pack and a bag of food to the bike somewhere. Everybody is in
the same boat.
Weather has been partly cloudy, cold and very windy. Hopefully it will improve by tomorrow.
The injured Heron is a young Night Heron, which is about half the size of the Great Blue Heron.
He flew into Franciscos yard a week ago and they have been hand feeding it. Today they noticed
it was having trouble walking so the took it to the vet. Somehow it had injured its leg, but could still
fly alright. Turned out it had a broken leg. They bound it up and have to take it back to the vet tomorrow.
The Night Heron is dark when young but turns white as an adult. Got some photos of course.
We leave on the train tomorrow at 10. Francisco will try to get me a ride in the locomotive cab for
the trip. We only go about 20 miles. Then they will leave us off and we will continue on our bikes.
Wont be able to write again until we get to El Matien on Saturday or Sunday.
I 'm healthy and happy, but think its going to get tough.
..... will get back to you SAP.
Peter
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From EL MAITEN, Sunday, Dec. 6
ReplyDeleteHi Sweetie,
There is a delay on this computer when you type so the letters
don t appear for a while.
I won’t go into lots of detail but the birdlike creatures we chased dow the tracks were Rhea, an ostridge-like bird. There were about 20 or 30 of them in a group. Momma had already crossed the tracks in front of us and the little ones panicked and ran down the center of the rails for about 100 yards before turning off. The young ones were about 20 inches tall. I don´t know if I got the video or not.
The countryside varies more than I expected. Sometimes high desert like eastern Oregon with unending vistas across plains to the Andes. Sometimes we will run along a river and through lush green valleys with small ponds and marshes. Occasionally through rocky cuts high on the hill sides. Always with the background of snow capped mountains.
When we arrived in El Maiten we were soon surrounded by dozens of pre-teen boys. They wanted to help us with everything so we had them carry our big suitcases to our lodging, about three blocks away. As you know, the big cases are very heavy. We turned the suitcases flat and it took 4 boys, one on each corner, to carry them. Dick got a great photo of this procedure.
We had a very nice restaurant meal and a good bottle of wine. Everything is so cheap. You could literally live like multi- millionaires here.
If Morgan can get back to join us on Monday night we will leave our bikes and gear in the school house in Norquinco and drive back to El Maiten for dinner and lodging. None of us relishes sleeping on the ground if it can be avoided. We will still would have four nights of camping ahead of us. Although there is a rumor that there may be lodging in one isolated spot ahead.
Weather continues to be warm to hot with big cumulus clouds. Francisco says weather pattern changing - to hotter. The country ahead is more barren and rocky, but there are a few rivers. We all bathed in one which was like being reborn. More nude photos in the collection!
Air is very dry. We are all drinking lots of water and using sunscreen.
Making continuous progress improving my bike. Much more comfortable riding now. With Morgan meeting us at our camp sites each night we have been able to reduce our luggage weight considerably, which will make riding much easier.
My biggest problem is finding where something important is packed. It takes a lot of pre-thought to anticipate what you will need during the day, or first at the campsite at night. We don’t have time to stop and unstrap the suitcases and go through all our stuff looking for some item, so if you don’t have it easily accessible you go without.
Eating at night is an inconvenience. Restaurants don’t open until 9 PM, even out here in the boonies. We would prefer to eat between 6 and 7 and get to bed.
This computer connection driving me crazy so will call it quits.
Love and kisses,
Pedro
December 13
ReplyDeleteI heard from Peter this morning. He sounds just fine and says they had a great time, many wonderful experiences and everyone is well. He says it has been difficult sending as much news as they would like because of the communication difficulties. Not many phones and no computer access. He promises details soon as he can get the use of one, which should be in a couple of days. I'm looking forward to it.
Sandy