From Diary 2,
we head even higher up. 10.4. It has been raining during the night, and everything is fresh this morning. The mountain tops have got a powder of snow, it's not quite summer yet. Great discussion over breakfast. Willy has run out of money, since there was someone who bailed out (her mother died). He had expected to get money from her (funny enough only half of what I have given), and now he wants us to pay for the last night ourselves. Then we get the money, when we return to Buenos Aires. I do not see the problem, but some of the others will not pay anymore. I would have no problem with us splitting her part, but if Willy wants to reimburse, he may as well.
We stop at a completely
vertical rock wall, where some cacti are sitting up under the upper
overhang. Stop 8.1. I manage to crawl up to one and make a
photo. A little further down, we stop again, here is among other
things a Hoya. Then it goes down through the beautiful
rainforest again. Here are countless motifs, I try to settle for the
best, but it is difficult, when you are tossed around in the bus,
through the countless hairpin turns. Then we are back down in the
agricultural land and I blink with my eyes (an hour or so). Waking
up with migraines, still in agricultural land. We start driving uphill and there is scrub forest. A giant toad crosses the despicable path of death. Otherwise, I only see small birds and some single birds of prey. Many places along the roads, we have driven, there are small altars. They are sacrificed by them: Water. Hundreds of half-full, two-liter soda bottles are located around a beer can large altar. In most places, it looks like a trash pile. These are Catholic altars. A little weirdness: One of the cacti we have seen is called: Parodia maassii.
Suddenly we are out of the area. Asking if we should not stop today: No! At first I thought it was tomorrow we were going to drive all day. Maybe the plans are redone this morning? Pretty sour, these were some really nice and big plants that I can only see here. Buenos Aires is only 1120 kilometers away. I had also come up with an idea for a little souvenir for myself: a big cactus thorn. I also hoped we stopped at some Chorisia, so I could get some wild seeds from this fat tree that will fit perfectly into my collection. For a long time, we drive among green bushes and wooded grass, along a very wide, and completely flat valley. You can only glimpse the most distant mountains. Then, suddenly an olive orchard pops up. We stop at one of the
few gas stations. I have to drop 15 kroner for a freshly smothered
half flute with ham and cheese, a cup of cafe con leche, two liters
of water and a packet of biscuits. Very reasonable! We must have
come down into the lowlands again (just blinked). The temperature is
up to 30 degrees and the humidity is high. The driver puts on a
movie; some American action movie. There are Spanish subtitles, but
the sound is too low for me to follow. We now drive in an almost
gold desert, with many meters between the grass totts. The spaces
are filled with water! Looks wildly wrong, but the place probably
got this year's rain last night. I just blink again and then two and
a half hours have passed, and we swing into a gas station again. We stop once more to
get shots and photos of an Opuntia with flowers. I manage to wring a
big thorn of it, as my Argentina souvenirs. The horizon gets dark
with heavy rain clouds, and a little later comes the first wind
tears. The rainy season has come, we have been lucky. The sholder of
the road is filled with very low flowers in all colors. We meet to eat. First we head to a butcher to buy something for each one of us. Then we go to the Farmacias to call. They have drugstores, materialist stuff, toddler stuff, ice cream and cold drinks. I have proved right, the mood has been a bit depressing today; we are only three who go out and eat together. I'm sorry, I think otherwise it's gone pretty well, but I can't be sure. I get one of their delicious burgers, the other two get steak with either salad or ferrets, a beer two water and two coffees for a total of 45 kroner, which I, big in the battle, give. Besides, I will miss the delicious, strong coffee.Then I check the internet cafe again; the kids are gone. Get some emails (why do people ask me where near Kolding you can buy Strongbow?), as well as clean up the ones that have come in the last 14 days (delete, delete ...). It seems completely wrong to be back in the room without fainting with fatigue. Could it be the four hours of sleep I got on the bus today helps? Begins to make a list of what to do when I get home. Just making the list seems obscure! Finds just four more blankets, as here's better light than the last room. They still look small and hungry, don't they like me at all? 10.5.
Starts the day I ended yesterday: Removes the ticks. Now they have
bitten and clawed a little, but they have not swelled. Maybe it's
not a tick at all? After breakfast I pay for the hotel room: 75
kroner. If I don't get them back, I'll probably survive.
Incidentally, agree to come out to Willy to see his plant collection
tomorrow. Have nothing else to do, so here's a little status: I've had significantly more luggage on this trip, than I usually do. I haven't spent more than I usually have, except for socks. I had come to understand that it was an international trip, it was a little tricky. I thought there were two drivers, but never mind. I thought we should have visited more private collections than one. It also puzzeled on me that the prices were so low. Hot food for twelve kroner, at a restaurant that could look like one in Denmark, seems crazy! I hadn't figured the trip had been so intense. There has not been much wasted time. I had figured we had visited more varied climates. It's not much we've been in the rainforest. I had expected to talk to someone during those 14 days. Not that they're not nice, but with the exception of Willy, they can't share a word with me. Willy has had plenty of guidance as a guide to the others, he has really worked hard. The trip has been incredibly carefully planned. I did not expect Argentina's larger cities to be so modern, nor that there were such vast unenhabitated areas. I'm glad I didn't expect to see all of Argentina in three weeks. I hadn't figured it was a "shopping trip" at all, I thought we should just photograph. It has been pretty shocking to see just how the cacti have been dug up. Also how there have been old holes and discarded plants that have just been lying and floating. Oddly, I haven't seen a single pedal locum until the last two gas stations. Not that I've missed them ... All gas station toilets are BYO (bring your own paper). Status past; back to the present. It is probably a killing tour this day. The landscape is totally similar; looks like flat Danish agriculture. The mileage signs are provocatively similar, not many kilometers are counted down. On long stretches along the road, a shallow channel with an incredible amount of bird life runs in. There is a bird of prey every 10-15 meters walking, wheeling, groaning, cow herding, large white herons, ducks, cormorants, black ibiser (?), A single stork, and a sea of other wetland birds. We stop at a gas station where there is a small stall next to it. They have nets with oranges, cooked things, oils and honey as well as rose plants. There are an incredible number of such stalls here, 150 kilometers outside Buenos Aires. The oranges cost a krone - the kilo! Hey, I forgot; not a single one of us smokes. Of course, it reduces the number of smoking breaks, but is very nice. There is significantly more traffic to Buenos Aires than out. Of course, it is Sunday, but it seems strange. A little past seven, we are suddenly at my hotel, I say goodbye and jump off. Nice clothes on, and looked out to find an open internet cafe. It's Sunday, but some of the shops are open. The shoe polishers have just gone home, otherwise I could use one. Sipping a hamburger and a coffee at a small cafe. Seems to be nine o'clock early to go home, and I'm lucky enough to find a quiet and fast internet cafe. Spends a few hours catching up with newsgroups. One has struggled through a long discussion I started. Another settles a dispute by referring to one of my pages, and in a third one is annoyed that he did not see my photo first, so he had not spent half a year finding a name for a plant. The town has become quieter, so I head home to wash a shirt for the return trip. The receptionist remembers my room number. Lucky; I had forgotten. 10.6. Day of relaxation: Try to change my departure from Madrid, so that I do not have six hours there. Buy a plant that I saw yesterday under the name Ombu. It is a Phytolacca dioica (Phylolaccaceae), which is the only high growth on the pampa and has a thick stem, in which it holds water. It is precisely what makes it a caudiciform, so it should be included in my collection, (you learn a lot of a visit to the internet). Then I saw some nice shoes at a reasonable price, in a business that had closed. There, I'll just pass by again. Rikke wrote, I should see the balcony Elvita kept her famous speech from. It must be in the middle of town? Then I just remember I made an appointment with Willy at eleven to see his collection. This afternoon ...
I'm just off the
Metro, which after ten stops brings me out near Willy. Then I just
have to walk eight blocks and find his house number. Coming four
minutes late, but what. His collection is on the roof. Here is a
large terrace with eight covered benches and some open. Willy makes
many seedlings that he sells and swaps away, but there is also a
large collection of really nice plants. A few hours have passed and I will be back to the Metro again. Just checked if he also thinks the balcony is far away. No, it is right in the center. Glad I didn't go out where the two receptionists said. Might as well drive in there now, that I'm in the Metro. Have make a photo of that building before, but what; the day has to be spend with something. A few quick photos of the pink mansion, between the buses. One of the cathedral, which looks like a Greek temple, and then into a park. Willy told me that the ombu are used as park trees. When I see it now, I remember it interested me in the botanical garden. Here are also beautiful flowers in the Chorisia. A gardener yells a bit at me as I walk across the lawn, but ends up giving me a horseshoe, so I can get up and take a close-up of the flower. It's about two, and I've been waiting for lunch. Finds a small cozy snackbar a little outside the center, in the old neighborhood. I do a walk a big around the old town, and pretty much avoids the antique shops. Forgot to make a photo of the store where I bought the Ficus and find it again (to my own great surprise). A trip to the internet cafe, for once, but Rikke has not failed me yet, nor does she this time. Returns to the more modern center, and falls in with a pastery. 300 grams of really sticky chocolate-caramel cake and a cup of hot coffee is just what I needed. There are about 150 seats, 15 waiters and an unknown number of bakers in the kitchen. I can see six, but there are probably more. With 18 customers in the room, I initially thought I had hit a shift, but everyone keep working here. And then of course, there are the bosses in civil. I can't remember it's happened before, but I'll have to leave before I finish the cake! On the way home, I
find seeds of Ombu and Chorisia. I make photos of both, but
it is only when I sit and arrange the seeds of the Chorisia,
that I think I should have had the Ombu as well. It's not too late,
a little trip down the middle of the giant street, and it's done.
Here are some small, completely green parakeets, which I do not
immediately remember seeing before. Trying to make a photo, but in
the light of the sky, it does not tend to be a hit. The stupid ticks have
gnawed at me. It looks like big mosquito bites, claws of hives and
fluids when itching gets itchy. Hope they haven't laid eggs in me.
There are some flies in the north where we were, which are doing
that, but probably only later in the year. 10.7. Willy has come to mind about the money he owes me for the hotel last night. Of course that's good enough, but should he do it at half past eight at night ?! He wants to get bye the hotel with them, I say he can keep them. And then I'm awake. Wrap the last, not completely dry seeds, and hope they do not mould over the next day and a half. Have been allowed to wait to pay the hotel bill until I left. Then I could use the last cash, and Visa for the rest. When I leave for coffee at the airport, there is now no more than 50 kroner anyway. I must be at the airport 12.35, it takes 40
minutes to get out there, the bus goes half way. 11am may be fine,
but what should I do until then? Take a walk down the harbour, but
it the wind is harsh and it's just a big industrial port. Turns
around, and bumps into a really nice Ombu. Don't have the camera, so
I have to go home and get it. Checker mails; there is one from the publisher who will provide a copy of the book and 50 English pounds for my photo. I really hope I have a 300 dpi resolution of that photo. A last cup of good coffee, and a little cake, then it's time to head out to the airport. I take a special airport bus, may cost the same as a taxi, but I feel more secure, I end up the right place. Buenos Aires is a very big and vibrant
metropolis, really modern compared to where it is located, but it is
also cozy, relaxed and yet functional. Definitely one of the better
ones I've been to. Most have come on board, as I come to the
gate. I really can't understand what people are so busy with. I find
a toilet and exchange the last coins for a note I can hang up on the
wall at Elmer's Pub. I managed to get a seat with good legroom (two
meters is good?), But the luggage space is lacking. If you
distribute it all around, then I just have to remember and find it
in Madrid. We first fly over Uruguay, which looks pretty fertile
here and now. Lots of farming with fun straight zigzag roads and
many rivers. Down in Uruguay there are dams that create
some fun lakes. They look a bit like hammer sharks. Then the view is
covered with lamb clouds, and I only have the continued argument
from the Dutch to entertain me with. It has smelled of food for an
hour now, and I am so ready! After another half, it pops up. 8/10. We have now flown for three hours, and the girl next to me is still red-hot, exploding at regular intervals. I really feel sorry for boyfriend, trying to get her down to earth. After four hours, she finds something in her little bag, and I mistakenly think I'm getting some peace, and tug myself to sleep. A quarter of an hour later, she and her boyfriend go wild; they fight for fun, and her saw-like saw voice easily penetrates my earplugs. She races round the seat, hitting me incessantly with her hair, arms, blanket and boots. Later, they are basically in the middle of a sexual intercourse. I wished all drug addicts to hell! I get the list of cacti I've seen in Argentina done; it turned into 85 different species, that I would have liked to have photographed too. At least I've made 450 digital photos and 240 ordinary ones. It'll be a hell to name them! There are quite a few Jews on the plane, and for the first time, I see them getting special airfare. Pink packing, with the text; The Kosher World. The contents are, if possible, more boring than the normal flight food. Finally we are in Madrid. The stewardess who has had the fight with the two drug addicts looks tired. I tell her, I have six hours for the next flight. She says; it is hard. I say; it could be worse. She has a hard time believing that. I say; six hours in this flight, and she breaks into a laugh. Mega queue for passport control if you are not an EU citizen. I quickly reach the bus that will take me to terminal D-E. They then start driving in half an hour ... People are pretty well packed, so I grab the office chair behind the unmanned desk. End up walking over to the terminal. Then I just have five hours to go ... Well, I can always drink coffee and eat cake! Time is really a relative term. Right now it doesn't actually pass, but when I get home, and must have done a lot of things in too short a time, it flies. Sitting and preparing as much as possible for the Revo, we have to see if I can transfer it somehow without too much machine code going into it. Reads proofreading on the diary - a spell checker would have been nice to have, but then half an hour went by. Must fly to Denmark along with a high school
class, and then incidentally from terminal C, it now turns out. One
teacher annoys me boundless and then he sits right behind me.
Decline students because they first came when boarding began and so
on. He is too old to deal with young people. As he then sits and
uses my backrest as a boxing ball, to emphasize his words, I will
have to put him in place. As high and at least as downcast as he
himself has been. Did not hear him the rest of the trip, a little
sorry, otherwise I had a few good one in the sleeve. Bored me, can't
sleep, is a little unwell, belly rumbling - I WANT HOME! And the
clock just doesn't move. Finally in Kastrup, lightning fast
throughout the building and in Rikke's arms. |