It is strange to think about having traveled from Tennessee to Texas to Miami to Santiago, Chile to Montevideo, Uruguay to Buenos Aires, Argentina in only a month. Now Miami and Santiago were just stops on an airplane, but it is interesting to think that I have set foot in each of these different places in such a short amount of time. I am one of the luckiest people in the world to have an opportunity to see these things and experience this type of lifestyle.
Being back from Buenos Aires gives me a great perspective on life here in the city. Going from a city of 1.5 million to a city of 17 M makes the 1.5 M seem small. If Abilene is Montevideo, then Dallas would be like Buenos Aires. But there are even more people speaking Spanish down here! Surprise Surprise. Anyway all that is to say that I am comfortable here in Montevideo, I walk and ride the bus everywhere. The people are welcoming and kind. They smile when you ask them what time it is and occasional one of them will ask me for directions or a bus number.
Buenos Aires was fun and I promised you return readers a few funny stories so here are two (keep reading there is a picture bonus for you at the bottom of the blog):
Tigre was an amazing experience. I loved it there. I could have spent months there exploring the ins and outs of the little river town. Little is a loose term; it took us about an hour just to get out to the island where we stopped to explore. At Tres Bocas there were restaurants, dogs, a tiny hotel, gas station (on the water), and tons of houses. It was an amazing place where we saw some beautiful flowers and colorful houses. The best story of the trip was the way I decided to entertained some of the locals as I tried to take this picture.
Let me just sum up the story by saying that trying to stand on a slippery river bank is hard, even harder with an expensive camera, and that I still believe in miracles. I am positive that God grew a tree within arms length, and that it is the only thing that saved me from a cold and wet boat ride back to Tigre and certain demise at the hands of my Dad whose camera I was holding. Anyways at least these two Argentine fisherman got a kick out of it.
Tigre was great because Argentines vacation there too. I didn't feel like a tourist with my camera flashing every two seconds. I felt so comfortable that on the boat ride to Tres Bocas, I offered to take an Argentine family's picture. They smiled and laughed with us the rest of the boat ride. It seems that my good friend Wade Davis was right when he said on a high school mission trip, "that a smile is a language that everyone speaks." We enjoyed each others' company until we arrived at Tres Bocas and we got off the boat. I guess they were headed somewhere else because they stayed in their seats.
Later that night, as we headed back towards the train that would take us back to Buenos Aires, this smiling boy walked up to me and asked me to take another picture of his family. You can guess how surprised I was when they asked me to stand in the middle of their family for the picture. I wish I would have had my own camera out. Or, that I would have exchanged names with them so I could see what that picture looks like. But sometimes things are the most beautiful from the perspective we imagine. I guess it might be a gift. If I had that picture, I would think about how it could be better, if the light was different, the river closer, or the sun higher in the sky. The perspective I imagine is perfect. A pink sky, smiling Argentines and a big American right in the middle having the time of his life.
