Logistics

Since many of you are asking me about logistics, I´ll use this entry to answer a few questions.

Toilets:
You need to carry toilet paper at all times (at least anytime you leave a big city, so for me since Santiago!). It´s funny the first few times when you see people walking around with a roll, but you get used to it. What´s annoying is those who don´t plan and want to borrow your roll....it´s like gold!!...so you start to worry if you´ll have enough until you get back to civilization. Toilets usually consist of a tiny bowl, like the ones I had in primary school (size difference in the population!). You can´t flush of course, since you´re in areas with no running waters, so there´s a big barrel of water with a scoop to use as a flusher. Not to forget: put paper in trash not toilet! Honestly, it´s not bad at all. I was in Paris a few weeks ago & encountered a turk bathroom, not much better! My preference of course is to ´go´ outside, better view, and no smell!!

Shower, hygiene:
You´re lucky if you get hot water (again this is in the mountains & desert- and in hostals)...but in the end you get used to cold showers. Just makes me want to hit my stupid tenant on the head= he couldn´t deal with the water fluctuating a little bit and I had to install new pipes & valves before I left. Blew my budget, so now I´m taking cold showers because of him. But again, I´m used to it now...better cold water than none. As I´m typìng, it´s been 2 days since I showered and I´m getting on an overnight bus, so no shower until tomorrow. Not a big deal though, who said we had to shower everyday. All these chemicals we use can´t be good for us. I´m using one soap for my face, hair, body, and clothes, and it works great. Never had better skin! Plus makes my bag so much lighter...it is the smallest of all the travelers I´ve encountered...all of whom are jealous...I just tell them to downsize their toileterie kits!

Music:
Ok, here´s a funny story. As mentioned before during my trip in Putre, I was subjected to this really annoying Andean music, the same tape for hours and hours of driving. I was actually quite surprised at how bad the music was considering the good music I had heard in Santiago and at the concert in Putre. Turns out the driver in Iquique had the same tape...as well as my last driver in Bolivia. AHHHHH. This band must have been on concert recently and they all got the tape. I just couldn´t figure out why these ´manly guys´(sorry to sound sexist) would listen to this winy music, like Harajuku girls screaming. It all made sense when my last driver put in a tape with english music (bad 80´s, mind you) and I realized the tape and/or deck were overused and full of sand, so the music playing is all distorted. Just think back when you had a cassette player and you popped in a tape...if it sounded all screetchy and out of synch, you ejected it right away. Well, eject was not an option for me. The driver probably thinks english music is hideous, but I don´t understand how he puts up with his own music being all distorted...for hours, and HOURS. On Saturday, I played my ipod all day, we all did. On Sunday though, I started using it sparingly anticipating one more day of driving, so I just played it during the Andean music, and put up with distorted bad 80´s music. But this am, at 5am that is, I figured the hell with it, and played my ipod the whole time. My tolerance or will to adapt was just not strong enough. I mean is adaptation subjecting yourself to gremlins screaming all day? Turns out this Andean band is like the N´Sync of this side of the world...I saw the tape cover...nothing to do with harajuku girls!

Life:
Ok, this entry sounds a little deep and off topic, but not to worry. I´ve been enjoying a lot of thinking time during the drives these past few days- very ´therapeutic´! Nothing like blasting your music while driving 100km/hr across a desert, and letting your mind free flow. I highly recommend it. So I had this realization, while I got a glimpse of myself in the rear view mirror: I have the same hair cut as when I was 5yrs old like in this black and white pic of me at the beach in Val Andre (forgot to mention earlier: i don´t bother with my hair...it´s flat all the time). So it hit me: life goes in circles. Jo/CK, remember that text we studied in german class all about circles? I think we even watched a movie...seemed like nonsense at the time...maybe some language barrier too. Anyways, now it´s making total sense. I´d thought about it before, but only a few days ago did I realize you don´t have to picture life as a straight line with crossroads, but instead picture it as a bunch of circles. Ok, I´ll publish this even if it makes me sound like a moron, but I was proud of my new visualization.