...if one is a chronic worrier.
My sister's email was short and to the point: We're (other sister) thinking of going to see nephew for New Year's. Wanna go?
Yes.
I just about spit coffee all over my laptop when Google Flights showed what my air travel would cost.
Patagonia is interesting in that it is a place without defined borders and which isn't even contained by the artificiality of national borders, much like the Sahara Desert or the Amazon Rainforest. Patagonia varies from very dry desert, to mountains, to glaciers, to ocean coastlines. It has only some in the way of natural resources, yet is largely self-sufficient. It conjures up images as the final refuge for scoundrels from Butch Cassidy to unrepentant Nazis.
Flights were planned - this took hours and manual manipulation to find flights that would work at a not-too-heinous cost. An interesting-looking Cabana was located. But a lot of the details of the trip are uncomfortably sketchy at best.
I really enjoy planning since it builds excitement for the adventure. And the bigger the adventure, the more I like (need?) to have my ducks in a row. Not that I'm inflexible; I've been known to wake up on a road trip and completely change the plan for several days into the future. But when flying a quarter of the way around the globe, those ducks better be lined up in a pretty neat row.
The planning for this has probably been a little closer to what it would be like to try to line up actual ducks: one can probably put a duck where one wants it, that duck will not stay there though.
And I am a chronic worrier.
Riots and protests broke out in Chile while planning was just underway in October; this was largely contained to the major cities such as Santiago, but still affected the Patagonian region. Chile is in a difficult if interesting place economically, where it is a developed country in the context of a developing region. From what I've read, there are legitimate concerns and gripes about how the economic system works (or doesn't) in Chile. But burning buses, looting stores and killing people doesn't really help prove any relevant point. The United States and the developed world in general isn't immune from this same type of disproportionate reaction. Despite having cell phones, LED lighting and ready-made waffles, humanity is only barely removed from our stick-wielding, cave-dwelling ancestors.
Even with an overabundance of angst, I'm looking forward to New Year's in Chilean Patagonia. My nephew is on a gap year there. I took the more typical path out of high school into college with only a summer in between. But that was a critical summer in many ways for me - more critical than I ever would have imagined at that time. A gap year is the perfect time to live in a bit of chaos and exploration; I sometimes wish I would have done this, although I'm not sure I ever would have left since college at the time was mostly the default option.
Still, I would not want to go back to the age of 18. And quitting the cubicle to spend the remaining lifetime trekking through South America sounds like a good idea only in the abstract. We're quick to celebrate those who throw off the shackles of 9-to-5 and and fall ass-backwards in the unknown successfully, but simultaneously ignore those who end up begpacking to recover from a horrible decision - or justifiably call them irresponsible.
And so I prepare to head south - chronically worrying about those damn ducks quacking all over the place.
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