I Am Still Alive

Sorry about the delay- I have not been in town for two and a half weeks. I had 43 emails waiting for me. Half of it was spam, but the rest, well, I have been responding to emails for almost three hours. It is great to hear from everyone.

Since My Last Entry-

I promised to tell you about some stories. I’ll tell you in order.

The last time that we were in Esquina before my last post, we stayed for several nights. One of those nights I was introduced to some of the boys in town that “are about my age”. They were brothers, 25 and 29 years old. There names were Antonio and Herman, respectively. I went with Marcela, Camille, her husband Pato, and Camille’s friend Truja and her husband to meet them at their family’s lodge in town. We stayed up after dinner around a roaring fire and drank Fernet and Coke. Fernet is a thick, black, woody, anise tasting liquor that everyone drinks down here. This of course was after a few glasses of white wine before dinner. I was feeling pretty good by the time I went to the only party in town with the brothers.

They paid for me to get in, and we followed the blasting Latino dance music up a flight of stairs. We were immediately handed a liter of beer and started to peruse the crowd. This was not an easy thing to do, as everyone at the party was wearing a costume. There was only one catch: the party was being thrown for a very flamboyantly gay man’s birthday. One could not tell if the people behind the masks were male or female, and I was not about to make a mistake. I elected to dance with my glass of beer rather than a partner. Trips to the bathroom, which beer in quantities can induce, were not fun. Everyone was very drunk and recognized me as not being from around down. When they took that other kind of interest, I told them that I was from Barcelona and that I was leaving. Then I would scramble back up the stairs to the brothers.

I did my best to follow where their friend was pulling my right hand and not spill the beer in the other, and leaned against the wall. I watched in horror as a guy in a thong took a girl's place pole dancing. I looked at Herman to my right for help, ad he said, “come on, its fun!” Jesus, people must get desperate for fun out here. I finally got him to leave with me when the thong started to come off. When we pulled up to Camille’s house it was 4:30. Herman said, “nos vemos”, I said goodnight and he pulled away. “Nos Vemos”. Hah. I don’t think so. That’s the last time I let him take me to a party.

BLUHUHUHUHUH. That was nasty. The beer made it worse. The next day I slept in till twelve and then we hit the road to come back to Carmen. When we got back, I got Negro and we went out to the lagoon to build a duck blind. We scoped out a spot and started building with pie boughs from the nearby grove. Then we covered the frame with grass and it looked great.

In the gathering dusk, Negro spotted a single duck coming in. I picked up the gun and crumpled it over the water. It was not very far out and the water was shallow enough to wade in my boots. I waded out as far as I could get and could just make out the outline of the duck in the dark, just out of reach, even with a stick that I had brought. Negro said, “maybe it will be there tomorrow”. I agreed and turned around to wade back. I heard a loud splash right behind me. The duck was gone. Negro corrected, “and maybe not”. I was scared. There was a notoriously large and mean croc in this lagoon where we had decided to build the blind. I waded back as fast as I could and half way to shore, I was sucked halfway underwater. I was very shocked at first, and thought of the croc, but it was just that I had broken through the layer of weed roots in the mud. When I tried to extricate my first leg, the second went under. It was a trial to get out, all the while with reptilian eyes watching my every move. That was scary.

I was not perturbed, however. I took a hot shower, ate dinner, and went out rabbit hunting in the truck with Negro till midnight. We had no luck, so I got up early the next morning to go get some ducks with Adolfo. Of course, we had put the blind on the wrong side of the pond. The ducks always come from the east. We didn’t get any. I was feeling pretty bad by then. I don’t think that I could have hit the broad side of a barn.

I went back to sleep and then woke up with the flu. It was a Sunday, and though I had days when I felt better, the fever only stopped coming the next Sunday morning. I have never wanted to be home more than during that week. I am happy to be here now that I feel better, but feeling crumby that long like I did and being away from home and family is awful. A man will do anything to get back to them. I am glad that I stuck it out. Marcela left for Buenos Aires today and will be back with John on Saturday. Today is Tuesday.

A freezing cold front has come in, and I still have a cough, so I am laying low with the kids and the help. I have finished Steinbeck’s East of Eden, read Of Mice and Men, then I read Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not. I will finish The Old Man and the Sea tomorrow, then read The Sun Also Rises. As you can see, I have had a lot of time in bed, though I did not start reading until the fever went. I loved East of Eden, but Of Mice an Men was not my favorite. Hemingway’s stuff is great.

After the fever-

Marcela and the kids were at Camille’s ranch- La Victoria, when I recovered. They returned Sunday night, then Marcela left again on Monday to pick up her husband, John, in Buenos Aires. I held down the fort with Marta until Thursday, when I was invited with Marta and the kids to go to La Victoria.

Camille’s husband’s family is Zeni, if I understand properly, the single largest exporter of grains, citrus, and pine in Argentina. Also, they are up there in beef exports. Naturally, their ranch, La Victoria, is quite large. It was nice to have a change of scenery, and the change was wonderful. Birds fill an open blue sky picturesquely framed by the pine trees in the distance. Cattle lie in golden fields of dry grass, and burrowing owls peek out of their holes in patches of sandy soil that are characteristic of Corrientes. Capybaras bark from the impenetrable cover of reeds in the lagoons around the house. It was beautiful.



The food was excellent, and I had some nice visits with Camille and Pato. I went horseback riding every day. I feel so alive now that I have recovered. This is all of us out for a ride in the campo.



Although I was not on him in the picture, Camille let me ride her horse, Tostado, when she did not come out herself. I was very proud to be riding him. He is a horse that would go for somewhere between 15 and 20 thousand dollars in the market. He has a very soft mouth and smooth gate, and is beautiful. I felt like a prince riding him around. The only issue with riding him is that he knows he is beautiful, and is very strong headed. He will throw you off if you don’t ride well. I was honored that a horsewoman as good as Camille thinks that I ride well enough for him, and I did not let her down. I was not thrown and I handled him very well, but it was exhausting. I could not let my guard down for a minute. I let my mind wander once, and he bolted. He thought that I was not paying attention when we were galloping and nearly threw me off with a sudden jerk to the right. I like Rosillo better.

John and Marcela came to La Visctoria from Buenos Aireas on Saturday night, and it was great to see them both. The next day we had a freshly slaughtered lamb a la parilla and roasted vegetables to celebrate. If you have never had a fresh, grilled lamb, you are missing out on life. All of us went horseback riding together, then packed our bags for Carmen.

Back at Carmen, we unpacked everything that John and Marcela had brought from Buenos Aires. John brought me peanut butter from the states, and Marcela brought me dark chocolate and soy milk from Buenos Aires. It is the little things like that that really brighten up your day. I reverently take the chocolate and peanut butter out from their hiding places every night and eat a piece of chocolate and a spoonful of peanut butter in ecstasy. And the soymilk- I did not know how much I missed cereal in the mornings.

After we got everything in order and the kid’s tutoring done for the day, John invited me to a rum and tonic in the living room. We had a stimulating conversation about politics that lasted for hours. John is a very good talker and has a great sense of humor.

On Tuesday, we had everyone over for a big lunch of roasted pork tenderloins, potatoes, sausage, salad, wine, the works. Even Marcela’s brother came from Buenos Aires. After lunch, which was marvelous, John, Nico, Martin, and I all went on a partridge hunt.

Martin brought some dogs, and we went off to the far side of the ranch. Almost immediately the dog went on point, and we followed him as he went after the running bird through the brush. When the bird flushed, I put my borrowed 20 gauge automatic shotgun to my shoulder and fired one shot. I got the fist bird of the hunt, and it was a nice, fat martineta. They behave like pheasants, and sort of look like a brown colored cross between a pheasant and a chicken. They are not common, and I was very proud of my kill. I seem to be proud of a lot of things lately.

This is all I have right now, but I will try to post more often. Until then.