Same feeling, different place

Welcome to my travel blog, and if you care enough to be reading this right now i suppose you´d like to know a little about my trip through south america. Well it starts, inevitably, with a long bus ride followed by a longer bus ride to get to my first destination: Montevideo. That´s Uruguay, in case you were about to google it, a country about the size of Montana and known for its beef, leather and mate. Montevideo is a port city that the Spanish, Portugues and English played tug-o-war over for decades until they gave up and let it be independent. It´s juggled a couple dictators and currently has as happy and healthy a democracy as any other.

This is my first viaje mochilero alone, and I am ready. I get on the bus and sit next to the only visibly sick person aboard and we say very little to one another. The two rows in front of me on both sides are already chatting and sharing snacks. I took out my book, the smallest one i had, so as to ease the weight on my healing back. It happens to be The Odessey. It may be small, but man is it heavy! I fall asleep quickly...

Five hours in we get a break at an overpriced cafeteria. A guy approaches and asks if he can sit. In very good but telltale Brasilian english he says, ¨My brother and i have a bet. He says you are Australian and I say you are European.¨ I broke him the bad news that they had both lost.

¨I am from California,¨ I said. Saying I am from California always feels safer than coming right out with THE UNITED STATES, because, lets be honest, you never know who you are talking to.

"Ahh, you´re American. I don´t like Americans." And so it was. Even though he was inclined to dislike me, we continued to chat and found we were going the exact same route all the way to Macchu Piccu. So when we reached Porto Alegre and the three hour layover until the next bus, I had good company. They said that I was the first American they liked, no, the second after some guy in New York. Well I don´t know if I´ll change anyone´s mind about the US and it´s tendency to attract the stink eye, but I am sure that traveling is one of the true ways to bring acceptance and understanding to the world, and to yourself.