Reminder: I am blogging directly from my iPhone, which significantly limits my ability to edit my posts and increases the probability of spelling and grammatical errors. Deal with them.

Monday, April 27

I hitchhiked today. But before you freak out, let me tell you my story. It’s nothing dramatic other than the shear fact that I hitchhiked-by myself-in a South American country.

I made plans today to go to the local ski resort Cerro Catedral to ride the gondola and take a look around. This was particularly attractive to me compared to other options because, as many of you know, I like to ski, so I thought it would be cool to check out the resort.

However, we got a late start in the morning (a Hungarian and an Aussie were going to join me) as we were up until 4 am with some Israelis who were teaching us how to count cards and play craps. The morning bus had left and the next wasn’t for 2 hours. We opted to take a bus that regularly went to some lake, which was only 10 km from the resort, instead.

So yadda yadda yadda, we went to the lake and hiked around. On the way back, I asked the bus driver to drop me off at the intersection where to road parts to Catedral. The other girls weren’t as keen as I was to see the ski resort, so they went back to town.

So here I was at an Intersection all by myself trying to figure out how I’m going to get up to the mountain standing over me. I did know a bus was coming in the next 30 minutes, but the afternoon was half gone, so I decided to start walking and “see what happens.” I was hoping the bus would drive so I could flagged it down, but I was also thinking that maybe…gasp…I could hitch a ride.

Well, after about a kilometer in the sun, with still no bus to flag down, I started to hungrily look at the cars going by.

Most looked likevworkers in dumptrucks and beaters. No way was I getting into the car with them. And I think I saw a few families drive by, who I think didn’t trust me more than I them based on the looks they gave me. I didn’t have the guts to wave any of them down.

But then in the distance I saw a little red Fiat driving up the road, and it was driving so slow I could tell it was a little old man and a little old woman from a ways back. This is my chance I thought, and I flagged them down. I see the old lady reach over her shoulder and unlock the door behind her, and hurrily jump in.

There’s nothing really more exciting after that. They were a very nice couple who drove me 8 km to the village. I walked around, bummed that the lift was closed on Mondays, trief to play fetch with a street dog, then took the bus home.

In the end, all that matters is that I can now say that I’ve hitchhiked my way thru South America. All I have to do now is find a place to rent scooter so I can say I’ve ridden a motorcycle in South America as well. Just kidding!