I wasn’t sure where the techno festival was or how to get there.  The night before I left, I met a girl from Spain who told me I should hitch a ride with these people in the photo who she’d met - a French guy and three Chileans.  Within 3 mintues of talking to them, they said they’d be glad to fit me in their car and give me a ride to the festival.

 As it turns out, their car was teeny.  Clown car teeny.  And our bags were huge.  I thought they’d ditch me and tell me to find my own way when we realized we coudn’t fit all five of us and our bags, but they said they’d find a way.  Somehow they did.  But it was the most uncomfortable car ride in the world. For everyone. Because of me. For whatever reason, maybe because they’re South Americans and people down here treat friends like family instead of just friends, they took responsibility for me and my safety.  Even with a bottle of water up my butt and a knee in my side for 4 hours, it turned out to be one of the funnest little road trips ever.

When we got to the festival, it started to down pour. The Chileans were ill-prepared. And they didn’t take me seriously (or my years of experience in the wilderness teaching people how to camp) when I told them not to set their tents up while it was pouring rain.  Like I predicted, all their gear and clothes got soaked. So soaked that we had to leave the festival and find a warm shelter for them.

Well, we ended up here at an abandoned room above a teeny-tiny convenience store in the middle of nowhere.  The family of the store cooked us dinner and let us pitch tents in this open-room with a half finished roof and no windows.  It was the coziest night ever.  

One of the reasons I came to South America was to feel like I could find family anywhere I went.  Everything went wrong for most of the day, as if we were in a Lampoon’s family vacation movie, and yet I never cared because I knew it would all be okay.  All that mattered was that I was with good people who wouldn’t abandon me.  So, on this shitty, shitty night, in the middle of nowhere, I found exactly what I’d come down here looking for.   

(Patagonia, Argentina)