Journal #33: Taking a Breath in BA

This is from a journal written on March 18, 2022, from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Wow. It's been almost two weeks since arriving in Buenos Aires, and in these two weeks, we've been pretty... still. I haven't posted on social media much, and we haven't done any tours or met anyone here.

Yeah, we're going out to eat, and we've walked around to explore a bit, but in general, we've stayed pretty... chill.

We're staying in this beautiful loft in the best neighborhood, but I'm not going to lie; it was an adjustment.

The first couple of days, I just felt so scrambled. We had hit Cartagena, Medellin, Lima, and Cusco last month. And now, we're just here. With no plans for the whole month and living a life similar to that, we had lived in Seattle — living in a nice high-rise, cooking, working out, etc. Normal life.

I should be excited about this break, but it feels like we just slammed on the breaks, and everything inside me came crashing to the front of my dashboard.

So what have I done with this?

I've woken up, exercised, made tea, worked, made dinner or gone out to dinner, plopped on the couch, and watched Netflix. Every. Day.

Ahhhh, routine.

I've wandered through these last two weeks a little disconnected, like out-of-body. I am building up a routine again while still processing Peru and planning for Chile and beyond.

I've just been rolling through this new routine, filling my time with work, workouts, and Airbnb wishlists.

I guess this is another interesting aspect of traveling long-term. In the past, when I've gone on short vacations, I've come back to my everyday life, had time to process the trip, and get back into my routine.

Now, I'm faced with a challenge. While processing what I did in the previous country, I'm in a new country and trying to plan ahead for the next country. No wonder my brain feels scrambled!

Slowly though, I'm starting to get back in my body.

Maybe it was the five-mile run I did yesterday (for those of you who know me, I don't run). Or maybe it was booking Brazil and Portugal and thus releasing the low, nagging stress of future plans. Or perhaps it's listening to STR podcasts and getting excited about acquiring knowledge how we might buy property to start a Short Term Rental when we get back to the states.

Whatever it is, it feels good to be more present. It's time for me to wake up from this fog, be in BA, and experience this city that I am in right now!

I don't feel like I've wasted these last two weeks. I do feel like the break was necessary and something I will plan into our travels going forward. I can't expect my mind to be totally caught up on everything and have the perfect itinerary for every country we hit. That shit takes time. And if I need to give myself a break, I need to do just that.

Plus, we've been eating and drinking our way through this city, and I feel like that is a pretty good way to explore this place.

The steak, the empanadas, the Malbec. Oof! I would come back just for the food.

Anyway, I am happy to have time to take a breath here in BA and get back to myself. Here's a cute lil poem I saw on Instagram today:

"My mother says kissing a man without a mustache is like eating eggs without salt.

Which is a better way of saying – take the scenic route. Say I love you when it's true. Drive 12 hours just to touch. Buy kumquats because they're called kumquats. Call someone you love a little kumquat. Write letters. Recite poems. Be verklempt. Rise early to hunt the moon. Eat pastries whose name's you can't pronounce. Astonish everyone. Haunt everything. Sing, even if poorly. Press the peel for zest. We're nothing but brief bodies. Hearts, fragile as parakeets. Spit, lips, and longing. All we've got is this skin. This necessary salt." — J. Sullivan