Llama Herding and Purse Snatching

I´ve decided to break the ice. Buff Bagot´s Blog for Beginners.

I was inspired to start writing by a self-righteous, provocative, nerve-grating, yet inspiring travel writer named Tahir Shah, who came to speak yesterday at the Stanford center in Santiago. I had never read any of his books or watched any of his documentaries, but he won me over quickly with his outspoken disdain for showy rich people and his belief in the ability to travel even when you don´t have money. From there I was enamored by what he had to say, which ranged from pep talks about believing in yourself to urges to travel often, dangerously, and alone. Tahir obviously loves to hear himself talk, which started to annoy me after about 15 minutes. But I went ahead and signed up to have a short meeting with him earlier this afternoon, because I thought I could get some pointers from him. Before the meeting I situated myself in the computer cluster and watched half of his documentary called ¨The House of the Tiger King¨, which covers his journey through the jungles of Peru in search of a lost Incan city. What I learned from the documentary is that Tahir is full of shit, hangs out with a lot of sleaze bags, and is culturally insensitive. But I had already signed up for the meeting, so I ignored the sour taste that the documentary had left in my mouth.

My meeting with Tahir lasted only about 15 minutes because he had to go to lunch with a friend, but I was, one could almost say, divinely inspired by our conversation. Tahir was impressed by my stint in Russia--he appears to not know much about it or to have spent much time there. I ran by him my idea of staying in South America through the summer, traveling up through Peru to Colombia and Venezuela. He sounded excited by the concept and encouraged me to follow through with it, even if I don´t have the money for it. He said I could easily earn some money by writing journalistic pieces about my travels. I´m far from qualified for that, though, and I don´t have the necessary contacts. But he assured me that, especially as a young woman traveling alone, I would attract a lot of journalistic interest.

The major concern I have is my safety. Tahir is a man, and men don´t have trouble traveling alone, aside from the occasional mugging. Women have to deal with sexual advances, rapes, muggings, all the works. Especially after Jodi´s murder, I´m not thrilled about the idea of exposing myself to that kind of danger. I´m not sure whether I agree with this, but Tahir claimed that it´s all about my attitude. If I exude the air of a victim, I will be victimized. But if I exude confidence and, well, bitchiness, men will stay away from me. He also said that wearing a wedding ring makes women a lot less vulnerable, because when men see it they scatter like flies (at least in Muslim countries). So it´s possible that I could travel alone throughout South America, as long as I have the right ¨attitude¨and wear a ring. If only life could really be that simple.

Tahir encouraged me to research women travel writers who travel alone and to consider writing journal pieces from the perspective of a lone woman traveler. The concept sounds great, right up my alley, but I don´t know how feasible it really is. I am really interested in doing it, in fact I´m more excited about this project than any of my recent potential projects. But I´ve got to have an idea first, or some sort of goal. I´m really interested in working on a guanaco/alpaca/llama/vicuña farm, and/or herding them in Peru. I think writing about that would be interesting, at least in my mind it appears to be. Tahir also liked the idea and told me he will send me some resources regarding finding jobs. I am more interested, though, in traveling around like a nomad than settling somewhere for an extended period of time. I´d like to make my way through South America, making some money on the way in the black market. But being a nomad for the sake of being a nomad doesn´t really appeal to me all that much. I´d like to have an end in mind, or some sort of project. I´d like to spend more time thinking about, or better yet discussing it with someone close to me who might be able to help me develop my ideas. For once, I´d like to see a project through to its end. In the past few years I´ve flaked out on projects like crazy...

But this blog isn´t really about my intellectual musings. Rather, I want it to be a travel blog. I want to document some of the weird/scary/funny shit I see on a day-to-day basis. As time goes on, I grow more and more insensitive to what´s going on around me, even if it´s nothing like anything I would ever see back in the states.

Case in point: today I witnessed a robbery. As I was walking along the sidewalk just outside the Stanford center on Hernando de Aguirre, a woman screamed ¨Ayúdame!¨(¨Help me!¨). I turned my head and saw a gangly teenage boy hightailing it down the street with her purse. Startled and unaware of what I should do, I started running toward him (like I could have taken him down). But as soon as I started running, I saw a pack of Chilean men herding toward him. They were coming in all directions. It was like someone had blown a special dog whistle for Chilean males, and they all came running. They quickly closed in on the thief, had him on the ground within seconds, and gave him a few hard kicks in the stomach. He lay there on the ground defenseless, holding his head in his arms, probably thinking ¨WTF did I just do, I´m such a dumbass¨. After a minute or two of being surrounded by Chileans, one of the men decided to give him a kick in the head just for good measure. Someone called the carabineros (police), and everybody stood and watched the spectacle while we waited for them to show up. Latinos really love to watch other people suffer. Car wrecks, deaths, arrests, fights--hell, the show is free, so why not watch it? Well, since I´m in Latin America, I also stared googly-eyed at the scene until the carabinero arrested the thief and took him away. It was a good 10-minute show, and then I left. Reminds me of the time I saw a bus wreck into a taxi in Argentina. The taxi driver got out of his taxi and got all machista on the bus driver, asking him if he wanted to fight and shit like that. It was great.

Makes me wonder what I would do if somebody tried to rob me. I honestly think I would slap a bitch. I am pretty aggressive about protecting my property. Instead of shouting ¨ayúdame!¨ I´d probably yell ¨Goddamn son of a bitch, get back here before I shank you!¨ But who knows. Hopefully I never have to find out.

This blogging thing is a little awkward for me, so I think I am going to call it a day. With time I am sure my entries will improve.