I Need to Stop Visiting Cities.

How does one visit a city? Do they go to the center of town, look around a bit, see the museum and move along?  Does one go out to the bar every night and try to meet locals?  Does one rent a bike and go along the outskirts until they’ve done a complete tour of the outside of town?  Does one stay in the hostel all day, doing nothing and sleeping off the tiredness?

The ambiguity kills me, and so I’ve resolved to spend the rest of the trip as far away from cities as humanly possible.  This realization came when I got to Cordoba.   During this trip, I’ve always felt better when I was in a natural setting.   I loved the Colca Canyon, and I loved the Machu Picchu trek, and I loved the day-trip I did in the Atacama Desert.  You’d think, that after all of these trips that I so thoroughly enjoyed, that I’d do more of them, but yet I seem to be drawing towards cities like a magnet.  Most times, one doesn’t have any choice: cities are the ultimate destinations.  Planes land in them, busses stop there, cars drive for miles to get to them and people even do so much as to take pilgrimages to them.

Now I will make an effort.  From now on, I will spend more time in a natural setting, seeing what it is Argentina has to offer, and I promise to take you along for that ride.

I’ve been juggling with the possibility of climbing Mount Aconcagua, the tallest mountain in South America, sitting at a startling 6900 meters.  It is one hell of a committment.  Lonely Planet estimates the amount of time needed for individuals to be around two to two and a half weeks, and it is most definitely not a walk in the park.  What do you think?