Wind at my back, dust in my eye

I entrain myself in the easy rhythm and way of life in Tilcara. I like how at ease I feel and I’m making quick friends of Melissa. I don’t want to leave. But that feeling also tells me its time to leave. I’ve just about exhausted how much I can grow here, and I want to grow along this journey, as much as I want to bask in carefree feelings.

Melissa settles into a chair in the hostel yard to read Gabriel Garcia Marquez all day. I decide to take a hike above the canyon to see how far I can climb into the distant red striated mountains. I meet few other people on this incredibly clear desert day. I follow a dirt road that climbs gradually and passes above the Garganta of the previous day. The catarata looks diminutive from above. I want to climb down to it but I’m bound by private property. I forge ahead.

I finally find a way into the canyon and I lunch here. A lone, native, hiker rushes past with a jacket covering her head for shade and grunts a reluctant "Hola." I’m wary of any more farm dog encounters and I give wide berth to any farms I see. I climb atop some foothills. Snail shells are scattered on the ground. I cannot see a way up to the summit and regardless it is getting late. I turn back to the valley with a brisk wind at my back.

Soon Melissa emerges and we sit in the kitchen and she opens a pack of coca leaves she bought at the market. We sit down and have a long and satisfying conversation. Tea slips into dinner and we find a restaurant with seven peso estafado. My eye, blasted by windblown dust all day, puffs into an itchy ball. Melissa can’t stand to look at me any longer and rushes through dinner.

An older man with a pot belly and long hair is chatting with the proprietor at the hostel and I excuse myself to extract my contacts. The man offers me some eye drops and I hope the sting means its working. The man is in my room, unfortunately, and releases loud farts and snores guturally throughout the night. I go out in the middle of the night and make a packet of soup I find on top of the freezer, and then some coffee.