City Boy

Growing up I never thought I'd be a city lover... but I've figured out that am. I've loved every day of my rapidly-diminishing 5 months in South America, including all the time out in the sticks on Chiloé Island, in the Bolivian Altiplano, the Peruvian Rainforest, etc. But I seem to be happiest amid the hustle-and-bustle of cities like Buenos Aires, Santiago, La Paz, and Lima and I've wound up spending way longer in each of them than I originally thought I had wanted to, drawn in by the ease of exploring an essentially endless and foreign urban landscape with no agenda, no idea of what hidden gem or jaw dropping sight I might find around the next corner. Outside of cities, I found it much more challenging to just wander... the logistics of buses and roads and huge distances, the poverty and lack of "tourist" resources in the countryside, the quiet: for lots of reasons, just heading off on my own for the day with a backpack and a few bucks has been much easier when I'm in cities than out of them.

And maybe my city-love is just my subconscious preparing me for three years of life as a New Yorker. Maybe it's all the amazing street art and the constant swirl of stimuli and sensations. Whatever. I just know I like aimless foggy days wandering around noisy neighborhoods and having random adventures and interactions that make me smile and remember how good it is to be alive and human and in the world with other beautiful humans doing beautiful or strange or even disgusting -- but fundamentally HUMAN things. Cities are amazing.