Mula!

So I lost my heart today to a small brown mare called Mula. I don't know enough Spanish to know if that's like naming your dog Wolf, or maybe worse, Mutt, but she didn't have a mulish disposition at all. I was actually quite scared when I got on her -- I didn't have that adolescent horse thing that many girls have, and I can count the number of times I've been on a horse on one hand. Then I got worried that horses can smell fear, and that made me more afraid... But of course, she was a well trained trail horse, and she knew exactly what she was doing, and all I had to do was murmur, "Who's a good horse, then?" and scratch her behind her ears from time to time. She scared me anew when she started to canter, but once I got over worrying about falling off, it was exhilarating. Hi ho Tonto and a way, and all that.

I've actually been scared many times this trip -- scared ice climbing on the glacier (I was in a small group of 3, and the glacier guide decided to "be a little crazy" -- we had the complete opposite of the North Korean catamaran experience -- over ice hill and over ice dale for 3 1/2 heartstopping hours); scared rock climbing along the lake near the glaciers when my 25 year old rock climbing guide said to Cecilia and myself, "since it's just us, fuck the trail" [what's with these Argentinian guides? I never met a group of people so ready to throw away the rulebook -- I guess this is exploring nature without worrying about liability -- I haven't signed a waiver form since I've been here, pretty cool in the end] and proceeded to dash off swinging from rock to rock at 25 year old speed, while a not-so-little voice inside my head was screaming "dude, I'm gonna be 40 soon!" and another not-so-little voice screamed back, "don't let them see THAT -- better to die crushed on some rocks first." And now scared because I've decided to do a mega hike tomorrow for my last day in the park -- hard, long, with a major boulder scramble at the end.

But I think it's good to scare yourself, ESPECIALLY when you're staring 40 in the face. It's easy to feel old, or at least middle-aged, getting fat at your desk in New York, and the things I've done this trip have made me feel better about the impending BIRTHDAY. If this is middle-age, it's not so bad.

Urgh. I don't want to sound all preachily How Stella Got Her Groove Back (and I already had THAT experience a few years ago in Italy, and anyway, it's obviously not about the gaucho boys...or it will be obvious when I can post pictures) so I will leave you with a puzzling conversation I had with a British journalist today.

She is taking a vacation here after working for a month in Antartica, where she was writing a number of articles on climate change, environmental impact of tourism, etc. there. I was talking to her very excitedly about the FOX that I finally saw (cute as a button and very clever looking, exactly as advertised), as well as the literally hundreds of guanaco alive and dead (puma kills) that I saw today.

She: "I can tell you are the sort of person who is really keen on wildlife." (Said disdainfully, for reasons I cannot tell). "In that case, you might be the sort who would actually enjoy Antartica."

I: "Yes, I would love to go. It's just that it's very expensive..."

She: "Of course, if you really love wildlife, you should stay home."

I: "From Antartica?"

She: "From Antartica. From here. From anywhere. From an ecological standpoint, people are destroying the pristineness of these landscapes by visiting them. Someone who is really dedicated to conservation and wildlife should stay home."

[Brief interlude where we discuss carbon emissions and plane travel, and she tells me of a confusing sounding British system where you absolve your conscience by paying 100 extra pounds for your plane ticket which is then used to conserve the carbon load of your particular plane journey somewhere else.]

Returning to the subject of wildlife, she says again "So, I'm surprised that you are here, given that you seem passionate about animals."

I (half joking, half annoyed): "Yes, but you're here, surely, you are destroying the pristineness of their habitat too?"

She: "Yes, but I don't really love wildlife..."

Hmmmmm.