Valle de Calamuchita

CAMBIO DE AIRE
Literary tourism: Fiction
on real stages
Chapter 1 – The trip
I was invited to a business trip as part of the press. I was
going to bring the cover story, but, instead, I brought what it
is today the story of my life. I had to cover the Assumption of
the Virgen fest, a religious event that takes place every 15th
of August in Casabindo, in the north of the province of Jujuy,
where hundreds of followers go year after year.
I still couldn´t understand why I had been sent for such
a fest. I didn´t believe in any kind of god and even less in
any virgin, which turned this experience into a journalist
challenge, where, for some hours, I would try to understand
or share the faith that gathers so many people in this place.
I took the night flight, with the usual handbag, which
accompanies me with either summer or winter clothes
depending on the destination. Trips have always been the
funny part of the job for me, the journalistic opportunity
to visit places and discover landscapes, people, cultures,
exotic food. I was lucky enough to know and learn (a
wonderful gift for a curious and restless soul like mine)
in exchange for telling my experience in a good report and
bringing some photos to illustrate.
As soon as I arrived at the airport of San Salvador de Jujuy,
I saw a man with moustaches holding a sign with my name;
he was waiting for me to take me to the hotel. “We are also
waiting for another person”, he told me. I thought that I
was the only one who had been invited, therefore I was
surprised but not troubled. I am used to sharing my trips
with colleagues, perfect strangers who I can live with for
some days, solely united by the passion that our profession
generates: journalism, the news, the desire to see, feel, try,
experiment.
We were waiting for more than 20 minutes, which was quite
strange since the journalist we were waiting for had traveled
on my same flight. Suddenly he appeared with a blue coat
and an exaggerated suitcase, emanating perfume, at a
slow pace and with a lost look, in an attitude that seemed
irritating to me, disrespectful to us, the two fools who were
waiting, and to our time.
I rolled my eyes and accidentally sighed. It is one of my
defects: I cannot conceal my feelings, I cannot fake what
happens to me in certain situations. And since I am Aries,
a have a sixth sense to feel idiots, just a look is enough to
detect those people I should get away from. The first bad
impressions invade me as if they were a sickening smell
that reaches my nose and nauseates me.
“Hi, how are doing? I´m Pedro”. And who cares! Why don´t
you tell me when you are going to apologize, or explain
where the hell you had been. I could guess that you were
going to make your apology after such a cheap introduction.
You had already introduced yourself very badly with that
impolite attitude.
“Ready, we are all”, our driver said. All, which meant you
and I and a whole world of distance between us.
You were about to lift my suitcase to help me put it in the
trunk but I abruptly stopped you. “I can do it”, I told you while
I placed my luggage. “Besides, you´ll need your energy
to raise your little big suitcase, weren´t you told that it is
a 4-day trip?”, I ironically asked him. I said that without
thinking. It was another defect of mine, my tongue was
tied to my thoughts, without any filter, without stopovers
that make me think for two minutes that it would me more
convenient to be quiet in some cases. Your eyes were wide
open in astonishment, you leaned backwards and smiled.
“Well, it seems that we travel with a gossip journalist, very
acid and conflict lover”, you cheerfully said. The driver
laughed in an inappropriate way. (Mind your driving, will
you?)
As it was expected, you sat down on the passenger seat,
as a copilot. You turned down, searched my look and with
a relaxed smile you said “we leave you the back seat so you
can be more comfortable”. More comfortable. As if you knew
something about what it is convenient for me, about what I
prefer. “What an irritating guy!”, I thought. I did not answer
back. I rested my head on the car window, I looked for some
stars with which I could entertain myself and stayed silence
throughout the trip to the hotel.
I was invited to a
business trip as part
of the press. I was
going to bring the
cover story, but,
instead, I brought
what it is today the
story of my life.
#28