Searching for sleep in the land of the sleepless

The fireworks rocked us from our peaceful slumber @ 4:26am on a Friday morning.  We thought a restful night of camping to end our week long road-trip  was in order;  we thought wrong.  While we’d never find out why we were treated to two minutes of fireworks, followed by dogs barking continuously for another 30 minutes, we’ve chalked it up to life in Argentina.

Argentina is a sleep-deprived nation of night owls.  In our 3.5 months we never found our groove here schedule wise.  In Buenos Aires we tried to adopt the siesta.  While sleeping away the afternoon with the other 13 million people seemed like a good idea, we found ourselves up half the night and wrecked for our Spanish lesson with Leiticia the next morning.  We quickly abandoned that idea in favor of exploring the relatively empty streets in the afternoon.

While camping and exploring Patagonia allowed us to return to more normal routines revolving around the rising and setting sun we were still amazed by the nocturnal habits of some of our camping neighbors. However, a good set of ear plugs usually did the trick. 

Our last month has seen a return to the cities and back to the impossible schedule. Trying to keep a normal schedule yet finding restaurants closed or empty @ 9pm.   We’re usually paying the check when the regulars are arriving. 

When we did manage to get out the door for some exercise in the morning we’re amazed at the industriousness in the street.  People clearly hustling to work, café’s lined with take-out customers, taxis buzz by with no apparent regard for stop signs, and trucks laden with goods fly around the city. 

Hiding behind this business are a tired group of people, you see in the glazed morning eyes, with dark bags – I could be describing myself here… -.  They clutch their mate as if it is a magical elixir to wipe away their fatigue. 

Despite the ‘silence’ hours at the hotel/hostels we were often awoken at 3, 4, 5 in the morning with travelers who have clearly embraced the routine.  We’re sure that when we find ourselves searching for any restaurant open past sunset in Bolivia we’ll miss this, but not yet.