I feel the need to say goodbye to everyone. The security guy at my apartment, the internet cafe lady, the asian woman at the grocery, the guy at the empanada restaurant.

I get on a bus at 8:30 tonight, my first traveling in nearly four weeks. And I'm ready. It's done me a world of good to hang out here, but it's time to move again.

"Our lives are just as random when we're home."
I wanted to give you an idea of how random experiences are while traveling. I suppose our lives are just as random when we're home, but it's easier to see how so many things we later take for granted are pure happenstance. Things like this happen constantly, but one from yesterday makes a good example.

I checked out of my apartment and got on the subway to a hostel across town. From an expensive place in a posh neighborhood to a $7 hostel bed. It's time to start saving a little money... especially after the camera incident.

The train arrives in the station and I start to get on the car immediately in front of me. But I see that with my backpack, it's a little crowded... so I walk to the next car back where there seems to be a bit more room.

"A scam, I was sure."
I pull off my pack and ease into a corner when I hear someone asking me in Spanish if I have a map of the subway. If I'd still had my camera, I would have made sure she wasn't about to steal it. Instead I just made sure my wallet was secure. A scam, I was sure.

Turns out she was German and heading for a different hostel downtown. We talked for a bit and she decided to come to the same hostel I was at. We had dinner and drinks and stayed out till dawn. Posing as a vacationing couple we sneaked up to a posh hotel's rooftop pool for an glorious view of Avenida 9 de Julio all lit up. Later at a disco we danced to Madonna's "American Dream," singing along with hundreds of others for whom the lyrics were some of the few English words they knew. It was a great last night in Buenos Aires.

"A nice but somewhat boring group."
My point here is that had I gotten on the first subway car instead of the second, my last night in the city might well have been sitting around drinking beer in the hostel with a nice but somewhat boring group. Instead I had a lovely evening with one last taste of Buenos Aires nightlife.

There are tons of other examples. There was the Dutch guy, Dick, who I went trekking with in Peru and met up with again in Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. We met on a tour of some ruins I almost didn't go to.

"At a hostel I wouldn't even have been at."
Aaron and Rinat, whom I traveled with for nearly a month in Guatemala. I met Aaron only because it was too dark to read in my dorm room and I had to go in the TV room, where he later showed up and had read the same book. This was at a hostel I wouldn't even have been at had it not been for the English girls I met on the bus who were going there.

Once you know people, it seems like you were meant to meet them all along. It's funny to look back and see how random it really was. It also makes you think about how many would-be relationships pass by you every minute, waiting for a catalyst to make them real.

And before I forget, I should tell you about how our cab driver last night nearly plastered an old woman all over our car. We're flying down the street as he's looking for something between his seats, not watching the road. He makes a fast right turn onto a wide one-way street, turning two abreast with another cab. All the while he's fumbling around on the floor.

"We're headed straight for her at high speed."
As we accelerate around the other taxi, I see what appears to be an elderly woman carrying groceries. We're headed straight for her at high speed and the driver has no idea. All I can get out is "Senor!" He whips his head up and swirves, missing her by inches. I suppose this happens every day with taxi drivers all over the world, but I really thought I was gonna see brains and groceries splattered on the windshield.

I've bought a disposable camera for the Iguazu Falls and Rio, so don't despair. There will still be some photos of the rest of South America. And if all goes well I should have my new camera when I get to Cape Town.