feb 03 2012 An accident in the heart of the Gobi (Part I)

For: Daniel Landa

The video world, What the hell am I doing here?

The pleasure of nowhere. In Mongolia it is possible to drive with your eyes closed for a while. We had left Ulaanbaatar and I only had a clear horizon ahead, an empty landscape and a sense of unbridled freedom. They were running out of roads and our guide pointed Ganaa an unspecified location in the steppe. I was twenty and a determination beyond his years. We were in a good mood. Sometimes the joy reaches us by the mere fact of not having to share. No one else was there, we should only follow the shadow of the car, lose even more in the least populated country in the world and that comforted us because every mile we went to nowhere, felt privileged to have a landscape to ourselves.

Sometimes the traveler feels that it is only when no other travelers. We all have that little point egomaniac that whispers to us in the most remote: "Enjoy all this loneliness, is yours ". And so we went up a trail of dust for hours, José Luis, Alfonso, Ganaa and I, ruling that endless landscape, plain that we approached the Gobi Desert.

The plan was to look for pastoralists and negotiate with a few bucks on hosting one of their gers, these felt-covered cylindrical housing. Usually covered by a white cloth, visible in the distance. So we located two houses on the road. A woman who looked like one hundred and twenty years have apologized before telling us that there could not sleep, because she was alone and needed the permission of the Patriarch. Getting dark when we located several gers the shelter of a bare hillside. There lived a whole family of shepherds. We were greeted with a gesture that seemed from another century and enter your home, relieved that the thermometer began to descend with a vengeance.

We all have that little point egomaniac that whispers to us in the most remote: "Enjoy all this loneliness, is yours "

Several tapestries decorated the inside of the ger. There were family photos, a Buddhist symbol and even a former television, they carried on each move with the hope that one day bring prosperity also allowed a generator to power on. He had ger, like all, central stove maintained with dried animal droppings. They offered us vodka and goat meat. That would be the only meal the next day. Ganaa served as interpreter and thus we acknowledge the hospitality of that family we watched with a mixture of curiosity and condescension. They did not talk much, smiled rather offering more vodka and then went to sleep.

Mongolia is a quiet place. No engine noise, or the cacophony of birds, or the steps of men. That night, even endured much the crackling of the fire. The fire was extinguished and the darkness was allied with the cold. Alfonso and I share a bed lying in opposite directions with a short blanket. The result was a battle of moaning, reproaches and pulls the blanket to win heat one centimeter. Our hosts were sleeping naked and imagined them smiling in the dark by listening to our arguments.

Daylight came implacable, accompanying cloudless sky or a tree to look for shade. One of the youngest in the family accepted the challenge of teaching me to ride the old-style riders of Genghis Khan. The boy, a teenager with a sense of humor of a teenager and the mischievous look of a teenager who did nothing to provoke my horse whip up a permanent shock. It was an unusual morning.

We intended to approach the most rugged desert. While Mongolia is a land of boundless space, the fact is that the landscape is modulating. Met first the ruins of a monastery ravaged by brutal mentality that the Soviets, they could not bear any expression of faith. In fact, ravaged the country saw during the communist era over 900 Temples. Other temples like Erdene Zuu, in the Antigua Ciudad Kara Korum, still serve as a refuge for Buddhist monks in Mongolia last.

I said that Mongolia was possible to drive with eyes closed, but I said it was a recommended activity. We heard a distant rumble.

Later we looked at the red cliffs, from where you can see a plain so vast that it is impossible not to feel some dismay. Also left behind salt ponds where only camels are able to cool.

And little by little we enter the territory of the largest desert in Asia. We crossed a land decorated with the skeletons of fed cattle and from time horizon and so nothing. And move into the heart of the Gobi and follow a little more. Alfonso and I stopped to record a family of shepherds with their goats. José Luis went to test the waters 4X4. And this is an infinite field and behind the wheel you feel at peace and feel free. I said at the beginning of the story that Mongolia was possible to drive with eyes closed, but I said it was a recommended activity. We heard a distant rumble.

-¡¡Daniel, Daniel!! -Alfonso yelled with his Argentine accent, pointing a point on the distance, -There, Look, Jose Luis!! Overturned, overturned!!

And we ran two.