Leaving Piedra Parada, we decided to hitchhike out to Esquel the closest city with good bus connections.

I have hitchhiked once before in my life in Austria and had a wonderful experience so I preferred to hitchhike for a rich unknown experience instead of calling a taxi for a known comfortable experience.

We went to the main road near Piedra Prada and waited there in the middle of nowhere. We waited around 3-4 hours before an incredibly nice Argentina couple stopped to give us a ride to Esquel.

The man could only speak Spanish and the women could speak a few words of English so I was happy to realise that my broken Spanish was actually enough to hold conversations for a 5 hour journey though I probably understood less then half of the conversation. The couple was incredibly nice. Not only were they kind enough to pick up 2 random stinky and dirty strangers on the road, they waited half an hour in a passing village for the bakery to open and bought Argentina specialities for us. As we sat in the car, talking about our travels, with mate, the local tea, in one hand and an alfajores, a local desert, in another I couldn’t help but appreciate the beauty of human nature.

This couple had an easy choice to keep driving and skip the 2 strangers on the road but they didn’t. When they had the chance, they chose kindness over estrangement. They chose an unknown experience over the known.

That day by acting with courage and curiosity four people on this planet reinforced their belief that most people are good. Its exactly moments like these that help grow humanity to be a tiny bit better.