Nena Brisa, Nene Noel

December 4th, 2009 by David Miller - Patagonia
Brisa, one of the Colques who lives next door.

Brisa, one of the Colques who lives next door. El Bolsón, Patagonia.

Brisa and her brother Noel [pictured below] live next door. They immediately started treating Layla like a sister, picking her up, giving her kisses, showing her things. Layla woke up this morning saying “Nena Brisa.”

Noel, one of the Colques who lives next door. Photo: Laura Bernhein.

Noel, one of the Colques who lives next door. Photo: Laura Bernhein.

Noel and I became friends after an impromptu soccer battle in front of our houses last week. Later he helped me set up this hammock, which is the first place he goes whenever he comes over. He and Brisa harvested a half dozen heads of lettuce and brought them over as gifts yesterday evening. This morning, from the hammock, he asked if we had a rica ensalada.

These were the only two pictures Lau took of Brisa and Noel, and they both seemed to capture the ondas perfectly. Brisa has this fierce look but is ultra sweet. Noel is super tranquilo. The late afternoon sunlight was hitting the bricks on the side of our house and everything was glowing and warm and clear after two straight weeks of rain.

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  • http://www.joshywashington.wordpress.com joshua johnson

    beautiful pix. thanks for sharing. I am often curious about your new home…this helps!

  • http://musictravelwrite.wordpress.com Michelle

    Beautiful children.

  • http://www.candicedoestheworld.com Candice

    More!!

  • http://matadornights.com Kate

    Great photos!

  • http://www.nehasweb.com neha

    gorgeous! wonder what the little girl is thinking about. love her expression.

  • http://carlo-alcos.com Carlo

    Beautiful shots. Is that how it is when you move somewhere like Patagonia? You actually get to be neighbours? I long for that one day…city neighbours are just annoying.

  • David Miller

    thanks man.

    yo, that question about neighbors is something i’m going to start writing about a lot more.

    basically that’s the single biggest factor for us moving here. it’s not that patagonia is ‘better’, it’s just that we didn’t want layla to have to grow up in a culture where you have to schedule a ‘play-date’ to be with a friend.

    down here it’s just a different culture than in the us.

    three days ago i called ‘out of the blue’ the guy here who’s been running float trips on the local river for the last 16 years. i was like ‘che, i just moved into town and am a lifelong paddler and just wanted to meet some river folks.’

    he was like ‘sweet, are you on your way to town? yes? ok, i’ll meet you in 15 minutes.’

    he was ready to take me down the river that day. i couldn’t do it, so he invited me the next day where his whole family was there, plus all the local guides, boaters. it was a total family celebration and i was fully ‘in’.

    now i’m not saying a flow like this couldn’t occur in the US, but the difference is that down here (Argentina) this is the default mode of the people. they just pour it on. when you meet someone it’s instantly ‘whatever you need… mi casa es tu casa.’

    and the kids still roam the streets.

    back in the US, at least in the places I’ve lived, this culture of trust, of freedom, just isn’t there. it’s a different culture, and to be straight up, we want our daughter to have to grow up with that being her default mode.

    so yeah, neighbors. i could ‘satirize’ the whole thing and talk about how they’re always coming over and the place turns into a muddy floor circus. . . but fuck it, that just speaks to the bourgeoisie that’s used to living a sanitized life.

    every day these kids harvest something (right now it’s lettuce), they bring us some.