Spanish school and tango studios closed for the holidays. Anne-e and I went to wine country and Cordoba, which were wonderful. Some frustrating things occurred, but the funny things that happened along the way balanced everything out. It all started when we flew on a very turbulent plane to Mendoza, Argentina's Napa Valley. Although people had warned us about traveling during the holidays, we of course ignored them, and in addition to that, made no measures to plan anything in advance. Therefore, despite our daily efforts, we were unable to rent a car to go wine tasting. Finally we resorted to the idea of wine tasting on bikes, probably not the wisest thing considering Argentinian drivers, but hey, we were desperate. But it turned out that we couldn't even rent bicycles because we did not reserve in advance! The common phrase in Mendoza is, "NO HAY NADA". This means, in case you did not figure it out, "WE AIN'T GOT NADA FOR YOU DUMBASS GRINGOS". So, in a final act of desperation, we reserved a..god I hate to say it...wine tour. And as we had predicted, it was terrible. We were first to be picked up and therefore thought our luck had changed. After a few minutes of thinking we had the tour all to ourselves we spent the subsequent hour and a half driving around the town picking people up from their hotels, one person here, one person there, until the minibus was so full that a hamster could not even have found a place to sit (even if he had reserved). And I am pretty sure the minibus gave me a spinal injury. Didn’t they start putting shocks in cars in like, 1960?
The tour was replete with our very own “English translator”, who we were pretty sure was just a friend of the tour guide who was in a last-minute pinch for a translator and whose plea went something like this:
Ring! Ring!
“Hola, Maria, my translator didn’t show up and I need someone real bad! You took English in second grade, right?”
“Why, yes. I would love to accompany you and get drunk on the wine tour! And yes, I do know a few words in English”
So, as the rest of the bus got lengthy explanations of the history of the wine region, we got, “So yees zees is old winery”
And when we went to the famous dike in the region, after everyone was looking amazed out the windows at the rushing waters, our translator took the mic and said, “so yees, zees is very beeg, important deek”. At which point Anne-e and I could no longer contain our laughter.
At the end of the tour of the region of Maipu (indeed pronounced my-poo), she thanked us with a genuine, “Now we are finally, so you go now, sanks.” It had been 9 very long hours..
Hey, at least we got to taste TWO wines!
Mendoza is a beautiful town, with five main plazas set up like a 5 dice. All the plazas are so green and full of trees and benches. It was really nice. The city is basically in a desert, so for irrigation they have these aqueducts that run along every sidewalk in the city and if you don’t watch out, you might fall in. (We nearly did whilst walking home one night)
We stayed at a place called Hotel Petit, which really was petite. In fact, they might consider changing their name to Hotel Invisible. At night I had to stay very still because if I turned over, I ran the risk of knocking my glass of water off the nightstand, or the phone off the wall. One middle of the night, I bumped by head on the corner of the nightstand.
We decided to become “one with nature” in the Andes, which were only a few hours away by bus so we bought tickets and went for one day to Parque Aconcagua, where the highest mountain outside the Himalayas can be seen, or climbed if yer totally nuts. The bus ride was scary and hilarious. See attached photo of bus driver who spent more time smoking cigarettes, talking on his cellphone and waving at me in the rearview mirror than driving the bus.
But we made it there safely and it was spectacular. And extremely cold and windy. And we city slickers did not think to bring warm clothing. I did, however, bring a towel along for the hot springs, which ended up being closed for repair. So, I wrapped the towel around my shoulders, clutched my purse and my plastic grocery bag of snacks and waved at the professional trekkers walking by with all their gear shaking their heads at us. Anne-e must have felt bad for me because she switched and gave me her sweatshirt and wore the towel, cursing me every time the wind blew.
We trekked for, oh, about 15 minutes then went down the road to Puente del Inca, see photo of yellow earwax looking stuff, which I believe is limestone and sulfur, around an old pueblo. It was neat. The people here are so nice, and this one Chilean guy, who was selling stuff (including yellow lab puppies for $50) talked to us for a long time. We almost missed our bus while he was showing us family pictures and his kids’ report cards. We ran for the bus, and on that trip back to Mendoza I lost my iPod.
Life here is very different than in the states. For example, it’s not uncommon for a taxi driver to push his car to get it started. You are meant to get in while he pushes. Seatbelts are never worn, and are generally out of order. Sometimes I get all excited because the strap is there…but then there is no buckle. Kids stand in the backseats of moving cars and the latest shocker was a man riding a moped with a baby in a bjorn in the front and a toddler holding on in the back. People really do not eat or go out until late, and I mean LATE. The other week Anne-e and I went to a nightclub at 12:30 am and were the first people there. Everyone else showed up two hours later. Another major difference is that Argentines apparently celebrate holidays in holes under the ground. For Christmas and New Year’s, there were absolutely no restaurants open, and not a soul in the streets. It was eerie to walk around a seemingly desolate city that is usually bustling. We were still in Mendoza for New Year’s Eve. We meandered the city for no less than three hours trying to find any place to eat. Each hour that passed, we became less picky. I suggested a supermarket, but it was closed. A pizza joint, McDonald’s, anything! But even McDonald’s was closed. As we got more and more desperate and hungry I finally recalled the peanuts I still had in the bottom of my suitcase. Just as we had given up and decided to go back to the hotel, and ring 2008 with water and old peanuts, we walked by a Parilla (Argentine grill) that was open. It turned out to be a lot of fun. It was full of Argentine families and we were all sitting outside, in a courtyard. Michael Jackson was blasting on the radio and at midnight fireworks went up in the sky. Little kids were running around with sparklers and it reminded me of how much I used to love that as a kid. Then three really drunk Japanese people appeared and were hugging us and saying Happy New Year. They went from table to table toasting the families. They were hilarious. And with a bottle of wine our check was all of $12.
After one week in Mendoza, we were ready to get to Cordoba. Cordoba is the academic capital of Argentina as most of the country’s universities are located there. We only spent two days there but there was a lot to do. Mostly, we just meandered and admired the spanish architecture. We decided to splurge on a hotel for two nights and thus stayed in a "fancier" place that cost a whole $50 a night. I slept much better in this hotel, especially after I threw Anne-e's watch out the window of our hotel room. The damn thing would BEEP every hour, on the hour, and the sound of it had begun to drive me nuts. Luckily she only paid like ten bucks for it. The funny thing was that in the morning, when I went to check out, the receptionist was wearing the watch and she asked me if it was mine! She said it was on the restaurant patio, right below our room. I lied and said it wasn't mine, trying with all my might to keep a straight face. I wonder how many hours went by before she flushed it down a toilet.
So after two days we were tired of cities and took a minibus 3 hours north to a small town in the Sierra Mountains called, La Cumbre. We spent three fantastic days there. One day we went horseback riding and that was my first time. Our guide, who looked like a cross between the Marlboro Man and Frederic from
The Sound of Music, took us way out into the mountains and I have never seen anything so beautiful. We did not encounter anyone the entire trip but we saw sheep, goats, cows and horses and we got chased by some donkeys that wanted us off their turf. So, yes, 4 hours on horseback and I was in pain! Serious pain! But it was well worth it. I wanted to stay and become a horse farmer.
La Cumbre was lovely. We rented bikes and rode all around town. They had the best helado there (ice cream). Our last, and my favorite, adventure was paragliding. La Cumbre is famous for paragliding and many world champion paragliding acrobats live there and offer lessons and tandem flights. It cost 200 pesos (about $65) for a chance to fly. It was so awesome. In our hostel we met J.R., a 55-year-old man from Colorado who decided a few years ago to get his paragliding license and travel South America to paragliding every year during the cold months in Colorado. Another couple staying there were from Switzerland and they also had their licenses. They were traveling all of South America on a rickety motorcycle with all of their paragliding and camping gear strapped on. I wonder if they got that idea from The Motorcycle Diaries.
When you travel on a budget, you take buses everywhere. Our bus ride home to Buenos Aires was a grueling 14 hours. As I write this, I am sitting in my room in the 91-degree heat of the city. The weather said although it is only 91, it "feels" like 100. The only thing keeping me alive is a ceiling fan and lots of water. Still going to Spanish class every day at 9 am and improving. I am even reading Harry Potter in Spanish! That will make Brooke very happy.
