The US Embassy Welcomes Us to Uruguay

I can't tell you how much I appreciated the US Embassy arranging for an afternoon of country western music on a plaza in Montevideo for the day we arrived in Uruguay. Attached are a photo of the program prepared by the Embassy and a video clip of a Uruguayan band playing "Down on the Bayou." Don't know if you can get it to play on your computer, but it is hysterical. The whole afternoon was bluegrass, country, and blues. Very, very funny, but couldn't get Sylvan to dance. We had lunch with this fantastic music playing in the background at a nice park. The Embassy, we think, also arranged for a few employees to do a line dance in front of the stage -- it was the Electric Slide, for those "in the know." Actually, there was no evidence of Embassy involvement at all, other than the little notice on the bottom of the program, which you might not be able to read on the little picture attached. Those Uruguayans were very good, but funny to see them in North American cowboy hats. I don't think we posted this other picture, the one with the Peruvian panpipe players on the plaza in Mendoza wearing headdresses of eagle features popularized by the Plains indians of the U.S. To be sure, the Peruvians were "Indians," but the North American indian attire was just tooooo much.

Asado anyone? Everyone?

We may have mentioned how much these Argentines love their grilled meats. Can't have a day go by without grilling some meat. I loved this image -- the guys on a construction crew, knowing that lunchtime was approaching, had built a fire in the bucket of their front-end loader, put a grill over it, and were arranging the meat. Gotta have that meat! Much more important than having the front-end loader available for working. After all, getting the coals ready and the meat cooked is only going to take a couple of hours. Then, there's the siesta of course. Ah, life is good.

Uruguay's Coast

After an excellent breakfast buffet at our hotel in Montevideo, we rented a car on Sunday morning at the airport and drove across the country pretty much. We stopped for lunch in ritzy Punta del Este, apparently a town recently discovery by movie stars. It was much larger than we expected with high rises lining the beach - maybe it was discovered awhile back. The beach though just stretches on and on. We had lunch at an outdoor cafe area of a restaurant that I think was called Guappe, where Jake had another chivito sandwhich and I had a tomato and mozzarella salad (see photo of me at restaurant). The restaurant served very good licuados and lemonade as well. The inside of the restaurant looked quite fashionable. Note the photo of the man on the beach drinking mate with his thermos clutched in his arm. Young and old alike in Argentina and Uruguay cling to their mate cups at all times of day. Mate is a tea-like beverage made out of a relative of holly. You keep the mate leaves in a gourd and add hot water to it as needed.

The waiter gave us directions for how to get back on the highway headed east. After driving a long time I thought I might have misunderstood, but then we ran right into the road we were looking for just as had been described. Route 9 took us into the heart of Uruguay a little inland. There are huge areas of green rangelands, lots of planted eucalyptus forests, gentle hills, taller hills with wind turbines topping them and a lot of sheep and cattle. The highlight for me was seeing 2 rheas, relatives of the ostrich. Gradually we angled back towards the coast and more palm trees started appearing as well as huge lagoons. The palm trees form a palm savannah with all the green grass between them.

We are staying at the Hotel Parque Oceanico, one of the nicer accomodations we've had on this trip. We can see the ocean from our balcony and it is just a short walk away. The beach runs for miles (see photo at sunset). Across a suspended bridge over a small river lies the town of Coronilla. At the other end of the beach is the Santa Teresa Nature Reserve. The hotel has an indoor pool with hot water and outdoor pool large enough for short laps. We will shortly find out how the dinners are!

Uruguay - Montevideo

Early Saturday morning we caught the Buquebus from Buenos Aires to Montevideo, Uruguay. The ferry's windows were somewhat obscured by old plastic shading, but I did get a window seat to watch the broad Parana river from. Once across, we went through a cursory customs inspection in Uruguay, but did have to throw out the cheese we'd brought along not thinking about the border crossing. They either didn't notice or didn't care about the walnuts. A taxi took us to the London Palace Hotel near the historic part of the city. The hotel lobby was filled with Paraguayans dressed in their soccer team colors of red and blue. There was a game at 5pm in Montevideo between Uruguay and Paraguay. We walked down through yet another Plaza Independencia to a smaller plaza where the sounds of country music rang sweetly on Jake's ears. The American embassy was sponsoring a whole day of country music sung by local bands. We had lunch outside at that plaza and tried a chivito sandwich. In Uruguay it appears that "chivito" means a type of sandwich rather than grilled goat as it was in Argentina. Tasty nonetheless!

Montevideo seemed very quiet after BA. It's a city of a million people, but maybe most of them were at the soccer game or at the beach. Most of the stores were closed although restaurants were busy. The city really has a unique feel to it. It has beautiful late 1800s, early 1900s buildings some of which are in good shape, but others are crumbling. Many of the streets are lined with sycamore trees giving it a leafy, quiet aspect. The city is built on a peninsula and has parks along one side of the peninsula and a working port on the other side. It wasn't until we took a taxi to the airport east of town that we realized how large the city really was, but because most of the buildings aren't too tall it it seemed very pleasant. We'll be back for a day on a weekday, so maybe our impression of how peaceful it seemed will change. There was some excitement around 7pm. We were at another cafe on another plaza and Uruguay won the soccer game to the delight of all the other patrons at the cafe. I have to say we were more engrossed in watching an informal group of dancers dancing tango and some sort of waltz.

Before dinner we watched a performance art piece we ran across on the street near our hotel. It involved a young woman and mirrors, fluids, audience participation and some music and poetry. It had something to do with womanhood. There was another piece we missed most of whose remains were a giant abstract on the street made of apple peelings and corn kernels.

We had dinner at a restaurant featuring grilled meat and sushi (something for everyone?) near the hotel. Jake had an excellent plate of beef carpaccio and I got a piece of grilled chicken and a salad to share with Jake.

Gardens

Today we visited both the Carlos Thays botanic garden and the Japanese Garden. The botanic garden is free and not terribly large. It features several formal gardens and sort of a random assortment of other collections arranged by division or by continent. The garden is filled with cats that seem friendly and well cared for. We followed a self-guided pamphlet about native trees of Argentina. If you live in the south, you might find the fruits familiar of one tree pictured above - the tree is Phytolacca dioica, relative of pokeweed! There are some impressive trees in the garden. The garden is celebrating its 110th anniversary this year.

From the botanic garden we walked down to the better maintained Japanese Garden. This garden has a modest 5 peso entrance fee. It has a large lake in the center that is criss-crossed with different oriental styled bridges. The lake is filled with huge multi-colored koi. You can buy food to feed them with in the garden so they tend to congregate as you walk across the bridges. There is a large building at one end of the garden with a nice Japanese restaurant that overlooks the garden. We had lunch by the window with a beautiful view of a hillside crowned with a pink-flowered palo borracho tree (Ceiba speciosa). Jake got a fragrant bowl of udon noodle soup with slices of mushrooms and some sort of soy product. I had a good but rather small salad with crispy pieces of salmon over mixed greens.

After the gardens, we walked on over into Recoleta. Along the way we passed quite a few dog walkers out with their many charges. You can see some dogs roaming under another huge tree in a park. We stopped at one of the cafes along the edge of the park in front of the cemetery for coffee and dessert. We each got an enormous slice of a very sweet and rich chocolate cake. Under the ganache topping was a layer of raspberry jam and dulce de leche. We got to talking with a young guy at the table next to ours. He teaches music and bartends in NYC and had come down for spring break. He was enjoying a bottle of chardonnay with his lunch on his last day in the city. He had taken a month of tango lessons before arriving and had gone to milongas nearly every night. He recommended one to us in Palermo where he danced until 9 am one morning.

In the evening we went to an acrobatic tango show outdoors on the rooftop terrace of the Recoleta Cultural Center. 12 acrobats performed to tango music on tightrope, trapeze, a large ring and other equipment. It was really quite striking with impressive feats of strength, flexibility and artistry.

The Art of Service

Wednesday felt like a day of being well looked after. Our first stop of the morning was a leather store called Maru Guerberg in Palermo Soho once again. My mom had gotten a leather jacket here two years ago, so we thought we’d check it out. At the store you choose the style of jacket you like, then pick the leather, lining and other details. They take your measurements if they differ from the standard sizes and will make up a jacket for you in just a few days. The two men staffing the store were extremely helpful suggesting linings and leather styles. It was clear that their sense of style was much more developed than mine so I went with their suggestions! Both Jake and I ordered up our jackets and will pick them up when we get back from Uruguay.

Feeling elated and exhausted by all those decisions at the leather store, we selected a restaurant catty-corner to the store for lunch. We ordered two of the specials for the day, meat balls served with tomato sauce and saffron rice and chicken croquettes with sesame seeds served over a mixed-greens salad. Both were quite good. Refreshed, we walked up to Cordoba Street, known in this part for its discount/outlet stores of famous Argentine brands. We shopped unsuccessfully for some new shirts to replace our travel worn ones. Shopkeepers are generally very welcoming and helpful in Argentina.

In the evening we headed over to Florida Street, the pedestrian street filled with shops and restaurants (see photo of bears of nations taken at San Martin Plaza on the way). I waited a little too long for an afternoon cup of coffee and ended up ordering a gin and tonic at Richmonds, a revered old café on Florida. Jake stuck with the original idea of coffee. The waiters seemed to be all older gentlemen with long service. Richmond is richly paneled in dark wood and gleaming brass chandeliers hang from the high ceilings. My G&T was made up at the table by the waiter. He poured a measure of gin into a glass of ice, then liberally poured more gin from the bottle in. He left me with a bottle of Schweppes and a couple slices of lemon to adorn my gin.

Feeling hungry, we asked directions to the highly recommended “Palacio de Las Papas Fritas” (Palace of the French Fries). It turned out it was right around the corner practically. It was another wood-paneled place staffed by people who had worked there for years. It was recommended to us as the place with the best steaks in Buenos Aires, so we ordered a salad and tenderloin steak to share. The salad of lettuce, carrots, beets, hard-boiled egg and celery was brought un-tossed to the table. The waiter asked what dressing ingredients we wanted and tossed it for us at the table. The steak arrived rare as ordered with a delicious grilled flavor. It was somewhat tough for a tenderloin though. But what was truly spectacular were the French fries. They were thick slices of fried potato puffed up into golden pillows. They were truly the best French fries I’ve ever eaten!!

Buenos Aires - Puerto Madero and Recoleta

On Monday I walked around our neighborhood and the microcentro, and around 1pm we met our wonderful travel agent who had arranged the apartment and our future travel to Uruguay and Iguazu. She gave us maps and vouchers and from her office in the Microcentro we walked over to Puerto Madero, the newest addition to BA’s trendy neighborhoods. This area forms a long strip along what used to be the port. The brick warehouses have been converted to offices and apartments and the water is filled with sailboats and yachts. On the other side of the water are chrome and glass corporate offices. We ate at a restaurant the guidebook recommended called Bice. The prices were outrageous, but the food was excellent and it was extremely pleasant sitting outside with cool breezes from the river. Jake had eaten at the Bice - New York. We don’t think they’d appreciate being called a chain though! Jake had a Lasagna Bolognese and I had a spinach salad with mozzarella, parmesan and parma ham. The meal came with lots of extras – small slices of pizza, a little plate of sweets and a glass of limoncello, but the bill came with extra “service charges” as well.

After our elegant meal we decided to head up the BA’s most fashionable cemetery. The Recoleta cementery is packed from end to end with mausoleums and monuments to BA’s best known families. It was really quite remarkable for the different styles of monuments. We didn’t try to seek out any particularly famous people, but just wandered around. A lot of the people who have streets named after them are buried there. Currently the only living residents of the cemetery appear to be feral cats. We meandered along the streets of Recoleta admiring the pretty apartment buildings and fancy stores. It could have Madison Avenue with more trees.
In the evening we walked over to the Ateneo bookstore. If you’re in BA, be sure to go to this store! The bookstore is housed in an old theatre complete with balconies and a painted dome ceiling. The stage has become a coffee shop and the balcony has armchairs where the box seats used to be. There is a great collection of books and classical music CDs. I got a little field guide for Iguazu and another book on Patagonia plants and wildlife by the author of “Invasores en Patagonia” which I had picked up in Mendoza.

Buenos Aires - San Telmo Antiques Market

We left Mendoza on Sunday morning and had an easy flight to Buenos Aires (BA). Most remarkable to me from my window seat in the plane was the extent of irrigated agricultural fields between Mendoza and BA. We did go through large areas of undeveloped scrubland, but it was like flying across the Midwestern US (only all the fields are rectangular instead of those odd round ones you sometimes see in the western US).

Once in BA we took a cab to our new apartment where we were met by the rental agent. It’s a studio apartment located between Barrio Norte and the Microcentro. It’s convenient to the Subte (subway) line and not far from the ritzy neighborhood of Recoleta. BA is a city of 3 million people, 12 million including the outskirts. So it is divided into many neighborhoods. The apartment looks out into the middle of the block, so it is quiet and has a small sunny balcony. The balcony’s view over roofs and the middle of the block made us wonder how the middle of city blocks are taken up! In ours there appears to be an old brick building that is now completely surrounded by taller apartment buildings. We are on Santa Fe street, known for its shopping. I have been attempting to find some new shirts to wear, but so far everything is either too trendy or doesn’t fit well. Oddly, many stores carry knit shirts that are all one size fits all. Fortunately most seem made for women approximately my size.

On Sunday most of the stores are closed but we found a restaurant on the corner by our house for lunch. They had very good pasta and thin crust pizza. Fortified by lunch, we took a cab down to San Telmo for its famous Sunday antiques market! For those of my friends who collect antiques, you would have thought you’d died and gone to heaven. Hundreds of booths filled Dorrego Plaza with all antiques imaginable (actually, not much furniture, but there are plenty of antiques stores around the plaza that have furniture). There were booths with old brass fittings, vintage clothes, books, silverware, ceramics, gaucho paraphernalia, copper pans, coins, knives, comic books, old glass soda siphons (several booths of these for some reason). . . There was so much to look at and so many people it was somewhat overwhelming, although quite fascinating. Eventually we took a break for coffee at a sidewalk café and just watched the people go by. Around the edges of the plaza, artists displayed paintings and jewelry and tango groups played soulfully. There were tango dancers as well, but they never seemed to be dancing when we went by. From Plaza Dorrego we walked up Libertador Avenue. It was closed to traffic for Sunday and all along the edges were more craft booths and antique vendors. The level of the crafts was much higher than what we had seen in Mendoza overall.

We walked up to the Plaza de Mayo, where the “Pink House” (the equivalent of the White House) is and other large ornamental government buildings. From there we figured out the subway system to get back to our apartment.

Everyday Life in Mendoza

I’ve kept you posted on all the highlights of our trip, but I thought you might want to hear more about a routine day. Showers here generally use instant gas hot water heaters. Our shower has pretty low water pressure, but endless amounts of relatively hot water. Since we live in a desert though, I have not made my showers any longer than usual (Mendoza apparently uses more water than any place in Latin America surprisingly). We keep a supply of granola, yogurt, milk and bananas for breakfast. It’s hard to find any other kind of cereal except for sweet kid’s cereals. Jake sometimes makes toast over the gas burner of our 2 burner countertop stove. We bought a French press coffee maker to bypass the supply of instant coffee, tang and teas that the maid leaves. It’s been hard to find unsweetened OJ in the store too. Sometimes they stock it in boxes.

I head off to my volunteer job some time after 9 am. I’m working for a local environmental group called Oikos red ambiental, www.Oikosredambiental.org.ar. I translated their web site to English, but they haven’t linked all the pages together yet. You can see the translated homepage by clicking on the English flag. Jake helped me with some of the legal translations on other pages! It’s a small organization with a director and 2 part-time staff. Currently there are 2 students from France and a student from Montreal there working on projects related to their studies as well. There biggest project has been putting together a network of environmental lawyers across Argentina to help when legal cases arise. They act as a watchdog on government policies, bring citizen protests to government and monitor big corporations (in particular mining interests) environmental damages. It’s been interesting learning more about the environmental justice movement and about the Constitutional rights accorded to communities to a healthy environment and to equal benefits to environmental resources. Most of the laws related to this constitutional amendment have not been enforced. I’ve also been helping them find information about possible grant opportunities from American foundations for some of their projects.

Jake’s been working very hard on finishing up his “One Mark per Source” article. Some academic crackpot idea about how every company should only be allowed one trademark. He usually leaves the apartment at some time during the morning so the maid can clean.

I get back around 12:30 – 1pm and we go shopping for something to eat for lunch or eat out. There are numerous little stores and the Carrefour Express for grocery shopping. After lunch we hang out at the apartment napping, reading or writing until Siesta is over. Once things open back up around 5 or 6 pm we go back out to run errands, sight see, go to the gym (in Jake’s case), or caffeine up at one of the many café’s around town. (I’ll be posting this from our local WiFi café since our internet has been down for the last 2 days). By 9-9:30 pm it’s time for dinner at home or at another restaurant. Dinner is often just a salad or something light. For evening activities, there’s usually some activity around town a few nights a week. We’ve done a couple tango lessons, outdoor concerts, strolling around the Plaza Independencia, outdoor or indoor movies or just finding an American movie on the cable tv at the apartment or reading a book.

Last night we went back to The Vines for their Wednesday night “meet the winemaker” program. Salentein vineyards was featured last night. We tasted 4 of their premium wines. Our favorites were the Salentein Sumina 2004 Gran Corte (a mix of Malbec and Merlot) and the Salentein Primum Pinot Noir 2008. The Sauvignon blanc was also quite good, but not at all like a CA sauvignon. It was fruitier and lacked the herbaceous character. The winemaker explained that this is because of the altitude the grapes are grown at. The vineyard is located in Tunuyan in the Uco Valley. The bodega itself is supposed to be architecturally quite striking and there is a restaurant and hotel there. It was built in 2000. The wine tastings are held in a courtyard thickly covered by a wisteria vine overhead. There were about 30 people there last night and some had to sit on the steps of the courtyard due to a lack of chairs. Best to get there early and enjoy the first glass of wine you’ll be tasting. They serve a nice selection of cheeses and bread with the wine.

Another thing we enjoy is some unique English translations:
From menus:
“Squid rolling in bacon”
“raw ham with leaves green”

About the observation terrace on a government building:
“Especially designed gardens allow people to meet the local flora”

Aconcagua

I couldn't resist posting this picture, one of many in my "Sylvan as Botanist" collection. The 2008-09 collection alone is voluminous. There it is, the highest mountain in all of the Americas -- north, south, and central -- and our botanist taking a picture of some prickly, nothing of a "life form." I've got a million of these, my own motif number one.

Mountain Weekend - Day 2

This morning we headed west from Uspallata along Rt 7 towards the Chilean border. We stopped briefly at Los Penitentes, a ski area, but decided to continue on for better hiking opportunities. Los Penitentes seemed abandoned by the summer tourists. Our next stop was Puente de los Inca, a thermal spring area which is now a huge tourist stop. Once you get past the tourist knick-knack booths though, the bridge with its layers of multi-colored mineral deposits is quite impressive. You can no longer cross the bridge, because the number of tourists visiting each year was causing too much damage, but you can walk a little ways along the river via the old rail road tracks. It is named for the Inca because it was part of an Inca road. The structure built into the side were the baths of a spa that had been built in 1917. In 1940 though, a huge flood destroyed the hotel and it closed. The flow of mineral water is gradually overtaking the manmade structure. Geologists think the bridge was formed when an ice bridge gradually accumulated silt that was cemented together by the minerals. I was also quite charmed to see green parakeets flying around the hot springs!

A few more kilometers up the road we stopped at one of the main entrances to Parque Aconcagua. Aconcagua is the tallest mountain in the Western Hemisphere. Thousands of people attempt to climb the mountain each year, and each year some die. We looked over the Cemetery of the Alpinists to see the nationalities and names of those who have died climbing. People have left small stones on some as tributes. Others feature wine bottles. We were walking around at 9,700 feet and the mountain is somewhere around 21,000 feet tall. The view of Aconcagua was awing, but equally amazing were the mountains facing Aconcagua with their multi-colored hues and steep slopes.

On the way home we stopped back in Uspallata at the tea house attached to the Hotel Condor. They have a good selection of pastries and ice cream as well as good coffee to fuel us for the rest of the ride back to Mendoza.

A note to any of you who decide to drive this route - you do not have to go through the customs station coming or going to the Aconcagua park despite what the sign says that all passengers cars go through. If you haven't accidentally gone into Chile, you do not have to stop.

A Weekend in the Mountains - day 1

To escape the 90F heat in Mendoza, we decided to head for the mountains this weekend. We found a rental car, a hotel room and on Saturday at 12:30pm we headed northwest. Our first stop was Villavencio, source of most of the bottled mineral water sold in Mendoza. The park office gave us each a free bottle of water and we got to see a guanaco (like a llama) up close in an enclosure. Villavencio is also the name of an elegant abandoned hotel that once had thermal baths of the mineral waters. The current rumor is that the Dannon company is interested in re-opening the hotel. We had a picnic lunch among the trees planted above the hotel then wandered around the extensively landscaped grounds. From Villavencio we followed the dirt "Road of a Year", named for its 365 bends, up to 9,400 feet and down to Uspallata. I was extremely thankful that traffic was light and that Jake was driving! The view from the heights was incredible though. We saw a couple condors, one very close. There's also a new memorial to Darwin!

In Uspallata we checked in to the Valle Andina hotel, an okay hotel with a great pool. After a refreshing dip we went to watch the sun set behind the snow capped mountains. We watched the sunset from what may have been a Jesuit silver smelting site, built in the 1600s. There seems to be some debate about the purpose of the odd egg-shaped structures. It grew dark quickly so we went back into town. There is basically one main street with a few hostels, grocery stores, clothing stores, and a bar. The bar is named Tibet, but it was named before "7 years in Tibet" was filmed in the area. The bar overlooks Rt. 7, the main road from Santiago, Chile to Argentina. It was a fascinatingly busy intersection with bikers coming back from a day on the road, trucks of all types stopping at the local gas station, and locals and tourists from all over the world wandering around on foot and bicycle. At the bar we heard (besides Spanish), French, German and English being spoken. We stopped there to postpone eating to a semi-reasonable hour. Our dinner destination was the parrillada next to the gas station where a sign announcing "Chivito Hoy!", attracted Jake's attention. Chivito is young goat, an Argentine specialty. We wandered over around 9 pm and got a salad, an order of chivito and an order of ribs for me. And french fries to share. The chivito and ribs were brought to our table on a small sizzling barbecue. They were extremely tasty as were the thick cut fries.

We headed back to our hotel after dinner hoping to get an early start the next morning. If we were to go to Uspallata again we would try to stay at either Los Condores, right downtown, or at the Gran Hotel Uspallata, an old grand hotel just outside of town. Ours was okay, but the rooms were more like a hostel room in quality than a hotel room which given the price wasn't what we expected.

Santa Fe or Mendoza?

Mendoza: cafe mediano, tree-lined streets, inexpensive food and wine, fresh fruit January through March, warm weather January through March, rat leather, ice cream stores/sidewalk cafes/plazas everywhere

Santa Fe: peanut butter, chocolate chip cookies, English, green chilies, raisin bran, hearty whole grain bread, NY Times print edition, traffic conventions, art galleries, bagels.

Vendimia - El Acto Central

Last night we went to the "Central Act" of Vendimia - a repetition of the televised extravaganza from Saturday night. The Acto Central is held in the Frank Romero Day ampitheatre in the big park at the edge of town. We met up with Hugo and family at their house then took 2 cars as far as we could get towards the theatre, parking along the road. The ampitheatre is surrounded by steep hills and is basically made up of tiers of stone and cement benches. The Sunday night show is general admission, so we got there an hour early to find decent seats. Fortunately they had pre-show entertainment with musicians and jugglers. One of the sponsors also threw out gigantic beach balls that were bounced around by the audience as they slid inevitably downhill towards the shallow water in front of the stage. Paper airplanes zoomed around made from ads handed out at the entrance. The stage was about the size of a football field with many levels. Shaped translucent panels hid lights of many colors or featured reverse screen projections. Off to one side a simulated vineyard featured in the story of the central act.

The general story of this year's production was about an old man named Angel whose crop has been destroyed by hail. He loses all hope, but in a dream remembers the wonderful years of the past and how the community comes together to help in hard times. When he wakes he is surrounded by friends and family and renews his faith in the future. He "lights" a cross on the ground, dancers simulate the waving of the Argentine flag and the stage goes dark with hundreds of dancers coming out with lit candles.

Each scene is elaborated with live and recorded music and 400 dancers in bright costumes. The entire cast featured 800 people. Most of the dances were based on traditional rhythms with lyrics developed especially for the show. At the end a resounding chorus of Mendoza's anthem was taken up by the audience and the fireworks show started. Fireworks went off from the hills surrounding the stadium accompanied by loud music and cheers. Because of the height of the hills, the fireworks seem to fill the sky over the ampitheatre.

In general the reviews from the people on the street of this year's show have been average. The music was praised but people didn't like the coreography. Jake and I were blown away by the scale of the production more than anything else. I didn't take my camera because of the crowds, so I don't have any photos nor could I find any on YouTube or Flickr yet! Here's a link to a few photos from the local paper, http://www.losandes.com.ar/notas/2009/3/8/sociedad-411996.asp, click on "ver mas fotografias" under the photo.

Joe sat a few rows down with Hugo's kids and stayed for the post-performance concert. He got back to the apartment around 4am. Jake and I got up long enough to say goodbye as he packed up for his 5:30 am departure to the airport! He is off to El Calafate in southern Patagonia and to Torres del Paine on the Chilean side of Patagonia. "La semana de Joe" comes to an end.

"Free Fork" Restaurant

I am amused every time we pass this restaurant with a "tenedor libre" sign out front. It means "free fork," which suggests a mad scramble around a big table covered with food, forks flying everywhere as people fight to stick their forks into another piece of beef. And, sure enough, a "tenedor libre" restaurant is an all-you-can-eat buffet. "Free fork" -- ready, set, go!

And the 2009 Vendimia Queen is ....

Candela I, of San Martin! So none of our picks won, but it was a good show. Friday night the Via Blanca parade started at 10 pm. This parade started just a few blocks from our house so we met Hugo and Haydee and later two of their kids at a street corner to watch the floats for each municipality head off on the parade route. The floats all have a wine theme of course and for evening featured bright lights and loud music. The queen of each region waved regally from the float along with various runner-ups or maybe queens from other local events. Once the floats get underway, the queens toss fruit, water bottles, small bottles of wine, meat sandwiches (from the asado taking place on a float!), packages of raisins, and photos of the queen out to the crowd. Many people had homemade catching tools like plastic baskets taped onto broom handles. The fruit being thrown included apples, pears, bunches of grapes, zucchinis, and large melons!

On Saturday morning the whole parade is repeated with the addition of maybe 200 gauchos on horseback and a large military band. Jake and I attempted to figure out what route the parade was going to take while Joe slept in after a night on the town with a couple of Hugo's kids. After watching the gauchos go by and a couple floats we walked back to our apartment and discovered Joe watching the same gauchos parading half a block from our apartment. We went and ate lunch nearby and got back in time to see the last half of the floats. Joe and Jake got into the whole fruit catching thing this time and we went home with 3 plums, 2 pears, a bottle of water and a bottle of soda (see float with Joe's curly blond hair in foreground).

Saturday night was the election of the Vendimia Queen, preceded by an Extravaganza of lights, music and dance (we will watch a repeat of the extravaganza tonight). For this event, we went to Hugo's house where family gathered to eat empanadas and pizza and watch the election on tv. It was a fairly close race between Nadya of Godoy Cruz (the municipality where Hugo and family live) and Candela of San Martin. But by the end it was clear that Candela had the votes and in a tearful speech she thanked her supporters, family and boyfriend. To see her picture and read all about her (in Spanish) go to http://www.losandes.com.ar/notas/2009/3/8/sociedad-411994.asp.

We have done a couple other wine-related events while Joe has been here. On Thursday night we went up to the Terraza at the top of a government building where they were holding a folk music concert paired with Santa Julia Malbec (see photo of Joe and I with sunset). We admired the view and listened to an excellent local singer, Lucinana Joaquim Chai. Several couples also danced traditional dances with white handkerchiefs to the music. Yesterday we went to The Vines to do a wine tasting (see photo of Jake and I). They offer different flights of wine. I tried one white and several reds, Jake had the Malbec flight and Joe had the flight of reds. I would list the best of what we had except that I left the sheets with the names and my notes on them. at the wine bar. I'll try and get a copy today for those of you who are wine fanciers!

Rafting with Joe

My brother Joe is visiting this week. His first full day in town we went rafting for a full day on the Mendoza River. The trip covered 30 kilometers although it ended up only being maybe 2 - 3 hours on the water. We stopped for lunch at an abandoned railway station in the middle of nowhere. The railway ran from Argentina to Chile but was abandoned in the 1950s. There have been attempts to revive it as a freight train, but the Argentine trucker's union strongly objected. Seems to me it would be a great tourist train, but maybe the bus lines would then object!

I'm in the raft with 3 passengers and Joe and Jake are in the raft with 4. I was put in the Spanish-speaking raft to even out the numbers. The couple in front are from Buenos Aires. In Jake's raft, they got stuck in a hole behind a rock for about 5 minutes. My guide waded up-river and threw them a line to pull them out. Water completely swamped their raft, but they did not flip. Later, their guide was catapulted several feet in front of the raft and Jake and the other guy fell out but held on to the strap around the edge of the raft. Joe hauled them back in. The guide took a lot of ribbing from the chase kayak and my guide. My raft was somewhat more stable because of the oars the guide used, but he nearly lost the oars once and I and the woman in front of me almost fell out once. The kayaker spends all year kayaking and rafting. During the winter he goes to Ecuador.

Carnaval

Carnival is not really an Argentine celebration, but there was a small parade here of Uruguayan murgas (community bands) and some Brazilian style dancers. There were three murgas, each with a very different style of music.

Typical of events here, the paper reported that the parade would start at Plaza Independencia at 6 pm, but there was no sign of any gathering at all at that hour. We went over to another street that was part of the parade route and hung out eating ice cream for a half hour. Around 7pm we noticed a few people gathering a block down the street. After another 40 minutes, the little parade got underway, marching down a street that had no official blockades or police presence to keep cars away.