Walking in Buenos Aires

This week has been especially interesting simply because of the ungodly amount of walking I´ve done. I dunno what inspired it, but whenever Matias and I hang out, we don´t really have a purpose in mind, and we end up walking and walking and walking all over the city, just wandering around like lost puppies. It´s been fun because I´ve gotten a new found appreciation for the city now that I´ve seen it at a slower pace. Before, it was always taxi rides of subway trips that would spit me out in a new part of town, but now I´ve seen the city change from neighborhood to neighborhood.

Things that I took particular notice of:
- There is an ungodly amount of really really big buildings that used to be mansions like the ones in Pride and Prejudice, except now they´re all closed down or converted into hotels. I wanna live in one of those houses!
- There´s a part of town called ´Palermo Viejo` where all the rich people live that´s super quiet and very quaint. The cars there are fancy but old, like Mercedes from the 80s or preserved classics. They were really cool to look at.
- Ice cream here really varies from heladeria to heladeria... it´s a science to find the best ones in town
- The Argentine people are obsessed with Plazas. You can´t walk more than 10 blocks in any direction before happening upon one or two or ten.
- There´s a slaughter house right in the middle of the city where all the cows from the coutry come to be killed.
- Tango dancing here is WAY more serious than in Mendoza. Matias and I went to a little outdoor Plazita and I didn´t dare dance. God, the people here are good. Matias pointed out, however, that the only other place in the world where people dance as well as they do here is in New York.... who knew, right?
- If you really want to see what desperate poverty is, walk through the microcenter of BsAs in the middle of the night. At 2am, all the hungry people of the city come out onto the streets and strew garbage everywhere in search of a meal. I saw families of 20 people - half of them kids lost to the system - sitting in the middle of the road, blocking traffic, while they chowed down on someone else´s discarded leftovers. I felt terribly guilty for walking by them in clean clothes and gold jewelry, but Matias kept assuring me that it was their choice to be there. I don´t know enough about the economic situation of Argentina or the governmental policies for the disenfranchised to actually have my own solid opinion on the matter, but it was a sight I probably won´t forget for a long time.

Class in Mendoza

My school, COINED, has several different locations. One of the main reasons that the trip to Mendoza was possible is that COINED has a branch there. I continued with all my classes and got the same classroom experience, but got to enjoy another city. This school, however, is a LOT smaller than the one in Bs As, so we had the advantage of being able to move much faster through the material, and the students were a lot more tight-knit and connected. We all went out together every time we went out. Unlike in Bs As where the languages you can speak greatly affect the friends you make, in Mendoza everyone was friends with everyone else.

The best part about the school, however, was the back yard. The building had a gorgeous courtyard we would take classes in sometimes. This picture is of my class the first week in Mendoza. The second week I just took private lessons so I'd have more freedom to explore the city.

Cafe Soul Once Again

Wednesday night found the entire school back at Cafe Soul for another go at the group tango lesson and a real Milonga experience. This time I was prepared! This was the first time I really danced with anyone besides Matias, though, so I learned a whole lot of new things. Every leader had something else to tell me, but they were infinitely nicer than the dude I came across in the Milonga in Bs As. They were actually helpful, encouraging, and all very positive. Tango rocks!

More Tango Dancing

Monday night was another perfect night of Tango dancing. Matias met me at school and mentioned that he'd discovered a little place that has Tango on Monday nights, and asked me to come along. Who was I to refuse, right?

The joint was an old house (around 150 years old) that had been converted into a little restaurant. The inner courtyard had been tiled with special tango-dancing tiles, and so people sat in the restaurant that surrounded a little open-air tango floor. It was super super cute. We drank a bottle of Argentine Tempranillo - a wine that isn't as common as the Malbec's and Cabernet Sauvignons, but definitely just as worthy of praise. But then again... I'm partial to Tempranillo's anyway.

The combination of the wine and the heat from the day made dancing a little harder than on Friday night, but it was no matter because half way through the night we were pleasantly surprised with a live band that doubled as a circus show. Of course, the band played tango music, but there were members of the troupe that did cirque du soleil style tricks for a good hour. I didn't understand all the acting that happened simultaneously, as it was all in spanish, but I got enough to be entirely entertained.

Tuesday night we went back to the same place. We weren't lucky enough to have another impromtu tango/circus performance, but we did get some torrential rain. If you remember, this is a restaurant with an open-air courtyard. Yes, open-air. After finding ourselves thoroughly drenched within 15 seconds, the crowd moved inside, pushed the tables to the corners, and cleared the restaurant floor for more dancing. Nothing in this country can stop the tangueros from dancing.

I liked this place especially because it was entirely full of locals, and seeing as it was a Monday and Tuesday night that we were there (Monday and Tuesday nights in Argentina are the "days of rest" for the nightlife, so anyone that goes out on one of those nights is serious about whatever he or she is doing), the dancers were especially good. I couldn't decide which couple to stare at since they were all incredible. The people here really take Tango seriously. I think it's great. It's an art that is so special to Argentina.

Caballos en la Noche

During our mountain climbing, Tamara did a little research on her other favorite thing in the world besides water: horses. When we stepped off the boat, Tamara came running over to us saying "let's go, let's go! I found a great price for a mountain tour on some horses!" Who was I to say no? At this point it was nearly dark, but the horse tours run night and day. Horses, like cows, are unbelievably prevalent in Argentina. Since their introduction to South America by the Spaniards, horses have run rampant throughout the countryside - mostly wild. The Native Americans, just like those in the States, adopted the animals and became exceptionally skilled with them. Of course, the horses we rode weren't wild, but it wasn't uncommon to see wild horses running through the mountains and across the roads.

Anyway, we get to the horses, and have some time to play around with them. Seeing as I have hardly any experience with horses (the only other time I've ever been on one was in Lujan - the zoo outside of Bs As) I'm still quite surprised by a lot of things. For example, I was really surprised to discover how tough and rope-like their hair is. It's not soft at all. However... in this particular collection of horses were a few baby horses. My favorite was a black-as-night little thing that was no taller than my shoulders. The baby horses had the softest fur ever, and we really curious. My favorite one keep sniffing me and using his lips to taste my fingers. At one point, I wasn't paying attention, and it bit me. I was left with something that looked curiously like a hickey on my arm, which still hasn't gone away.

After some time (remember, it's Argentina... everything takes time) we finally got on our horses and went off into the wilderness. At this point it was pitch black out except for a sky so full of stars it was practically white. I had always considered astrology to be a particularly boring field of study, especially since the constellations seemed to be so arbitrarily defined and totally pointless since half the time the stars weren't visible. This night, however, changed my mind. The milky way actually appeared as a white swath across the sky, and constellations like Orion suddenly made sense to me because the important stars are so wildly crystal clear, you HAVE to name them. Another interesting little factoid I noticed is that the constellations on this side of the equator are upside-down. I think I lucked out, however, because there was no moon that night - making the stars even more striking.

And so the horses walked through the mountains. We had to learn some techniques for balancing our weight as we went uphill or down, and I had to put an ungodly amount of trust in the animal since I couldn't see a thing that was happening on the ground. The horses were fine though. We traveled in a little line just like the Native Americans do in the movies, and the guides in the front and back of the lineup help up little oil lanterns. It's like I was transformed back to the 1800's. Definitely super cool.

Hiking en la Montañe

Around 6pm we were able to venture out of the house again. The entire country of Argentina is all on the same time, despite the fact that the country is well beyond the standard width of two time zones. On top of that, the entire country is an hour ahead of what it should be anyway because the government figured that with the energy crisis going on here, it would make more sense for the country to be on their own version of "daylight savings". As a result, the western cities of Argentina (Mendoza and San Rafael included) have sunlight until sometime around 10:30 or 11. The also means that when we went out at 6pm, the day was really like it would be at 4pm anywhere else in the world.

Anyway... Marc and I decided we wanted to go on a hike. Tamara, Cecilia and Eduardo wussed out, so it ended up being just the two of us. We talked to one of the guys that worked at the club and asked if knew the mountains at all, and if he's like to take us on a walk. One of the guys, Marcello, decided to do us the honors.

We took a boat across the lake to a little inlet and jumped out at the bottom of a random mountain. When I say random, I mean random. In all my experiences with hikes in the mountain, there was usually some sort of marked trail or path or something to follow in order to not get lost. This was nothing like that. A trail? What's that? It was seriously completely untouched earth. We had to hack our way through the brush and over the rocks. At points we would climb huge boulders, and at other times we had to crawl under the thick bushes on our hands and knees. Daddy, you would have been so proud. Your little dotta was so tough. Marc kept saying he was so glad Tamara didn't come because he was sure she would have thrown a hissy fit.

Anyway... there's more to what made this hike a particularly Argentine experience. About 15 minutes into our hike, Marcello sat down on a big rock, took out a blunt, and lit up. Now Marcello didn't speak a word of English but the language barrier wasn't an issue. After taking a few hits, he extends the joint out to us and says "Bob Marley?" I cracked up. Where in the States would an employee of a club that's acting as a tour guide decide to get high in front of his clients?

Nevertheless... our journey continued. 15 minutes later we came across a herd... yes a HERD of mountain goats. They were amazing. The were bleating away, and there were little kiddos and mommies and daddies. They were grazing away on the side of the mountain, totally chilling. I took a video of them (currently available on facebook), and will try to figure out a way to post it on a public site so you can all see them.

Another 20 minutes later, we came across a crazy-as-can-be llama. It was insane. It keep screaming at something... maybe it was us, but I couldn't tell... in a way I had never heard anything scream before. It sounded almost hyena-like. I dunno... it was weird.

We hiked for a bit longer and came onto a clearing where the mountain leveled out for a while, and there were actual trees growing. Oh yes - the mountains here are almost entirely made of rock. The climate here is so dry and hot that the northeastern mountains covered in trees and pine needles and such simply don't exist. The earth is much more raw. At times, it's as if the tectonic plates created the mountains 20 years ago, because only a few bushes as high as my waist have managed to take root.

Anyway... this clearing was awesome, so we hung out in it for a while. At this point there was also the one and only sign of human life that I saw the entire hike - a fire pit with a parrilla and spit... what else, right?... this is Argentina, the land of the asado.

After a little break, we continued on a little further. We kept climbing up and up, but there was always another mountain blocking access to a great view. Then suddenly the earth just dropped out from under us, and we were standing on a mountain that looked out over hundreds of miles of untouched earth that was thousands of feet below us. I was absolutely speechless. The view was due west, and since the sun was in the process of setting, you can imagine what it looked like. I decided that if someone ever decides to propose to me, he has to do it there... on that cliff, over looking the raw earth, at sunset. Unfortunately the photos I took just don't do the view any justice.

Marc and I sat in complete silence for about half an hour, just looking out over the world, watching the sun set behind the farthest peak.

Day o' Excursions: El Lago

Sunday rocked. The day was broken into three different experiences, and I've decided to make each one it's own entry because they were all absolutely awesome, and deserve the space.

Tamara, Marc, Cecilia (from Brazil), Eduardo (also from Brazil) and I started our Sunday with a nice, huge breakfast. Yummm... it was so good to have a change from the daily boring-ass bread that they serve for breakfast here in Argentina. Phew. We had eggs, and juice, and toast, and yogurt. yum yum yum yum yum.

Then we hiked down to the club house of the cabinas and rented a pedal boat and a canoe and went out on the lake. The water was unbelievable. It was perfectly placid, and as green as can be. We paddled out to a little mini peninsula and set up camp. We laid out in the morning sun, splashed around a little, and giggled like idiots. Tamara was SO happy. Tilke, she reminded me of you because all she could do was keep giggling and screaming "Me gusta la agua!!" It was quite pristine though... definitely worth a visit, if any of you readers end up in Argentina any time soon.

The sun in San Rafael is extremely strong, however. Seeing as it's high summer right now, it's even more so. It's so strong, in fact, that the siesta actually makes sense. By noon, the sun had become so hot that the only thing we could fathom doing was getting inside, under some shade, and passing out. The heat was stifling and entirely sleep-inducing.

And so we slept.