Well, we recently returned to our local maelstrom from
our respite in Mendoza, after 10 days and 11,000 miles. Oh, did I mention we
saw Lisa there??
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| My social work class is not nearly as difficult as flying internationally |
Yes, we highly recommend that if you visit a foreign
country where you can't speak a word, you should send and advance scouting
party down there 3 months in advance to make the proper preparations, become
fluent in the lingo, and learn the points of interest within easy distances.
This was Lisa's job!
Here's a quick day-by-day diary.
1) Saturday: Leave midday for the Denver airport. There,
the first seeds of destruction are sown by an American Airlines baggage clerk
who told us we could not check our bags clear to Mendoza, but had to pick them
up in Santiago (Chile) and hand-port them to the LAN airline desk. (Wrong!!) We
did as she said, unfortunately. The weird AA printer also printed out some
paper fragments that constituted our itinerary, updated since LAN had changed
some key flights a day or so before. (Surprise!) We then spent around 2 hours on the cell
phone calling Expedia and AA to find out what was going on. Long story short,
we got out of Denver basically on time, but the flight to Dallas was delayed by
bad weather. When we got there we had less than 30 minutes to change to the
next AA flight. Luckily, they moved our arrival gate to the same terminal as
the departure, so we had to (literally) run 400 yard (17 gates) to our next
flight. Pant! Gasp! We departed basically on time, wondering if our luggage
made the connection. Now to settle in for 9.5 hours of airborn pleasure...
2) Sunday morning we approached Santiago, and landed
basically on time.
However, the LAN connection was moved up, so we had
around 90 minutes to find it, but first, get our bags. Where are they?? We got
to the LAN desk and the girl there (barely fluent) assured us our bags would be
transferred, but we needed to stay at her desk to get our new bag tags. This
would take a while, but as she called the baggage desk, I (barely) heard her
say to ship them to Cordoba, not Mendoza. EGADS! I showed her our tickets and
she (sheepishly)called back to get them on the right plane. Sheesh! Our tags
arrived about 15 minutes before departure and we raced to the security area,
which was empty, and then to our gate (luckily) close by. We took off basically
on time.
3) Later Sunday morning we climbed over the Andes
Mountains which were mostly visible above the coastal fog. WOW, they are really
big and really snowy/icy, with prominent glaciers. COOL! After around 45
minutes we were on the other side, coasting into Mendoza. Lots (LOTS!) of
vineyards easily visible from the air. We slid into Mendoza, basically on time.
Then there was the customs line, and our fears about our luggage to contend
with. Long story short, we got into the country and (Voila') found our bags!!!
Around another corner (and X-ray station) we found Lisa! Hooray!
4) Lisa, like a mother hen, shepherded us to the taxi
line, and off we went to central Mendoza. Just like that. No language problems!
Around 25 minutes later (and 60 pesos) we were at our hotel, a very small
boutique hotel with just 11 rooms. Very nice, more like a B&B. We met
Walter and Amir, our hosts who became very helpful friends. Then Lisa took us
to lunch at an outdoor café. The weather was perfect, and Sundays in Argentina
are very laid-back.
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| Mom and Dad meet "The Chicas" |
We then found an ATM for our first (of many) Peso
conversions. No problems.
Rough rule of thumb: $1(US) is 5 Argentine pesos.
Weirdly, they use the $ sign too.
5) Later that day after unpacking and figuring out our
hotel, Lisa took us, and the 6 (SIX) boxes of Jiffy Corn Bread mix we lugged
down, to her host mother's home (Dina is her name). It's about 20 minutes by
shank's ponies.
We soon learned we would do a LOT of walking that
week... There we met a bunch of Lisa's
friends and her host family (Dina, son Rodrigo and his son, 'Jim'). The
excitement was immense, over the 6 boxes of cornbread mix. Lisa has promised
everyone "Corn Pancakes" and off she and her friends went to get
cooking. They ordered out Empanada's for us Gringos. They were really good!
Amazingly, all the pancakes, empanadas and 18 eggs were consumed -- not a crumb
left over!
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| Lunch at the bodega |
6) Monday, Lisa arranged a bike ride day for us south of
town out in wine country. We were picked up and transported maybe 10 miles to a
bike rental place (Hugo's) and we picked out our trusty steeds. The road headed
west. It was very narrow (like 18 feet with no shoulders) and infested with 18
wheelers and busses, but otherwise peaceful and tranquil. We decided to head to
the end of the route and work our way back. The first stop was an olive orchard
where they raise and bottle olive oil. Our host there was a very nice local
girl who spoke English very well. We got a tour and had some snacks. We then
headed back, to sample some wineries along the way. That's when my bike broke
down, and we found ourselves walking on that same road, pushing our bikes.
After a mile or so we found a gas station, but like any
7/11 here, they had no tools. A helpful truck driver
attempted to fix my bike with his toolset, but could not. Luckily, the station
attendent called the rental place, and Hugo came out a few minutes later with a
new bike for me, so we soldiered on to the Tempus Alba winery for lunch. The
Andes mountains loomed in the distance, all snowy white as we lunched on the
deck. Really nice. We got back to Hugo's without futher
incident and then back to Mendoza. Lisa had been at class that day, and we had
dinner with her and some friends (as we did most nights). Dinner often starts
around 10pm.
7) Tuesday, Lisa took us into the (large!) foothills to a
Hot Spring resort.
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| I told them they were large... |
We took a bus up there and paid a modest fee to get in.
(This saved us a bundle over what the hotel wanted to set us up with.) Very
nice. The foothills west of Mendoza are tall (probably 12,000 feet) and very
dry, like Nevada. From Mendoza itself you cannot see the snowy Andes behind the
foothills.
8) Wednesday, Lisa sent us on a hiking trip, starting
with a van ride to a sporting company's base camp in the foothills. From there
a group of us split into rafting, horseback riding, zip-lining and hiking
groups. Jana and I had our own private hiking guide and we rode up the road a
ways to a very non-descript pullout where we jumped out and started (straight)
up the mountainside to a hidden trail. This then began to follow a small but
very swift brook (spring fed) and after a while we came to a nice waterfall.
After some pictures, we took another route back to the
road where the van was waiting. Back at the base we had lunch, and later
returned to Mendoza.
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| Hiking in the Andes |
A note about the countryside: very pretty, with lots of
trees (irrigated) along both sides of each road. There is apparently no such
thing as a road without shade. And the wineries are everywhere, probably 1,000s
of square miles; a huge operation.
9) Thursday, we stayed in town. Lisa took us to the large
park that contains one of the local universities (60,000 students). While she
went to class, we took a quick tour that brought us up to the top of a
"hill" on the west side of town (3,000 feet high) where there is a
monument to the liberator (San Martin) of three South American countries. A really big,
cool sculpture sat on top. The guide spoke English, and he devoted his skills
to 2 words: "twenty minutes", meaning the time to view the
sculpture. Oh, well...
10) Friday, we went to the local shopping district (oh
Joy!) and browsed around, and had lunch at a local café. We kept things simple
that day.
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| Mom and Dad drinking mate |
11) Saturday, Lisa took us to the bus station and we got
a local bus (many stops) to a town south of Mendoza, where we picked up a
cab to the Salentein Bodega (winery). This is a spectacular location but
because of of the overcast, we could not see too much of the Andes, which are
quite near and very white. We took a tour of the winery after lunching there.
Nice. And the cabbie waited for us to take us back to town. He spoke great
English, had lived in New Jersey for a while and his son was in Tulsa Oklahoma
learning to be a pilot. He gave us the local 'color'. An express bus took us
home again.
12) Sunday, we had a picnic in the big park and spent
some time at Dina's, learning about "Ma The" (a tea custom from the
aboriginal peoples); all very laid back.
13) Monday, this was our day to get ready for our return,
and Lisa had her spanish class. Because of a special project that day, her
class was learning about local music customs, so we went along and sat in the
back of class. One presentation involved bringing in a local singer to
present some folk songs. This young man could put Pavorati to shame -- we
expect to see him on TV some day. Very interesting...
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| Showing Mom and Dad around Parque San Martín |
14) Tuesday, Lisa stayed the night in our room for our
6am rising time to get to the Mendoza airport (after breakfast). She saw us to
the LAN desk and off we went to Buenos Aires. Note, LAN had rescheduled our
original flight to land in BA AFTER our AA flight was due to leave, so we had
to untangle that mess earlier. Once we got to BA, we had to take a hired car to
cross the town to get to the international airport. But that went smoothly and
we eventually got onto our AA flight to Dallas. Ironically, that flight headed
west back over Mendoza and turned north near Santiago, so we retraced those
miles for 11.5 hours of fun-packed flying (over the newly forming Hurricane
Sandy), a bit bumpy.
15) Wednesday, we got to Dallas at 6am, and then Denver,
and finally Fort Collins around noon, and still too early for bed, after 32
hours...
What a trip!
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| Visiting the Plazas in the city centro |
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| The famous gates of Parque San Martín |
-ken and jana-
Ok so now for the real story... just kidding! Overall I thought Mom and Dad did really well faring in a country where they don't speak the language, dinner starts at 10 and lasts 2 hours, and toilet paper is quite the commodity. For me it was fun pointing out all the things I've become used to and seeing their reactions, such as slow waitresses, lots of walking, and the craziness of Argentine drivers.
That being said, dad did fail to mention the story of the "Monkey Cafe" where thanks to a little miscommunication on my part, we ended up with an enormous array of food (usually shared by like 8 people) and including such lovely dishes as cow tongue and other squishy looking things. He also didn't mention how we improvised doggy bags by using the plastic bags their souvenir t-shirts had come in to scoop the ham, salami, cheese, and finger sandwiches into to save for later (hence why dinner was not mentioned that night). We left the cow tongue, etc. (Dela I know this is a crime).
We also had an Argentine Asado dad forgot to mention, where mom and dad got to sample all the best Argentine beef cuts and I tried the kidney. There will not be a repeat of that experience.
Mom also got spoiled a bit as Mother's Day happened to fall during the time that they visited (it is spring in Mendoza). So I brought over a rose and some wine to share and cuddled with my mommy who I missed so much. I'd say they planned the perfect time to be here.
Mom and dad also got to witness Lisa drinking (Gasp!) which also led to some generally hilarity at the restaurant Anna Bistro where, after some porch + wine relaxation at the hotel, we shared a bottle of wine then were given champagne in honor of my birthday (we were celebrating a little late). Mom and I may have been finding things a bit too funny by the end of the night and I think my favorite moment was when we got back to the hotel and mom decided it'd be fun to put my ski goggles on and surprise me in the bathroom. Epic.
And they also met Ryan. You can ask them about that personally, but I think he passed the test. :)
Couldn't be more proud of my Gringo parents for pushing themselves out of their comfort zone and traveling to a country they'd never considered a vacation destination. Sure the bathrooms may not have TP or functioning toilets but hey! It's all a part of the experience right? (Mom's rolling her eyes right now I just know it).
Gotta love my gringo parents!
-Lisa en Argentina
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