It's been a beautiful Fall here in Mendoza. The days have been warm and sunny and the nights cool. Justin and Connor joined us from the Chicago area earlier this month. Both Connor and Justin got busy right away learning the ropes in the music studio. Justin plays guitar and writes songs while Connor's focus is drums, drum programming and electronic music. It's great to have them with us. A week after they arrived, Will, Alex, Justin, Connor and Rich headed north to Tucuman on the bus. After a day in Tucuman admiring the colonial buildings and relaxing in cafes, we [View Full Entry]

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It has been a busy and creative fall for us here. So much that we've gotten a bit behind with publishing our blogs. In early April, Ed, Will, Nicole and Rich traveled to the Chilean Coast for 3 days of exploring Valparaiso, Vina del Mar, Renaca, and Con Con. We all loved the seaport city of Valparaiso with its multi-colored houses and the maze of alleys winding up the steep hills. It has a very bohemian feel to it and there are lots of artists and musicians who live there. We spent some time watching the waves in Renaca and rode [View Full Entry]

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Mendoza In March is a beautiful place. The hot temperatures have moderated and the summer rains have caused the surrounding desert to become surprisingly green. The Vindemia festival celebrated in Mendoza during the second week of March signaled the begining of the harvest season and our progression into autumn. We have been spending more time at Casa Cuna, an orphanage in Godoy Cruz, while we work to get some renovation projects going at Brazos Abiertos. Most of the time at Casa Cuna is spent playing with the toddlers who run up to us when we arrive with their arms open saying,"Tio [View Full Entry]

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Our travel writer friend Charlie published a short article announcing the arrival of summer in Mendoza. He wrote: "Spring is three or four hours on a Tuesday afternoon and summer is suddenly here with the streets and vineyards abruptly full of color". In Mendoza, everything is green, as the trees that line the streets are filled with leaves and flowers, the jacaranda trees turn suddenly purple, and the park starts to really show off its roses, gardens and mountain views. The temperatures have been in the 80's and everyone is wearing shorts and sandals. Aristides is a trendy street with [View Full Entry]

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Spring is upon us, at least for the past few weeks. By the end of this month, we should be experiencing temperatures in the 80's and 90's. This month we have had visits from Evan's parents, Mauri and Jeff as well as Evan's friend Pat from Davis, California. Evan and his parents and Pat traveled to Buenos Aires and then on to Puenta del Este in Uruguay. Evan and Jeff then headed south for a few days in Bariloche and then on to Puerto Madryn to see the penguins and whales. We also had a visit from Jamie's sister, Sara, who [View Full Entry]

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These past weeks have been about endings and beginnings. Doug, James and Scott have returned to the states and Ian, Jaime, David and Derek have recently arrrived. Doug's final weeks were a filled with social get-togethers with his many Argentine friends and a mind numbing blitz in the studio to finish up his various projects. We had a fun asado in our new house on Calle Roca, which was attended by the many friends Doug made while he was here. There were corazon filled toasts after dinner where we all expressed our love and admiration for Doug. James’ mother, Gloria visited [View Full Entry]

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It's been a busy and eventful past few weeks. We weren't able to get out a new blog until now since the blog crashed and took down our first three entries. We managed to recover the last two and are working on getting the first one back. Picking up where we left off: We spent a lot of time at Carlos Gonzales School working on the playground/soccer field which is called "la cancha" We started at the top of the hill and have begun to construct the first terrace. Using only hand tools, we surprised ourselves by how much we were [View Full Entry]

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It’s been a busy and fun couple of weeks. The weather has been remarkably warm considering that these past two weeks coincide with the Christmas Holiday period in the Northern Hemisphere. Scott arrived from Massachusetts on the 15th bringing his guitar, an electric drum set and our new piano synthesizer. The men at customs had never seen one person bring in so much equipment. They were in the process of grilling Scott about the equipment when Julio arrived and helped explain to the unique situation that we have set up here. Scott, with all his enthusiasm and energy has been [View Full Entry]

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This is an early blog we lost when the website crashed a while ago. At last we were able to recover some of our photos, but not the text. We're happy to get these back, however. Enjoy! [View Full Entry]

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