Lots of things

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After leaving small and beautiful Valle Fertile, I spent another night in San Juan, instead of traveling, so that I could get a good night´s sleep. I wasn´t there for more than thirty minutes before I was pissed off again. HA! I was starving, and a problem with Argentina, is that everything closes between 1 and 8 pm in big cities, and if your hungry, well, too bad for you. And I was starving at about 6 when I got in. So I thought, I´ll eat in the bus station, which is always open, and yeah they do have nice resturaunts in bus stations. I think I experienced my first true anti-travlerism moment, because the girl gave me a menu, and then ignored me for 30 minutes, while my stomach died and I felt terrible. She served THREE other people AND brought their food, and I just sat there, all the while being patient and trying to make eye contact and everything, and making signals that I was ready to order. Finally, I marched up behind her, and with all the anger that my food deprived self can manifest, slammed the menu down on the table right next to were she was standing. I suppose I could have been misinterpreting something culturally, but I think she was an asshole.

I then checked into the hostel (another ordeal that I won´t go into, they were having a good time talking to fast for me and laughing at my confusedness. They would say "don´t you speak any spanish at all?" and then laugh, and all I wanted to do was sleep and eat). I went out into the town, and could find a place open serving food for another 2 and a half hours. At 8:30 I was able to get a sandwich, which was pretty good, but small, as the full menu would not be open until 9:30. Ach!

The next day I retailiated by eating way more than my fair share at breakfast. I have started to realize that although there is plenty I like about argentina, the scheudle and lack of eating make it a hard place for me to be truely comfortable in. Basically, for breakfast, they give to little toasts (not real toast, but like fancy predried out, hard, quarter sized toasts) and coffee. I´ve been carrying around my own mint tea because I can´t have caffiene. I ate like 10 of those toasts. HA! That will teach you to laugh at me when I´m down. Fools! I don´t think the proprieter liked it though, he kept a close eye on me. Whatever.

Actually, after being in Valle Fertile, I had felt better about these sorts of things. The people I had met there said that they had had similar experiences there and in some other cities, where it just seemed as though you couldn´t ever fit into the city. Maybe they hate travelers. Sometimes it seems as though they just don´t know what to do with them. For example, as I had happen to me. If I didn´t understand something, instead of repetiting it, and slowing down, they just freak out and get huffy, and say it another way, and explain alot... which completely makes things worse. You have to be open minded when you travel, but it is frustrating, because I would never be upset with someone who didn´t speak english well, if they were traveling or moving to, the USA. But whatever.

I left San Juan as soon as possible, and went to Mendoza. A larger more metropolitain city, with lots of tourism, it seemed warm and inviting. Its quite beautiful. Old and full of cobblestone, tree lined streets. Smaller than cordoba, I almost think the city itself is more charming, but it doesn´t have the art like corboda did, so that makes it a little less fantastic for me.

Mendoza is a center for more active types of tourism. Apparently, it is one of eight wine capitals in the world... basically a lot of wine is produced in the region. I decided on my first day here to go on a bike tour of wineries. I got on a public bus... which actually turned out alright... and got off in Maipu, a suburb. I rented a bike and started off for the wine museum. There I met a group of israelis. They adopted me, and we went on the rest of the tour together. I was very happy to have met them; it was one girl and two guys. They had all met on the road and were now traveling together. They invited me to go further with them, but I said no, because I have other plans coming up. They were in their early thirties and late twenties, and had a lot of interesting things to say, and they liked books, and other things like that... and I can say they were the first people I´ve meet here so far that I really had a good time talking to. I think they were just in the right age group for me. Sometimes I meet older people, and they are a bit boring, and people a bit younger than me just want to party. Since I have never really partied, that doesn´t appeal to me anyway, but yeah, I had a good time with those people.

We did some wine tasting, and I feel like I learned a little bit about wine. Not enought to tell apart different varieties, but I can atleast appreciate the difference between an expensive wine and a non expensive wine. There were also a lot of olive orchards, and other types of farms in the region. You could stop at these places and try there things. I have now tried olived for, maybe, the third time in my life. I like them!!! I had remember in the past that I didn´t like them. Maybe my tastes changed, or maybe I just don´t like cheap olives. The people I was with said they were very good olives. They also bought some olive paste which I tried... which was very very good.

The wine tasting was a great day. The weather was beautiful. I did bike over 10 km. That really isn´t so far, but it was hot, and I had a big backpack, and so, I was very sore the next day. It was good to get some exercise though.

The next day I took a tour of Aconcagua national park. The park is a large peice of land that surrounds mt. aconcagua, the largest peak in S. America. Its in the Andes. The park was so beautiful I think it is the most beautiful place I have yet been. There is something so poetic about the colors and size of truely large mountians. The mountains are made out of sedimentary rock. The layers of earth ore pushed up due to tectonic activity. This is what makes the mountains so spectacular, as the layers are black, gray, brown, red, yellow, white, pink, and every other color inbetween. On the slopes, specs of green and yellow grasses grew. There wasn´t much up there really, it was very cold, and there was still snow... although a lot of it was melting. I had to wear all of my cold weather gear... glad to have it!

The tour was a combination of driving and walking. We would go for awhile, and then we would walk for about an hour or so. It was not so demanding at all, there were lots of old people on the tour. 😊

We went all the way to the Chilean border. It was good to see, because the next time I pass through there, tomorrow, it will be dark and I won´t be able to appreciate it at all. The whole trip is in this valley. A thin slice of land that cuts the Andes in two just at this one point... a true mountain pass. The most beautiful aspect of this, is that it is created by a river. In the center of the pass, the river cut a canyon... not to deep, I think the lady said 50 meters, but very beautiful. The whole ride in and out, you ride above this canyon, but below the mountains, on a thin slice of rock, some of it cut out of the mountain, and some tunneling straight through. This really made me appreciate how little of mountains I have seen in my life. It seems as though for vacation, we are always going to the ocean instead. I think the ocean is beautiful, but it might be true that I am a mountain person instead. There was a hostel all the way at the border. People I had talked to told me that there was no reason to go all the way out there... I disagree!!! I think if I shall ever be here again, I´ll head up there and just relax in the mountains for a good long time. Mendoza is increadibly hot. So hot I´ve had a hard time sleeping here. But the mountains were perfect. The air was cool, but the sun was hot. The land was SO quiet. And the only thing to be heard was the occasional bird. There are few plants, and I can´t imagine that anything to large can really make a living all the way up there.

Despite all my venom about people above, I actually have to say that I´ve been very lucky with people so far. Even on the mountain trip there were nice people to talk to.

A couple of nights ago, I was a bit put off because there was a new met couple on the porch outside of my room... and the girl kept asking the guy things like... "so what is chilean sex like" and stuff. And it was so hot outside, and I couldn´t sleep, and I was like... girl, you have to be kidding me. Can´t you lure him someone else? But the next say, we got to talking. She was the only other American in the hostel. She left, and she left me all of her food... she had bought too much for the few days she was staying here. It has been wonderful! Mostly, she left me very good stuff for salads. Which I enjoy a lot. I miss vegetables. Its hard to buy things like that here because I am afraid uncooked fruits and vegetables, of which you eat the outside, will make me sick. So mostly I have bananas. Ew. So the salad has been great, and she left me mushrooms, which I have been sticking in my meals at night. In fact, I have been cooking for the last four days, and its both nicer than buying food, and cheaper. I even make little lunches like a little kid and bring them with me everywhere. Because I save money, I can also buy more little treats, like chocolate and wine. yeah! The varieties of wine down here are different than those that we are used too... well, they have normal ones... but also different ones as well. They are very sweet. They espcialy have some good white wines (even though mendoza is known for reds), and I like white the best, so that has made me very happy.

I breezed through Pride and Prejudice. I am happy to feel as though I am giving myself the liberal arts eduction I never got, while traveling. I am now on Jane Eyre. I like C. Bronte quite a lot actually. J. Austen was nice, and it is a well written classic, but I suppose it is just a love story at bas. Jane Eyre might be the same, but she has much more to comment on in the way of social systems of England in the 1800´s, and how they effect people. Its also a more mysterious novel... I can´t predict where it is going to go at all. Also, in reading the back cover, I find that this book upset quite a lot people back in the day... its not an example of "moral" behavior... I´m not sure why that is. I´ll see as the book developes if interesting things emerge. Anyway...

Tomorrow night I leave for Valliprasio, Chile... on to the next country! I´m not sure what to do... I have to buy a sleeping bag for my volunteering... I just dont´know where to find one. I start on the 14th, so I have about... three days to find one. Wish me luck!

Love you all,
Kelly

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Photos

Aconcagua
the big mountain

God is everywhere
even the chilean and argentinian border. I feel bad if this guy is stationed up here.