La Cancha

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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 able to accomplish. Still, we continue to talk about getting a tractor to help us out. The weekend following our big dig-a-thon, we met a group of 15 Carlos Gonzales students for a Saturday soccer game. Evan managed to bring some respect to us Norte Americano by showing that gringos can actually score goals. We brought pastries for the kids and everyone had a great time.

On the music front, Doug led the way by orchestrating some great musical collaborations with local musicians. He completed a number of pieces that in addition to his stellar guitar playing, feature Juan Pablo on bandoneon, Manuel on drums, Augustine on guitar, Varon on vocals, and Georgina on cello. Doug successfully experimented to bridge the gap between jazz and tango and came up with his own version of "nuevo tango". This past month, Juan Pablo has been over many times to record and to have dinner with us. He's a great guy and an incredible bandoneon player. Thanks to Juan Pablo, we've come to appreciate the amazing and very Argentine instrument.

The last weekend July featured Mendoza's first jazz festival. We saw a great fusion band from San Juan perform and then went with our friend Pepe to Goody Cruz to see another more traditional band which was very good. Doug went to another event a few nights later to see a jam that featured a great guitarist from Buenos Aires.

These past few weeks the weather has turned colder. Supposedly this is the coldest winter in 30 years. We've had a couple of minimal snow events that send the Mendocinos running for cover. Luckily the roads in Mendoza never became snow covered since one can only imagine the mayhem that would result.

To warm up a bit, Julio took Evan and James out to the Thermals (hot springs) to bask in the hot waters while they enjoyed the views of the surrounding snow covered mountains. At the Quinta, we all became friends with an incredible family from England; Femi and Bena, their daughter Toby, and Bena's sister, Yogi. Femi is a charismatic lawyer from London, who brought his family to Argentina for a vacation after completing a book on anti-trust laws. We had some great discussions about the state of the world and philosophy. Femi, who is articulate, engaging, and optimistic, hopes to be appointed to The British Parliament in the coming years. We had dinners and great conversations with Femi, Bena, and Yogi and went with them to the Wednesday night art and music night to see Juan Pablo perform. We we're sorry to see them go. We wish them the very best. The hostel has been a great place to make new relationships, practice our Spanish, and try other people's cooking.

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Comments

[Luka Krmpotich]

Awesome
Sonds like things are moving along nicely. The Music creation sounds really cool!!! Hope all is well Luka