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Published: June 16th 2017
Geo: -31.72, -65
We go to check out of our room and there's a present and a note waiting for us at the desk. Ayelen, (pronounced Ashlin) wife of the manager we've gotten to know while here, has left us a chilled bottle of water and a thanks-for-being-you note.
We'd been having a lot of fun with this young couple the last couple of days--them and their 3 Musketeer friends. Ayelen speaks passable English so having her around made a world of difference here. She took us to the donkey races yesterday. I'm going to the donkey races, she says. You guys want to come? Sure! So we grabbed the camera, piled into their car and headed for the races.
The race was held in the woods just outside of town. They'd cordoned off a "racetrack" that included a water trap--donkeys HATE water, so it was pretty fun to watch their reaction when they got close to the puddle. A couple just splashed on through, but most balked and absolutely refused to go near the stuff.
Pushing and pulling, they managed to manuever the recalcitrant animals around the puddle, remount, and continue the race. But man that's gotta suck.
Then Ignacio
Burro races
Having splashed his way through the water trap, this guy's bookin' it.invited us to the cafe at the hotel that night for a performance...a true Argentinean folk singing, where we could participate--sing and clap and really get into it---I was excited. 10:30, they said. So at 10:00 you-know-who says let's go eat. It's late enough.
They brought us 1/2 a sandwich. The whole sandwich was 6' long--enough for 4, she said. The smallest we could order was 1/2, so here comes this 6' board with a 3' sandwich and a gallon sized bowl of fries. We ate about 4" and waited for the show. At 11:00 they started setting up. By midnight they'd sung 3 or 4 songs and we were having trouble keeping our eyes open.
We gave up and headed for the barn. People were still arriving for dinner. We're all tucked into bed when there's a tentative knock on the door. Ayelen's telling us we can come listen to the music now-- they've started.
We love her dearly but there's no way we're going partying now.
We should have known--we'd had a similar experience at a Chilean asado (barbeque) two years ago. Dinner would be at 7 on the dot, they confidently told us. At 7 they
No Way!
Donkeys don't like water and it takes both pushing and pulling to get this one to even walk along side the puddle to get beyond it. were heading to the grocery store. At 10 they'd started the fire. By midnight we'd eaten the appetizer and were heading to bed. They were still at it at 4am.
We're getting better at eating later, but NOWHERE near standard yet.
Ayelen's husband Ignacio and I started getting to know one another before we'd ever left Arizona. As is common in smaller localities in So. America, they needed a deposit but it had to be in cash. They wouldn't take a credit card or paypall or debit card or any other modern method. Bank transfer was their suggestion, only a bank transfer costs nearly $50--no way were we putting out that much for the pleasure of staying in their town. In these small towns there just are very few options--most hotels don't even have a website, let alone a method of payment.
Our first couple of years we'd had a travel agent who would handle all this for us--we'd send her the total by Western Union and she'd distribute it to all our different hotels.
But without her the last 3 years we'd had to do it ourselves. She kind fired us--said we knew more about Argentina now than
Remember---this is a race
When you have to tow your donkey, it's harder to win. she did.
Anyway, we had to send $100 deposit for the room so we tried Money gram first but the clerk wouldn't do it for us. She said unless we knew the people personally they wouldn't send the money. We'd sent money other years through them so it pissed us off. We explained that not all hotels in the world were set up for for credit cards (moron) but she was a frightened woman who had probably never traveled out of her shadow.
So we went to Western Union, sent the money, and waited.
Big Problem. The Western Union in Chandler, AZ, where we'd sent the money from, told us it had been picked up by someone claiming to be Ignacio. But Ignacio in Mina Clavero said his Western Union office told him there was no money--never had been. Western Union said to call the police and make out a fraud report.
Oops. Scared little moron at Money gram may have had it right, after all.
Where was our $100?
Ignacio was like a bull dog after that money though. He wouldn't give up. He told me he would find out what had happened and let me know.
Ahhh. Success.
And on he goes. I believed the guy. There was something about him in our emailing back and forth that made me think the guy was legit--I felt he was honorable, so we didn't send a fraud report. We just gave him some time.
A couple of days later he reported that the problem was at the Western Union office in Mina Clavero and they had finally found the money. I don't know what all that meant, but we were okay on our deposit and all was well.
We were so happy to finally meet this guy when we got here, and he truly is a gentleman. He and his wife became good friends, even tho he didn't speak a word of English.
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agnes
non-member comment
The burro races must have been a riot to watch. It sure does look beautiful and also looks very warm and humid. Enjoy!!