Mendoza

Mendoza is a city in western Argentina, not far from the border with Chile. The city itself is all right, but the main reason people visit is to see the things outside of town.

A pedestrian street in Mendoza

Mendoza is located in the Andes foothills, which means there are tons of hiking opportunities. So one day we joined a hiking tour and climbed to the top of a mountain. Actually, that makes it sound a bit more impressive than it really was. At 3,000 meters, it was barely a mountain—especially compared to some of the huge peaks surrounding it. And there were no ice picks or crampons involved, so the word “climbed” might be a slight exaggeration. Perhaps “walked up” would be more accurate. Nevertheless, we felt pretty glad when we reached the top. The view was (literally) breathtaking.

On the way up

Not a bad view

At the top

Rather than returning to Mendoza that night, we stayed in a hostel located in the mountains. It was a pretty rustic place. Entertainment opportunities consisted of the following: reading in front of the fire place, drinking wine in front of the fire place, and watching the fire. It was fantastic.

Rustic hostel

Our hostel, and the mountain we climbed

The next day we went on a horseback riding tour. I had only been on a horse a couple times in my life—and while fun, it never required any effort on my part, since my horse was always just following the one in front of it. This time was a little different. We still had to stay within sight of our guide, but we were pretty free to take our horses anywhere we wanted. We could even trot and gallop, which was far more exhausting than I’d ever imagined (exhausting for me, anyway…I’m sure the horse was fine).

The best afternoon I’ve had in ages

Mendoza is probably most famous for its wine, so we couldn’t leave town without going on a winery tour. The first place we went was called Bodega Septima (which sounds like a disease, if you ask me). It’s a big place. Very efficient. Very corporate.

A severe case of Bodega Septima

The next place was a small, family-owned, organic winery called Cecchin. Far less efficient, but much more charming.

Cecchin

Our winery tour concluded with an enormous lunch. I think there were about 15 of us on the tour, but there was enough food for twice as many. The best part was that you could drink all the wine you wanted.

Who is going to eat all this food?

After a day of hiking and a day of horseback riding, a day of imbibing was just what the doctor ordered.

Iguazu Falls to Cordoba

Our big seven-week trip through South America has begun! Last Tuesday, I flew from Minneapolis to Buenos Aires, and then I took an 18-hour bus ride from Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazu to meet up with Kim. (You may be wondering why we didn’t meet up in Brazil; it’s because I’m pretty sure I wasn’t allowed back in the country, since my visa has reached its limit.) Anyway, all that travel time was worth it when Kim and I met up at the bus station. It was great to see her.

Puerto Iguazu is a little town on the Argentinean side of the border, right across the river from Brazil. The main attraction—actually, the only attraction—is Iguazu Falls. And what an attraction it is! I’ve seen a few waterfalls in my life, but this was unlike anything else.

There were rainbows everywhere

It was pretty incredible to walk right up close to the falls. We got kind of wet from all the spray, and we had to yell because it was so loud. It’s hard to describe how amazing it is to be standing in front of an enormous wall of gushing water.

Then we spent a couple days in a little town called San Ignacio. Back in the 1700s, it was the site of a Jesuit mission. About a hundred years later, the government cracked down on it and disbanded the mission. But today you can see the ruins, and it’s pretty interesting.

Ruins of the houses

Ruins of the church entrance

They even had an orange tree!

We had a rainy day last week, which meant we couldn’t really go outside to do any sightseeing. So we spent pretty much the entire day in the hostel. Fortunately, there were some really nice people who ran the place; they had a big barbecue for everyone that night. The home-cooked meal was a perfect end to an otherwise dreary day.

Two pounds of meat for each person in the hostel

After San Ignacio, we took a long bus ride to Cordoba, a large city in the central part of Argentina. It’s a pretty mellow town, despite having a million inhabitants. There are a bunch of universities, so the city is young and has a good energy. There are quite a few pedestrian streets, which are great for a stroll.

Street views in Cordoba

We took a little side-trip from Cordoba and went to a small town called Villa Carlos Paz. It’s billed as Argentina’s version of Las Vegas. I can’t say I agree with that assessment, but it was a decent place to spend an afternoon. For some reason, the town is extremely proud of its cuckoo clock. We weren’t particularly impressed when we first saw it, but we decided to reserve judgment until the top of the hour.

Worst cuckoo clock ever

So, after waiting for about 15 minutes, the big moment arrived. An old, wooden bird slowly emerged from the top window. Then, somewhere deep within the clock’s bowels, a hammer smacked a piece of metal, and we heard a harsh, out-of-tune clank. Then we heard another clank. (It was two o’clock.) Then the bird slowly made its way back inside, and the window closed. It was the most awful cuckoo clock we’d ever seen, but we couldn’t stop laughing.

Back in the U.S.A.

One of my best friends, Quinne, got married on June 27. Originally I had told her that I wouldn’t be able to make it to the wedding. But the more Kim and I talked about it, the more I realized I’d feel like a huge jerk if I missed it. So, I bought a ticket home.

Unfortunately, Kim had final exams all week, which meant there was no way that she could make it to the wedding. It was sad leaving Kim behind; it would only be a week, but we had never been so far away from each other.

My old buddy Pat had the bright idea of surprising Quinne rather than telling her I’d be coming. So on the day before the ceremony, we drove to the site of the wedding—Blue Mound State Park, a few miles west of Madison—for the rehearsal. Pat and his wife Megan got out of the car, walked over to Quinne, and said hello. Meanwhile, I stayed in the back seat, hidden by Pat’s suit, which was hanging in front of the back-seat window. Pat told Quinne that he had a surprise for her in his car. So they walked over to the door, and Pat pulled aside his suit. When Quinne saw me, the look on her face was priceless. She yelled, “Oh my god, what the hell are you doing here?!”

Surprise!

The next day, we arrived at the park a bit early so that we could decorate a cake. It was a really cool idea: they got a bunch of plain white cakes and asked several of their friends to decorate them. Quinne and Josh will be moving to China to teach for two years, so my friend Chris asked me to help him write the Chinese words for Love (愛) and Marriage (婚姻). Frosting isn’t exactly my medium of choice…but with our powers combined, we were able to make a fairly close approximation of the Chinese characters. And Pat made a cake that depicted our road trip to California in 2002; I played no role in the decoration of that cake, but I was more than happy to take partial credit for it.

After 29 years, I still can’t tie my own tie.

The wedding itself was great. Quinne and Josh had all of their bridesmaids and groomsmen give a little speech, and all of them were very heartfelt. In between the tears, there was also singing and dancing. And that was just the ceremony! At the reception, there was even more dancing. The party lasted until about 10:30, at which point the park rangers made us pack up. The party continued at a nearby bar and went on into the wee hours.

Good times

All in all, it was a great time, and I’m really glad I was there—I just wish Kim could have been there with me! Speaking of Kim, she finished all of her finals, and then she and a friend headed off to Brazil’s northeast coast to spend a few days on the beach.

I’ll be heading back to South America on Tuesday, and I’ll meet up with Kim at Iguazu Falls—one of the world’s most spectacular waterfalls! From there, we’ll begin a seven-week trip that will take us through Argentina, Bolivia, and Peru. I’m not sure how often I’ll be able to update the blog, but I’m hoping to do it pretty regularly. There will definitely be a lot to talk about. Stay tuned.

Visitors!

The last two weeks have been really fun, thanks to two visitors. Kim’s friend Carla arrived at the end of May and stayed for about a week. Then, on the same day that Carla left, Kim’s friend Katherine arrived.

Kim was extremely busy with class most of the time, so I stepped in and attempted to act as the tour guide—which ended up being great, because I got to do a few of the tourist activities that I hadn’t gotten around to yet. For example, I finally went to the top of the Banespa Building to check out the view of São Paulo. It was pretty amazing to see high-rise buildings stretching all the way to the horizon.

Urban jungle

I also went to the Mercado Municipal. It’s a lovely old building the size of a city block, and it’s filled with hundreds of vendors selling food of all kinds. I’ve recently become quite fond of olives (after 28 years of finding them revolting), so I was pleased to find a stall that had a couple dozen large bins filled with every imaginable variety.

Olives

Kim and Carla went to Rio de Janeiro for a few days and had a great time. My weekend was significantly less exciting; I stayed in São Paulo to finish up some work, and I left my apartment for a grand total of ten minutes. In fact, I think the only word I said on Saturday was “crédito,” when the cashier at the grocery store asked if my card was debit or credit.

Kim took Katherine to Rio as well, and this time I was along for the ride. We stayed at a hostel in Ipanema, about three blocks from the beach. Unfortunately, it was rather windy and cold (cold for Rio, that is), so we didn’t spend much time on the beach. The big waves were pretty impressive, though.

Windy day at Ipanema

Of course, we went to see the big Jesus statue. And unlike the last time I’d been there, the weather was wonderful and the view was spectacular.

View from the Jesus statue

We also went to Sugarloaf, which is the other major lookout point. Unlike the Jesus statue, which is accessible via a train, you can only get to Sugarloaf via a cable car that hangs a thousand feet above the ground.

View from the Sugarloaf cable car

After spending a few days in Rio, we continued east to a place called Búzios. It’s a peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean, and there are over 20 beaches in the area. I rented a bike one afternoon and rode around for a while, checking out about eight of them.

Beaches in Búzios

Then we took a night bus to Ouro Preto, which is a historic city located in the mountains. Back in the 1700s, it was the center of Brazil’s gold rush—hence the city’s name, which means Black Gold in Portuguese. The gold mines made a few people obscenely rich, and they liked to show off their wealth by building fancy churches. We went to about six of the churches, and they were all pretty impressive. But I have to admit that they all started to look the same after a while. Nevertheless, it was fun to just walk around the city’s streets. The buildings are very well preserved, so it’s pretty easy to imagine that you’re back in the 1700s—except for all the cars, that is.

Ouro Preto

Speaking of cars, we took a cab ride back to the bus station at the end of the evening. Little did I know it would be one of the most interesting parts of the day. The city’s streets are extremely steep, and they’re all cobblestone. So when our driver attempted to go up one of the large hills, the car definitely had its work cut out for it—not to mention the fact that it had rained a couple hours earlier, so the cobblestones were still a bit slick. As we were ascending the street, another car was on its way down. Due to the narrow eighteenth-century roads, only one car can go at a time, and the other one is supposed to pull over. Common sense would tell you that the car traveling uphill would have the right of way, since it needs to keep its momentum going. But the oncoming car apparently saw it differently, because he didn’t pull over. So our driver had to put on the emergency break as we waited for the other guy to go. However, once he went past us, we had no chance of making it up the rest of the hill, since we were starting at a standstill. So we had to roll down the hill (backwards) and take an alternate route.

Steep streets in Ouro Preto

It’s hard to believe, but our time in Brazil is almost over! Kim has final exams during the last week of June, and then we leave for our big seven-week trip through South America.

Spring Break in the Fall, Part III: Buenos Aires

On our first day in Buenos Aires, we took a little walking tour that was organized by our hostel. The main attraction was the Casa Rosada (Pink House), which is the Argentinean equivalent of the White House—but more colorful, obviously. Among other things, the Casa Rosada is famous for being the place where Evita gave her speech (you know, “Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina”). Oh, and here’s a fun fact: they say the building is pink because it was originally painted with cows’ blood, which apparently protected it from the humidity.

Plaza de Mayo, with the Casa Rosada in the background

The next day we visited the Palermo neighborhood, which has lots of nice parks. In particular, the botanical garden was quite lovely… assuming you’re able to ignore all the stray cats.

Botanical garden

May 1 was International Workers Day, so just about everything was closed. But the Socialists were having a demonstration in front of the capitol building, so that was fun to watch.

Workers of the world, unite!

In the Recoleta neighborhood, there’s a big cemetery where Argentina’s rich and famous are buried. It’s a really beautiful place, but it’s basically a game of one-upmanship among dead people: “my tomb is bigger than your tomb!”

Recoleta Cemetery

One night we took a stroll to Puerto Madero. A few decades ago, it was one of the city’s worst neighborhoods, with decaying docks and abandoned warehouses. But these days it’s one of the trendiest spots in town, and it’s filled with art galleries, high-rise condos, and expensive restaurants.

On the docks in Puerto Madero

The most colorful spot in Buenos Aires is the Boca neighborhood. The buildings are painted in bright hues, and there are lots of narrow pedestrian streets. These days it’s completely overrun by tourists (like us), but it’s fun to imagine what it would’ve been like a hundred years ago.

Colorful houses in Boca

Argentina is pretty famous for its meat, so we made a point of going out for steak one night. I’m sure we didn’t go to the city’s best restaurant, but still… we were a little underwhelmed. It was fine, but it wasn’t any better than the meat in Brazil or the United States. I guess meat is meat.

There are plenty of shopping opportunities in Buenos Aires. I can’t tolerate more than a few minutes in most stores, but I make a couple exceptions: bookstores and record shops. Buenos Aires didn’t have many of the latter, but it did have the most amazing bookstore I’ve ever seen. The building used to be a fancy theater, but now it’s filled with books. The luxury boxes—you know, the places on the side where rich people sit—have been converted to reading areas with big cushy chairs. And the stage has been converted to a café. However, despite the fact that it’s the best bookstore ever, there was one significant drawback: I couldn’t read any of the books, because they were all in Spanish! (Can you believe the nerve of those Argentineans?) Unfortunately, the children’s section was the only place where I could find a book at my reading level.

Best bookstore ever!

And of course we couldn’t visit Buenos Aires without seeing a tango show. In fact, I think all tourists are legally obligated to attend one. Before the show, everyone in the audience got a free tango lesson. After making fools of ourselves for an hour, it was time to watch the pros. Somehow we got seats directly in front of the stage, so the view couldn’t have been much better. To be honest, I’m generally not a big fan of watching people dance, but the tango show was really incredible to watch.

Tango

After a week in Buenos Aires, we took a plane back to Brazil. We figured that was a better option than a 24-hour bus ride. However, a big storm rolled into São Paulo just as we were about to land, so our plane got diverted to Rio de Janeiro. After sitting in Rio’s airport for a couple hours, they told us it was okay to go back to São Paulo. So within the course of a few hours, we went from South America’s third-biggest city (Buenos Aires), to its second-biggest city (Rio de Janeiro), to its biggest (São Paulo).

Unexpected stop in Rio

And even then, the adventure wasn’t quite over. As we were going through customs, the agent told me I could only have one day in Brazil, and I had to go see the Federal Police the next day because my visa wasn’t valid anymore. After a moment of panic, I looked at my visa and noticed it clearly said, in English and Portuguese, that it was valid for five years. So, with as much respect as I could muster, I showed it to the moronic customs agent. He looked at it for a couple seconds and said, “Oh… okay,” as if it was no big deal. With that, he changed my stamp from 1 day to 90 days. Whew, I’m glad I said something!

So now we’re back in São Paulo, safe and sound. Kim has begun her new classes, and they seem like they’ll be very interesting but very challenging. And I’m still working part-time, thanks to my incredibly generous employer in Minnesota.

The next month should be really fun. In a couple weeks, Kim’s friend Carla will be visiting us. And the day after Carla leaves, Kim’s friend Katherine will be visiting. It’ll be fun to show people around the city… we don’t exactly feel like locals, but we’ve definitely grown quite fond of São Paulo, and it will be nice to show it off a bit.