Bodega slackers, failed attempts at hitch hiking, label-less bottles, OH my!

Finally! After months of drinking the stuff I visit one of the places that makes it all. Cafa(sh)ate! Although Mendoza is the most famous there are several wine routes in northwestern Argentina and we drove through a couple cities, and decided to stop in this very special one. 

Rolling into town it was already dark. 5 hours on the road had complete exausted us and there were talks of an all day bike tour of the bodegas the next morning. We stopped at the most decent looking Hostel and pulled our dust covered car into the parking lot. You might think we went straight to bed, but food and wine were both on the agenda so it was important we made time for them. Pizza, a red, locro (stew), empanadas, and a couple litros of beer on the sidewalks of the main square and we had accomplished our goal. Then....bed (a queen size one with soft red sheets!!!).

Next day: bike tour. We made it to 2 count em 2 bodegas. The first we were late for the last tour. The weather was perfect, but it was a saturday and a lot of the vineyards were closed for tours or closing early. We scrambled to blend in with the back of the tour and made it just in time to skip all the borning wine making details and history of the label to go straight to the cold cellar and the tastings! perfect! New discovery: Torrontes.

The 2nd bodega...well lets say we did a bad job at converting km to miles and we were on bikes in slightly hilly terrain at mid-day without water. When we finally stashed our bikes in a bush out side a fancy hotel on the vineyard property and walked the rest of the way we discovered that we were in no mood to do the wine tour. The 4 of us girls were passed by numerous vehicles. We had our thumbs out, sweaty, red, puppy dog faces to the road, and not one of them stopped. Wow were we cursing the Argentines at that point... Remedy: A platter of cheeses meats and fruit and a pretty bottle of pink wine. Which then turned into several bottles and a sunset and a 

succesful hitch back to our bikes which turned into a breezy downhill coast to return our bikes 1 hour late, and schmooz the owner with wine and pizza, and then showers, another night in the hostal.....Salta tomorrow. 

                                   

Road Triiiip!

I swear as soon as I got in that car tears started welling up. I rolled down the window, found a typical southamerican station jamming the 80s tunes and seriously got the chills. It had been about 5 mos since I had laid my hands on a steering wheel and it felt gooood. It was a little unnerving confronting that crazy argentine driving style, i might not have survived in Buenos Aires, but I did on the Salta streets and exploring the andes of northwest argentina. My road trip partners Alex, Amy , and Flea had no idea what they were in for seeing as I was the only one confident enough with a standard to drive the little VW golf....

A side note: renting this car made me realize I am turning 25 in a few months. Well lets say the wonderful rent-a-car man was o-so-lovely to point that out. Calling me a liar when I told him I was 24. I guess I confused "Cuantos años cumples" with "Cuantos años tienes" but whos keeping track anyway....me now.

One of our first stop along the parque nacional los cardones, named for the type of cactus that populate the valle . The man taking the picture was partially toothless and selling rocks, herbs, dried animal parts, furniture, shells, sand, you name it. Unfortuntely for Felecia he didn't have the herb she was looking for...

SAlta la linda

First thing I did in Salta ate a Tamale at a the city market. Sat myself down at a random counter and loaded that thing up with some delicious spicy goodness and the rest was history..in the bathroom that is. It was well worth the pain.

Salta was a welcome change from BA. Slow, warm, with a souther spanish town feel. Orange and palm trees, little plazas surrounded by spanish colonial buildings. I was happy to be there.

A little Hello

I was walking in a palermo neighborhood on my way to get Pizza (with Ice cream soon to follow) and speaking English with some Floridians who were visiting. We passed a family of 3 children with a mother without realizing it until one of the little boys so delightfuly said "HELLO!" He must have been so happy to hear other people speaking Enlglish and wanted to feel conected and to let us know he understood.

The Olympic games have started and of course I have only watched Fútbol. The time difference is too great and cant be bothered to wake up at 7 to watch some swimmers.

Public Transportation

Biblioteca Nacional

Built on top of where Eva and Juan Peron lived in Barrio Recoleta

They told me not to take pictures, I took them anyway

Colonia, Uruguay

San Telmo, Buenos Aires

Subte A

The oldest in Buenos Aires

The Obelisco on 9 de Julio

A mere 2o blocks from home

Good bye Pibe y Tío loco!

And Then There Was One

Two American men left Che Lagarto today. Although they didn't know eachother when they arrived, they waved goodbye today from the same Taxi and are now continuing adventures they started alone, together. They leave in their wake an American girl, a Brazilian, Frenchman, Columbian, and a handful of silly Argentines. Their many months staying at Che Lagarto will not be forgotten by their fellow country woman nor anyone that crossed their path. RIP Che...it will never be the same again.

 "EL PIBE" (the dude) - enjoys a good Milanesa suprema and a chop(draft beer). Is known for his 4pm siesta and completing a level a week in his Spanish classes. Would like to one day quit his job as an accountant yet again to continue his travels in South America, and prides himself in enjoying Buenos Aires from his bed in numerous (5) dorm rooms in the Hostel Che LAgarto.

"Tío LOCO" ( no translation needed)- Enjoys Fernet Branca y cocacola, and passing his days chatting up the employees of Che Lagarto. Is quite the world traveler and hasn't lived in the states in more than 5 years, but can call places like Bulgaria home. Leaving behind wedding rings and broken hearts wherever he goes. At first he might shock you a little with his bizzare stories and crazy life experiences, but they quickly become something you look forward to everyday. Most likely to share with you his vast knowledge of self defense tecniques.

4th of July

Yes we celebrated here. The actual night of the 4th Kim and I were working at the Hostal and earlier that day we had gone to the "shady" side of town to  find a store that specialized in Fuegos artificiales so we could celebrate when we got off. It just so happened that our favorite receptionist is also and anarchist and was also working that night and was completely against us celebrating the independence of  the USA, but was quite happy when the police came while we were shooting firworks in the streets and a few of us stood up to them (I ran upstairs)...

I QUIT!

So I quit my job that was in the fancy part of town, that paid really bad ( I know, something doesn't add up). I didn't dislike the kids, but the material was boring and we were required to follow it. The head teacher was a little pesada (annoying) and even though I would try to speak to her in Spanish she would always talk to me in English (working at an English institute, go figure), but then she would ask me questions like "Do you understand?" when she would speak in spanish to someone else. Me dio bronca! 

I didn't realize how much I would miss those little boogers until the last day. They threw me a party, baked me brownies, they told me that whenever they see the show "LOST" they'll always think of me, and they made me recite "Que Lástima....What a pity" because they loved when I translated it for them one day.

Colonia, Uruguay in 12 hours

Leaving Buenos Aires for the second time was for a trip to Colonia, Uruguay to renew my 3 month tourist Visa. Kim and I booked a 3 hour cruise on Buquebus and floated across the beautifuly brown Rio de la Plata and spent the day walking around downtown Colonia. All in all it was a very touristy experience. In good Jessie and Kim form we slept for most of the 3 hours on the way there and 3 hours on the way back, we got lost going to catch the boat and once we got there we spent most of our time sitting in a cute restaurant reading, and listening to Jazz covers of 80's hits.

Argentina v Ecuador

So this was my second fútbol game, but it is the first BIG game I've been to. Fútbol stars like Messi, Rodriguez, Riquelme ( I really have no idea who they are...jaja).It was a world cup qualifying game and they tied 1-1. The fans were generally well behaved because the game was relatively boring. No matter how boring, there's never a shortage of profanities. In fact if you want to learn all the wondefully bad words and phrases all you need to do is buy your entrada for the game and in a matter of minutes you will be on your way. Those who wish to know some of these phrases and are of the appropriate age are welcome to inquire via email. Although I am discriminating by age, these Argentines sure don't. If you can speak you can scream profanities. 

Desaparecidos

Like gravestones, plaques will mark the places where almost 30,000 people in Argentina were "disappeared" in the 1970s. The weekend I arrived was not only Easter, but the anniversary of the overthrow of the regime that was responsible for this Dirty War

This occasion was used to do times 20 what Argentines do almost everyday: protest, strike, and  bang pots and pans in the streets. Almost everyday there's a union striking for something. Beer factories, dishwashers, and the most pressing issue at the moment: farmers will be marching with "caserolas," holding signs, blocking roads. This day was by far the most impressive I had seen at the time. It seemed as though every union in greater Buenos Aires was using this day to march, and to exercise the freedom that the "disappeared" were killed for.

Walk of shame

The morning after my first and (as of now) only Argentine classic rock cover band. I woke up relatively early (for me) with the exciting thought of walking all the way back to mi barrio. At the time I was living downtown near the Congress Building and happened to be about an hour and half by foot from my delightful student residence. There was a lot experienced in the hour and a half. It started out with a slightly sketchy train track, then there were ample photo-opps of quaint Palermo Houses and finally (right before I gave up and hopped on the Subway(subte), I did a lap around a park overpopulated by stray cats and one too many random scents of urine.

Welcome to the Jungle..I mean Buenos Aires

Imagine: first night in Buenos Aires, Makena club in Palermo Hollywood (yes Hollywood), an attractive Argentine band covering you name it rock band. ACDC, The Boss, of course The Stones, Bowie...

I couldn't have asked for a more perfect welcome show. What's more is I went with two girls from Texas: Kim (an ex-girlfriend of a high school friend) and her friend Lauren. The fact that I managed to unite with two texans isn't all that unusual. Christian and Megan could probably vouch for the fact that ex-pats escaping the drone of the US will find each other and huddle together like a scene straight out of March of the Penguinos. One of the biggest struggles is to keep them at arms length much like you might hold off a very hungry zombie.

To live and learn

Things I Should Have Thought More Deeply About Before Coming

1. Argentine's pronounce everything with a ll or a y with a "sha." PLAYA is said "PLY-sha"
2. There's always some major industry going on strike to throw a big fat wrench in your plans
3. Winter is cold. Cold and rainy.
4. The typical Argentine eats, sleeps, breathes, and lives to consume Argentine Beef

Looking back on my reasons for taking this trip was to live and learn Spanish (at least thats what I tell at least 5 people a day). People ask "what are you doing here?" and after a while I started to really understand why I had come. I'm not on vacation, I'm not taking classes in Spanish, estoy viviendo. I arrived, I got a job, I got another job, I got an apartment and as of now I work for 3 English institutes and teach 13 classes a week in 4 different parts of Buenos Aires. I hope to travel more in August, but for now these photos and this blog will mostly consist of things that I have wandered upon by going from class to class or getting lost as I tend to do no matter what country I'm in. So far BsAs has shown me all the things I thought it would and more. On the other hand, it also leaves me longing to travel the rest of South America and see something that doesn't look like a city...

Wow a Japanese themed garden!

Regreso al futuro!

Then there was the first week in Buenos Aires... Since I'm new at this "BLOG" thing I just figured out how to post date the blogs to give you a little more perspective and basically so all my posts won't be in the month of June. Eventually it will make me feel like I didn't procrastinate so much.

So I wondered apon the Borges cultural center one day and got my first: "Wow, I'm in a metropolitan city, there are art exhibits everywhere, and I feel so cultural in this centro cultural," experience. I saw origianal photos of the one and only (cli)che Guevera and my old Basque buddy Miró. I continued my walk/ being lost in a unfamiliar city and came to Puerto Madero. Brown water, impressive architecture, expensive restaurants. Aka this is where the rich people go to hang out.

The Tourist Tango