Just 48 hours after
I’d returned from Chile, I was off to Mendoza. I know you’re thinking “why on
earth didn’t you just stay in Chile then make your way to Mendoza!?”. Well,
that’s because I planned my trip back-asswards, with Lollapalooza getting
thrown in at the last minute. Really expensive, but hey, a life experience and
those are of course priceless.
So another long bus
ride later (the plane ride back to the US will seem like nothing after these),
we made it to the city of Mendoza. Mendoza is of course known for its wine. And
like many other wine-growing areas, it has a lot of dry heat. Mendoza sort of
reminds me of Arizona. It’s desertous with cactus, barrenness but also tropical
with palm trees. But it was nice to be somewhere a little more like my hometown
with its dryness. The humidity is too much for me to take sometimes. The other
thing about Mendoza is that it’s a lot smaller, and like my hometown as well,
its population is around 500,000ish. What a relief.
By the time we were
settled in our hostel, we were starving. But because of the Easter feriado, basically just about everything
was closed. It was like a ghost town. But finally we found the token Italian
restaurant and I went for a classic dish of pasta (how have I not gained
weight?) and a big hearty glass of Malbec. The wine was the cheapest drink on
the menu. I think I can get used to this city. Shortly after ordering, we were
joined by two older gentlemen who of course started a conversation with us,
being that we were the only ones nearby, much less on the street.
While there were two
of them, there was definitely only one that dominated the conversation, and he
was the Argentine version of a
professor back home, Gundars Rudzitis. If you don’t know him, he’s hard to
explain because he’s just that ridiculous. Basically he’s been everywhere, done
everything and loves to tell you about it. Sometimes at the expense of class time…
After talking about the usual: world problems, politics, the
Argentine situation, how beautiful Angela and I were (yep, even in old age,
they’re ruthless)…We went to Plaza Independencia which was conveniently less
than a block away from our hostel. As Angela slaved away through her biochem
reading, I much more leisurely took delight in my Nat Geo. Half sunburned and
passing out, we went back to take a nap because, well, there really wasn’t
anything else to do.
Later that night we passed through the feria in Plaza
Independencia. There were mostly the same little artisanal goods, but with a
Mendozan twist. I came across a necklace I really liked and while the style was
something I’d always liked, the exact design was very unique and just my style.
But it was $100 pesos. I thought long and hard and after some convincing from
Angela, I went back to buy it. The craftsman was from Peru and after buying he
told us some interesting Incan wedding traditions, because he was married. The
thing that stuck out most to me was the piercing of the skin with wooden
splints as a symbolic of the eternity the mark will spend on your body and how
your spouse will forever be a part of you. Then he made us some friendship
bracelets because he thought maybe Angela and I were soul sisters from another
life. Because in addition to the fact that we look like sisters, we can
sometimes act like it too.
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