Argentina: Mendoza and the trip over the Andes

I have to say up front that South America was absolutely amazing. It was amazing in so many ways, and there wasn’t a second of it that I would trade. It is, however, is a unique place in terms of their recent and cultural history, the separation between city centers and everywhere else, and how unbelievably (dis)similar it was to the US. There are adventures and stories that may portray some areas in a negative light, but take this with the idea that it is simply different – not better, not worse – than to what I have been accustomed. It allowed me some visibility into a world that truly has not been my own…. I believe I’ve traveled my fair share and honestly was prepared for an experience more similar to that of my trips to southern Europe than to the some of the places I was fortunate enough to see.

The flight down there was a business class red-eye. (All done with airline miles!) I highly recommend this since the flight didn’t seem close the 11 hours that it was – I slept nearly the entire way. I did learn that the “lay-flat” beds are a far cry from coach, and are flat… just not parallel to the floor. I think I had to hoist myself back up the seat a few times during the night to keep from sliding under the seat ahead of me. J I know I know… What right do I have to complain about business class?!

We landed around 9am in Buenos Aires, and were to take an overnight bus (another 11 hours or so) later that evening to Mendoza. The international airport in Buenos Aires is almost amusing. A single runway, and the airport itself appeared more like your regional airports in the US. The airport is about 40 minutes outside of the city center, so we got a remise (hired driver) to take us straight to the bus station thinking we absolutely had to get there at some point, and could wander around there a bit until our bus left. Taxis abound in the city and at the airport, but we heard (and later experienced) that the taxis in Argentina can be a scam – meters that clock in double time, drivers taking you in circles, and being given fake cash when you get change. A remise is the way to go….

At the bus station, there were stray dogs all over the place. I can’t really call it a problem since the dogs were all quite amenable and didn’t bother anyone, but they really were all over. I had to keep telling Brian not to pet the dogs (for fear of him bringing fleas back to the hotel, much less anything else!) I thought the stray dogs were perhaps a bus station issue, but they’re in every city like that – in parks, on the street, wandering down the sidewalk… Keeping Brian away was a full time extravaganza. I finally bought hand sanitizer and just made him wash his hands every 15 minutes (exaggerating! kind of...) The dogs seem smart though! They even wait at the cross walks to cross the street. Very strange…

We found a place to store our luggage for the day and went in search of lunch in the sweltering heat. We found this huge but empty place at the rail station that was air conditioned and decided anywhere with a/c was good enough for us. My first real experience in trying to communicate in Spanish happened here successfully! The food was good, but what I most remember was converting the Argentinian pesos into $ and being SO happy that our meal (a pizza and 2 liters of beer) cost all of $8. The rest of the day we wandered close by the bus station, found the hotel we’d be staying at later in the trip (not far from the bus station), and relaxed. I also had the task of keeping Brian from trying to pet every dog that entered his eyesight.

The bus that night was actually quite nice. We took a first class bus to Mendoza, which has lay flat seats (parallel to the floor!) and was quite a comfortable ride. The food wasn’t bad either! We arrived in Mendoza around 9am the next morning, took the risk and grabbed a taxi to the hotel, where we were able to check in early to our suite! We showered (for the first time in 2 days – ugh!), and got some rest before heading out to explore.

Mendoza is a very outdoorsy place. There were lots of small travel agencies that specialized in mountain treks anywhere from a day to a week, paragliding, whitewater rafting, biking, and wine tours. Wine is BIG in Mendoza – the area is the largest producer of wine in South America, and their malbecs are world-renowned. We only had 3 days in Mendoza, and then were planning to take another overnight bus to Santiago, Chile, so we quickly decided we needed to do a wine tour and go whitewater rafting. The whitewater rafting was not so long in the water (45 minutes?), but it definitely gave us a sense of Argentinian’s time. If they tell you they’ll be there in 10 minutes, they mean around 40. They’re very relaxed people. We did the whitewater rafting our second day and spent most of the afternoon hanging out above the water with some other Americans that we met and waiting for the van to take us back into the city.

That night, we were able to go to a 5-star restaurant in Mendoza called 1884. It’s a restaurant that’s been written up in the New York times, and the food and atmosphere were absolutely amazing. The entire restaurant is walled in. You have to have a reservation to enter, and its an old winery that surrounds a beautiful courtyard and grill area. Apparently the governor of Mendoza was there the same night we were, so security was very tight. The picture here is of my dessert, "burned fruits". The absolute best thing I've ever eaten...

The next day, we’d hired a driver to make reservations at 4 wineries in the area and take tours of them. Wineries in South America are not like those in Sonoma/Napa – reservations are a must, and you get a full tour of the winery in addition to the small tasting sessions. We had a beautiful lunch at one winery, were able to drink wine straight out of the barrel at another, and bought a handful of bottles to bring home with us. It was a quite intimate experience, and we met a few other people – both from the US and South America, as well as Germany and elsewhere. I think the rest of our time in Mendoza was spent eating… I love their food… And I gained about 20 lbs because of it.

In all of our chats with other people, whenever we mentioned our overnight bus that was planned for Santiago, it was heavily advised to take the bus during the day. So we did.

The trip over the Andes mountains into Chile is a beautiful 7 hour ride, and a little scary at times! The road just after the border crossing turns into an extreme version of that twisty Lombard St in San Francisco. I was completely convinced we were going off the edge of the cliff at every turn. The transition from Argentina to Chile was almost shocking to drive through though. Argentina is very poor in the rural areas. The highways we were on in Argentina were dotted with small shacks that were lucky to have windows, but all had bars over the doorways and windows (or where the windows should be). On the Chilean side, the level of living was noticeably higher. The houses rarely had bars, and were actually quite cute cabins in the mountains.

Santiago is just at the base of the Andes, and is a wonderfully clean city. Their subway system (although it closes at 10pm) was so clean and decorated so nicely, it could make you think the Manhattan subway stations were from a third world country. I have to wonder how heavily subsidized the subway system there is, or what NYC is doing wrong. Santiago may be cheaper than NYC, but its certainly not the place you should visit if you want to save cash. The exchange rate was something like 660 Chilean pesos to 1 US dollar (insanely hard to figure out how much you’re spending on the fly), but you’d spend 20,000 pesos for a taxi ride....

More to come when I have some more time to sit down and write...

Efforts to be a wise old owl. Or an old maid. :)

As I'm nearing the end of my twenties, I have been feeling that I should start planning for the future - namely ensuring I will be OK in 30 or 40+ years. Financially, I am doing the things I think I should: saving, contributing to my 401K, etc. Minus owning a house. Its a good time to buy I think, but that's such a scary idea for me, and buying in NYC is exponentially more scary compared to buying outside the city - who outside NYC would agree a one bedroom apartment is a deal at half a million dollars?! But I digress...

Outside of financial security, I am determined to have mental security: I will be a sane, lucid old woman (even if I end up as an old maid with a cat)!

I've known for a while that crossword puzzles increase brain function and decreases the susceptibility to Alzheimer's disease. I am fortunate to be the nerd that loves crosswords. So check that one off my list in my efforts to be mentally sound.
Tonight PBS had on a show about brain functionality. Supposedly your brain function increases if you concentrate on good things in your life... And thinking of 5 things a day for which you are grateful has proven to help your brain function. The nice addition to this practice is that I just get to think nice things and have my own personal mini-thanksgiving in my head every day, which hopefully should help me start (or end) my days with a happy thought.

Don't expect me to do this constantly here, but for today, as a start, I shall list 5 things for which I am thankful/grateful. Here goes: I am thankful....

• for my parents' support. My parents build me up and are proud of me. They let me know when they're disappointed in my actions, but always let me know they'll be there to support me.
• that I am able to support myself. Although I have worked hard to get where I am, I know that a piece of my success is simply luck in being at the right place at the right time. I am thankful to have worked hard and to have had luck on my side.
• that I have had the opportunity to travel. To have been able to visit much of western Europe and will soon see some of South America before my 30th birthday, I am fortunate.
• that I can read. Simple, I know... but I love where books take me and how they stir up images and people from words on a page.
• to have fantastic, interesting friends and a boyfriend that all care about me. They all contribute to the person I am and make me a better person for their friendship.

He tried to steal my blender!

Oy vey... Maybe I should write a book on the trials and tribulations - and un-fun adventures - of living with a psycho.

I'm down to less than a week living in my current apartment and CANNOT WAIT to get out. Roommate number 2 moved out last Friday, so its just been me and the Psycho packing up. The apartment is a colossal mess right now - boxes everywhere and a resulting layer of dust on the floor since most of the furniture is now gone.

I walked in the kitchen the other day to make my last meal in the apartment. (Nothing to worry about regarding my eating habits - I'll be eating out the next few days.) Psycho has a box of the few kitchen items he owns on the counter, and I happen to notice my cutting board sticking out of it. He tried to steal my cutting board. I grab that, of course, and in doing so, it moves the handy towel he has COVERING MY BLENDER! In his box of stuff! He was going to abscond with my blender! A good one at that - glass and 20 different mixing speeds!

I have taken control of that situation (ie, taken and hid the blender), but I wonder how much more he has already taken and what more he will attempt to take. I tried to pack up all the kitchen stuff I could and move it into the new place (I got my keys yesterday!), but I'm still feeling very suspicious. All my boxes are in Roommate #2's old room, and I even wrote down the number of items in there so I could count and make sure nothing was missing. This is so crazy.....

14 More Days...

I'm down to counting my days. 14 days and 6 hours.

To what, you ask!? MY OWN PLACE!
I'm really excited... I looked and looked and looked.... Found a few places that I liked, but they were in the wrong place, wanted me to move in too early, weren't in great buildings, or simply had massive broker fees that I was trying desperately to avoid.

And then I dramatically threw myself on my super's desk one day while walking in from work and told him I was devastated that I was leaving my building... The building that has a fantastic super, is on a great street - accessible to everything, has a doorman, is safe, and has great tenants. He laughs at me, then fate steps in! Apparently THAT DAY a woman in my building decided to rent her 1 bedroom apartment 4 floors up from me. I was certain it would be WAY out of my price range - the apartments in my building are humongous compared to normal NYC apartments. But she negotiated (and yes, rent is still ridiculous), and likes my move in date, so I get to stay! I just have to move up a few floors! I am unbelievably excited! No brokers fees, stay in the building, and I get to keep Tim (the super), who comes to save me from imaginary mice when the occasion requires it, or installs brand new a/c's when he thinks I might be hot (without me even complaining!)

How lovely is that?!

Who wants to visit!?

Psychotic Roommate

I know I've talked (complained, ranted, whatever...) to a few people about my psychotic roommate. But I promise, he really is nutso. To recap the highlights of my last year of living with him, here's a condensed version of the events:

• refusal to pay bills to the point I threatened to shut off electricity (and would have if the other roommate didn't step in and take it over);
• demanding immediate payment on his bills or he would "take further measures" (I waited 2 weeks to pay him once.)
• advising my other roommate and I to call the cable company ourselves to add more lines to his bill when he didn't want to put cable anywhere but his room and the living room (umm, what company would say "sure, i can add that to someone else's account!"?)
• eating my sole package of broccolli and cheese, denying it, then asking where he could buy more to replace it (if he had bought it in the first place, wouldn't you think he'd know where to find more?!)
• hiding the phone for the household phone line
• drinking all my wine the day after I opened the last bottle I had (nope, no replacement either!)

Here's the fun one, though! My roommate told me this, but it absolutely without a doubt paints the third roommate to a T:

M (the good roommate) comes downstairs to make waffles for herself one morning. She takes them from the freezer, pops them in the toaster oven, then decides to go back upstairs while they're cooking to get dressed. M comes back down 10 minutes later to find her waffles missing from the toaster. Knowing that only C (the psycho rooommate) is in town for the weekend, she goes to his bedroom door and knocks. C opens the door with his mouth full of waffles and asks what's up. M asks him if he ate her waffles. HE DENIES IT! M calls him out on it and asks him to replace them...

But what on earth!?!? Who takes someone else's food that they're cooking?!! He is deranged and completely inconsiderate!!!

I can't wait to get rid him from my life.

I'm an old broad already?!

I’m on a plane last weekend, sitting nicely in first class, thanks to upgrades the wonderful boy gave me, waiting for take off. In fabulous first-class-land, they offer you drinks before you take off, and I quickly accepted the offer, requesting a jack and coke. Although I would prefer them to carry Crown, I think I probably would sound very pompous if I made a fuss about it, so I’ll leave it at that. I digress…
So I request my jack and coke, and am ID’d. First of all, I don’t think I’ve ever been ID’d on a plane before. Not even when I was 20 (looking 12)! I pass over my ID, she checks it out, bends it a little looking for the hologram and whatnot, sees the date, and says, “Wow! You’re an old broad!”

I AM NOT KIDDING.
I’m not even 30 yet!!!! Since when does this qualify me as an “old broad”? No wonder women have issues when they turn 30!

A Baseball God touched me...

i.
met.
MANNY!

You remember that teenager feeling... The butterflies in the tummy. The inability to not ramble. The way your tongue felt like it was 200 times its normal size. I felt that. Manny Ramirez, the beloved Red Sox player, was on my flight. He's beautiful. He's not as big as he looks. He touched my arm. How giddy do I look?!

And I got a picture and 2 (count 'em) autographs!!!