When our landlord talked to us Thursday night I heard, “blah blah blah BBQ blah blah blah Sunday.” Jeff, who actually speaks Spanish heard, “What are you doing Sunday, I’m having a BBQ, why don’t you come.” I can’t help but worry about everything. What if he misunderstood? What if she really said, “Hey, I’m having a BBQ on Sunday. Can you please bring your drying laundry inside and keep your obnoxious North American voices down.”
By the time Sunday rolled around I had almost convinced Jeff we weren’t invited. We lurked inside our apartment (which is in her backyard) while she set up tables, got the grill going, and brought out chairs. This is where traveling is hard for me. I’m adventurous enough to go to an Argentinian BBQ, but not confident enough to crash an Argentinian BBQ. Finally we migrated outside onto our porch and were quickly invited to sit down, introduced and cheek kissed by everyone. Either we had been invited all along, or they were extremely welcoming to party crashers.
We sat down and were showered with food. First it was chicken and salads. Next was ribs and chorizo sausage. Then came pork and more meat. As food was ready off the grill it was like a meat auction. Mario, the asador (griller) would take something off the grill, hold it up. “Chorizo? Chorizo?” Then if you wanted it you’d hold up your plate. I tried to pace myself in order to have enough room to try everything. It was all so good, it was hard not to just keep eating.
It’s funny how some things are the same and different. Watermelon for dessert seemed so North American to me. But then it was brought out “upside-down” to my USA eyes.
I was concerned that we would be served something really weird that I wouldn’t be able to eat. But, the most unusual thing I saw was a glass of malbac wine, ice, and diet coke. My favorite part of the day was when they toasted with “to family” It made me miss my own family. But, as I clinked glasses with our new Argentinian friends I was thankful that they included us in their family for the afternoon.
We love wine – buying it, tasting it, seeing where it’s made, and most of all drinking large glasses of it.
That is why we came to Mendoza, because it’s the heart of wine country in Argentina. But, we’re planning on staying awhile because it’s just so nice here. Tranquil, pleasant, livable – all words used by guidebooks to describe the city. So far, they have all been correct. The wineries and vineyards are out of town, so the only wine we’ve tasted so far has been at wine bars and restaurants. It’s been really good. But here are other things I love about the city.
1. wide sidewalks –the sidewalks in Mendoza are wide, wide enough for everyone to be able to walk around, even in a crowd. No more playing chicken with oncoming pedestrians. I no longer get stuck behind a slow poke and have to veer out into a busy street to get around them. No one has stepped on my foot, accidently punched me in the side, or almost blinded me with a cigarette. You can either stroll or stride and not get in anyone’s way.
2. couches on sidewalks – the only thing I like better than sitting outside at a table drinking wine, is sitting on a comfortable couch outside drinking wine. I hope this is a trend that is sweeping the world.
3. trees – the architecture of Mendoza is pretty tame compared to Salta or Buenos Aires. But, you can’t see any building because there are so many trees lining each street. I love how every street feels like a park and the park feels like a forest.
4. stop lights – I’m still afraid to cross the street, but having stop lights help. There are still left and right turners, but the traffic so so mellow compared to other places in Argentina.
5. weather – I am a baby about weather. It was too humid in Buenos Aires, too rainy in Salta, too hot in Cordoba, too windy in La Serena. But, the weather here really is just perfect.
6. restaurants – there a lot of restaurants here, fancy, casual, traditional, and trendy. We could eat out every night for the rest of our trip and not hit all the places we want to try. And, with the exchange rate to the US dollar, they are all a bargain.
7. taxis – taxis are cheap and plentiful in Mendoza. We are currently staying a bit out of the center of town, but for about $2 US you can get almost anywhere in town. The buses are even cheaper, but we haven’t figured out where to buy a bus pass yet.
These are just what we’ve noticed about the city. Tomorrow we head out into the country to see about the wine.
We’ve made it to Mendoza, Argentina. Mendoza is know for it’s amazing wine, good food and being close to the Andes. But, forget sight seeing, wine tasting, white water rafting, horse back riding, the only thing I want to do right now is find a dish towel.
this paper towel is not that absorbent.
Our Mendoza “home” is a furnished tourist apartment, the 5th one on our stay so far. We’ll be staying here for a week to two months depending on
How much we like Mendoza.
How much we like the apartment.
When and if we can buy a dish towel.
Except for several nights, we’ve stayed almost entirely in furnished temporary rental apartments. These apartments are set up for tourists and can usually be rented by the day, week or month. They’re perfect for us because they’re big enough for all our stuff and have kitchens so we can cook. They also have the internet because we make sure to only stay in ones that do. There are some beautiful ones out there and some not-so-nice ones. We stay at the best ones we can afford on our travel budget. Depending on the city, that can sometimes be great and sometimes worse than the worst college apartment you ever lived in.
We’ve got the move in routine down pat.
Prior to move – secure apartment online. Marvel at beauty of apartment in photos. Dream of our new temporary home.
Arrive in town by bus or plane – race to a ATM, withdraw rent money. Stuff bills into our money belts. Look like we’re doing something very weird in ATM booth with hands down our pants.
Taxi Stand – use spacial reasoning to access which taxi can fit Jeff’s bike suitcase. Fit rest of our luggage around it, sit in back on top of suitcase with luggage piled to car ceiling if necessary.
Schlep luggage from taxi to new apartment, pity new landlord – our new landlord is always waiting for us at our new apartment. He quickly hides his look of horror as we pull up with our luggage. They all paste on pretend smiles as they help us drag it all in.
Frantic apartment once over – Jeff distracts landlord with idle chatter as I race around behind the scenes and check out – are there towels, sheets, hot water, pots, pans, working toilet?
I should have asked what the knobs are for. The flusher is on the top.
internet password confusion – as Jeff runs out of small talk, I boot up my IPOD and check wifi. Ask landlord for password, try, retry, ask again, have him write it down, have landlord call friend to reconfirm it’s correct, try again. Try one more time.
rent payment – hands back down pants to get money out of our money belts. Careful sorting, unfolding and counting of rent money. Detailed receipt issued by landlord.
key handover – landlord hands over keys which look like they last unlocked a 15th century monastery. Wonder how these will ever fit in our pocket.
landlord goodbye kiss -sometimes kiss, sometimes shake hands, sometimes kiss by accident.
moment of panic – we sink into stained couch, broken dining room chair, cracked lawn chair, or sagging bed and try not to cry. This looks nothing like the photos.
moment of acceptance – And then we pull it together. We’re in Argentina for God sakes, it’s not so bad, in fact, it’s awesome. Who needs daylight, an oven, towels, working toilet. What’s a few bugs, so what if it smells so bad you have a migraine, the bed sags so much you won’t be able to sleep. The pots and pans are rusty? We’ve had our tetanus shots. Who needs to sit on that couch, we can dry off with an old sock. We can fashion window screens from mosquito netting, we can build our own desk out of wood.
moment of thankfulness that we carry a small kitchen with us – dish towels, cutting boards, sharp knives, cheese grater, skillet, salt and pepper shakers, spices, spatula, wine opener, measuring cups, can opener.
things from homethings we've bought and take with us from apartment to apartment
moment of sadness – when realize we’ve left half those items behind. That beautiful dish towel, shiny cookie sheet, the green pasta strainer, all left behind in the last rental apartment.
scavenger hunt begins -all we need are a few things to make this livable – dish towel, soap dish, bath mat, towel hooks, utensil holder. That can’t be hard, I’ll run out and get them.
city map in hand, ready to find that dish towel
Then the hunt begins. Time to go buy a new dish towel. Where would they sell such a thing? Yesterday I looked at a big supermarket (where I bought the last 2 in other cities), street market, bathroom towel store, and kitchen store. None of them had dish towels. But today is a new day. Somewhere out there between the wineries, vineyards, fancy restaurants and the Andes is a dish towel just waiting to be purchased.
OK so we’ve only been “living” here for three weeks. Three weeks in no way makes me a “living at the beach” expert. But here’s what I’ve gleaned so far: (just a disclaimer. Jeff is against this post. He thinks this sounds like complaining. I hope he’s wrong).
1. Chile takes tsunami’s very seriously.
We woke up yesterday to the horrifying photos and videos from Japan. Our hearts broke for the people affected there. We spent the day following the news out of Japan and also the tsunami as it traveled across the Pacific towards Chile. At 7:00 pm we were told to leave our apartment. At 1:00am we watched on the news from a coffee shop as the waves barely hit the beach. Luckily, Chile had no damage from the tsunami. But, we still weren’t allowed back until 11:00am this morning. 16 hours of evacuation for waves that didn’t even go past the sand of the beach.
At 4:00am when I was trying to sleep in our rental car, I was pissed. But, after all the devastation in Japan, and the earthquake and tsunami in Chile last year, I’d much rather be evacuated for a non-event tsunami than experience a fraction of what is happening in Japan.
2. Staring at the sea never gets old.
I wasn’t sure if I would get used to the view and stop noticing it, sort of like when you hang a picture on your wall and after awhile you don’t even notice it anymore. That hasn’t happened yet. Although there are times when I get super focused on something on my computer and forget to look up at the view.
3. I can still wake up grumpy at the beach.
This one is kind of sad and amazing isn’t it? But, I guess a sea view can’t cure all your problems or moods. I think I’m more relaxed here, but can still get over hungry, have PMS and get frustrated.
4. You don’t need a gym when you live by the ocean.
I have always been a gym rat. I made a big deal when we came here that I had to live close to a gym, and we do, but I still haven’t gone there. I’ve been taking long walks on the beach instead. I’m not sure if I’m getting as good of a workout, but for the first time in my life I don’t care.
5. Cinnamon deters ants, Raid gets rid of them.
When ants invaded our bathroom we didn’t want to spray insect repellent. We feared it would get into the rest of our tiny apartment. So we went natural and sprinkled cinnamon on the floor. That got them to sort of detour around it, then we tried soft soap, That slowed them down and also killed a few. After several days with a bathroom floor covered in cinnamon, soft soap and ants, we went with Raid. It worked wonders, didn’t even smell.
6. The sound of crashing waves can make me less angry.
You know those relaxation CD’s that have sounds of crashing waves? I think I’m going to get one. When I am grumpy (see #3) I find if I can concentrate on the sound of the waves I’m instantly relaxed. We’ve had a couple of nights with drunken, screaming neighbors. I laid in bed trying to remember the words for “Shut Up!!” in Spanish. Then I tried to concentrate on the sound of the waves between the drunken cackles. And it worked, I actually was able to fall asleep without trying to call the Chilean police to complain.
7. Sunsets are amazing
The sun sets here at 8:15. Every night at 7:55 we drop everything we’re doing, walk down to the water and watch the sunset. Several days we’ve been lazy and thought, “should we bother?” but we always go down and are always glad we did. I’m hoping to continue this even after we leave the beach. We don’t need to see the sun drop into the ocean to appreciate it. The sun does go down every single day. Even on cloudy days, the change from light to dark is pretty cool. I hope to be able to take 15 minutes out of every day to appreciate it.
8. When you live near sand, you take it home with you.
Not sure why this is a surprise, but there is sand everywhere in our tiny apartment. No matter how hard I try to clean off before coming in, sand comes with me. No matter how much I sweep up every day, it is everywhere. I honestly don’t know how any is left on the beach if everyone is tracking this much in with them.
9. Cloudy days are still beautiful – and make me miss Seattle
Most mornings we wake up to clouds. The silvery water and fog covered mountains in the distance remind me of Seattle and the San Juan islands. And it makes me miss it. And I think that is a good thing.
10. Sea mist is great unless you’re trying to dry clothes
I love that sea mist that blows off the ocean and cools everything down. But, it makes it really hard to dry anything. I have a laundry obsession. When we got here, I couldn’t relax until I had a way to dry clothes. Jeff had to go out buy rope and fashion a clothes line for me, just to get me to calm down. The clothes line is very functional, but the sea air is not cooperating.
11. I could get used to this.
We’re leaving tomorrow to go to Mendoza, Argentina. I am pretty sure Mendoza will be amazing, but at the same time, I’m going to miss the ocean.
It’s always the unexpected change in plans that are the best part of travel. It’s so common it sounds like a cliche.
Our plan was to visit a giant cross. Every night in La Serena, we go down to the beach and watch the sun set behind a giant cross up on a hill. Every night we say, “We really should go over and check out that cross.”
Our guidebook explains that it is the Cruz del Tercer Milenio in the nearby town of Coquimbo. Our guidebook also says it’s open until 10:00pm every night.
Let's go check it out.
So, last night we drove over to check out the cross. Coquimbo is a port town built into the hills. It was only a few minutes away by car, but it had a completely different feel than La Serena.
After driving through town, out of town, and up a hill, then walking several blocks we found the cross to be closed.
Cross closes at 6:30
So, we did the next best thing, or maybe something even better. We walked around town. Maybe it was the time of day, or just the town, but there was such a peaceful feel to the streets. Kids talked to us, dogs stared at us, and adults smiled when we walked by.
I love taking photos of houses and doors. It was almost like the dogs were purposely posing for me. A few cats and kids were also ready for a closeup.
The cats were cute too.
This little girls was especially adorable as well.
If we had planned to take dog photos in Coquimbo I’m sure either they wouldn’t have been out, or they would have run away or something. Sometimes you can’t plan it, you just have to let it happen.
We also ran into this group of kids who asked us our names. Jeff they could handle but Sheryl was not only impossible for them to say, it was hysterically funny to them.
When our landlord talked to us Thursday night I heard, “blah blah blah BBQ blah blah blah Sunday.” Jeff, who actually speaks Spanish heard, “What are you doing Sunday, I’m having a BBQ, why don’t you come.” I can’t help but worry about everything. What if he misunderstood? What if she really said, “Hey, I’m having a BBQ on Sunday. Can you please bring your drying laundry inside and keep your obnoxious North American voices down.”
We sat down and were showered with food. First it was chicken and salads. 
Next was ribs and chorizo sausage. 
Then came pork and more meat. As food was ready off the grill it was like a meat auction. Mario, the asador (griller) would take something off the grill, hold it up. “Chorizo? Chorizo?” Then if you wanted it you’d hold up your plate. I tried to pace myself in order to have enough room to try everything. It was all so good, it was hard not to just keep eating.
I was concerned that we would be served something really weird that I wouldn’t be able to eat. But, the most unusual thing I saw was a glass of malbac wine, ice, and diet coke. 
My favorite part of the day was when they toasted with “to family” It made me miss my own family. But, as I clinked glasses with our new Argentinian friends I was thankful that they included us in their family for the afternoon.
