Days 6 & 7 – Mendoza
Feb 15 & 16 our time in Mendoza was winding down. We had a chill-axing day on the 15th, which was good as it had really warmed up – mid to high 30’s and surprisingly humid with no breeze. Today Michael made his famous Montgomery Westerns along with hashbrowns. The plan was to initiate Bauti on the cooking process, but he had been up sick during the night so didn’t get his first lesson. Some of the neighbourhood kids joined us along with Iliana, their mother, who brought fruit and whipping cream to complete the scene with the mandatory Irish Coffees.
She also brought her Mate and taught us the basic etiquette. One person ‘hosts’ the mate and they offer to one person at a time, who drinks it dry. They return it to the host who then refills it and offers it to another and so on. When it is ‘washed’ (no longer providing flavour), the host knocks the top layer off and adds fresh mate. You never take out the bombilla (straw) either. It is very common to have mate get-togethers with family, friends and neighbours where you share a mate and socialize.
One other interesting observation here that both Mike & I made, were the garbage storage bins. First, you need to know that there are lots of dogs here. So on garbage day, the garbage is raised off the ground, often in cages, to protect it from the dogs. In the barrio’s, they are commonly underground out of sight. Many of the storage containers are ornate and a wide variety of materials are used.
We spent the afternoon doing laundry, packing and generally getting ready to depart. Jasmine took me next door to meet her friend, Mariana Tripoli, a visual artist who makes jewelry – obviously a purchase was involved given my obsession with earrings :-)! She even custom made the earrings to match a necklace I loved. Her work involves both felting and metalworking – I adored it.
That evening we headed back into Mendoza but without Marcelo as he was under the weather also with a severe headache. Our first stop was the amazing statue dedicated to San Martin in General San Martin Park. Last year was the 200th year of independence, and Bautista had learned about it extensively in school. There were several new plaques dedicated during the anniversary in addition to the many preexisting ones – some which are clearly rubbed for good luck quite often ;-). The view from the hilltop was wonderful as it took in much of Mendoza, and we managed to catch sunset on the way out. As it was getting dark, we squeezed in the fountain but cut the rest of our visit to the park short and headed for dinner.
We met up with Alice, Marcelo’s brothers wife, and her daughter Anna. The ravioli with mushrooms and sweet potatoes in walnut cream was deadly rich and yummy! I took Hilario for a walk along the strip and he was hilarious (well named!) and captured many smiles. He was enthralled by a live music performance and stood mesmerized. A whole table of young girls fell in love with him and took many photos. Back home, we sat up late chatting with Jasmine for our last night here.
The last morning Mike & Jasmine headed back into Chacras to get some lunch so I stayed with the kids (Jasmine did a kid swap with Iliana so that she could drive us to the airport). Marcelo stopped by from work to say good bye, and the kids understood that we were leaving and wanted lots of hugs and kisses – no screaming Mallo (meanie) or Loco (stupid) tantrums from Hilario this morn.
And so our tour in Mendoza was over…so quick, but so wonderful. Endless thanks to Jasmine and Marcelo for their hospitality – it made the trip so much more special.
