I'm learning to sleep on buses.

If you are uninterested in panoramic shots of various different landforms, please, skip my next few postings. I am in the middle of a travel extravaganza, and so I probably won't be able to refrain from posting lots of pictures with sky, clouds, trees, rocks and bits of Mother Earth. Just Monday morning I arrived back to Buenos Aires from a weekend trip to San Rafael, Mendoza and this evening I am headed out for another long bus ride to Iguazú Falls to the north in the province of Misiones which shares a border with Brazil. The following weekend I will finally get to travel somewhere in less than twelve hours, and I will be going by plane to Salta and Jujuy, also in the north of the country, but more west as well. It's gonna be a crazy few weeks, and I hope to have a few good stories and a million good pictures and memories by the end.  

The province of Mendoza, where I was this past weekend, is almost directly to the west of Buenos Aires, and shares a border with Chile. It is also known as wine country of Argentina. I was on a trip through my program, CIEE, which had its pros and cons. It was definitely to have everything taken care of by other people. Our lodging, food, activities, transportation - everything. All I had to do was really show up at the bus station with enough clothes to stay warm during the weekend and the rest would be provided. What was not so nice about traveling with the program was the fact that I was traveling with about 60 other American college students. I won't even explain why this is an issue, because I'm sure you can imagine everything that goes along with such a situation. In the end it turned out to be a very fun, relaxing trip, but I don't know if I really felt like I got to know Mendoza because we were such an insular little group.

What I can say is that Mendoza is absolutely beautiful. While I can't say there were many things I liked about the twelve hour bus ride we took to get there (you can see the shadow of our enormous micro in the first photo below) it is a great way to see the land. If I had flown there I definitely wouldn't have gotten to see all the beautiful trees, plains and mountains along the way. Once we were out of the plains and into the valleys it actually reminded me a bit of Colorado. And then I saw all the tourist attractions offering horseback riding and white-water rafting and it reminded me even more of Colorado. We stayed in a very nice hotel with small cabañas on the banks of the river. We slept a lot, ate a lot, and of course got out to see the scenery around us. The first day there we took a hike through a small valley/canyon and saw the system that transports the mineral water from the mountains down to the town for bottling and then distribution. I must say that these trails didn't feel quite as safe as the trails I'm used to that are maintained by some sort of mountaineering crew. Nope, these trails were full of loose rocks, branches blocking the path, and lots of other potentially hazardous elements. Nobody got hurt though and it made me think a little bit more about the American way of doing things in comparison with life down here. Are we too cautious, too organized, too structured? These are the types of questions that you study abroad for!

So after a bit of outdoorsiness (which is definitely not a word, I know) on the first day, the next day we visited two vineyards. The first was my favorite. It was a small family operated vineyard called Rubio. We also visited a larger, also family owned, but more commercial vineyard called Bianchi. We went on a tour where they explained the fermentation process of red wine, white wine, and champage, and showed us the facilities. It was very interesting but I preferred the smaller, dirtier, homier Rubio vineyard. In addition to being a vineyard, Rubio also specialize in dried fruits,  jams, olives and olive oil, and other such delicacies. I took some pictures of the fruit drying in its special wooden drying trays, jars of mermelada de zapallo freshly made that morning, and jamón hanging from the ceiling. My favorite part were the farm animals. Enormous pigs, baby pigs, chickens and roosters, dogs and llamas. And all of the animals basically had free reign of the farm. Except for the llama, he (or she) had to stay in her cage. Also, check out all of the leaves on the ground! It is finally feeling, and looking, like Autumn around here. The temperature has definitely dropped, leaves are dropping as well, and I actually don't mind, but probably only because I know that we aren't heading towards temperatures in the teens in addition to a nasty windchill. This is indeed comforting.

Our final day in Mendoza we went outdoors some more. Some kids went rappelling down rocks and others flew across rivers on zip lines . I chose to do zip line and it was pretty fun. The best part was the group of older couples that was hanging out on the bank of the river. They were very entertained by our antics, taking photos and asking us if we were having fun, which in fact, we were. Rounding out the trip was an evening bonfire, complete with the Argentine version of smores, and skits that mocked American and Argentina stereotypes. There were a few soccer games on the basketball court. And there also was a small kitten we found roaming around the grounds of the hotel. We named her Medialuna after the popular Argentine croissant because she liked to curl up just like one. She hung around with us for a while and then scampered back into the bushes. 

It was a long ride back to the city, but I was glad to be back. Like any trip, while you are gone, you miss things that you never thought you would. You realize a million things in your everyday life you take for granted, and you promise to take advantage of all the wonderful opportunities in the city as soon as you get back. I'm excited to go to Iguazu and Salta in these next couple of weeks, but I also can't wait to be back in Buenos Aires for more than three days and make good on my promise to the city. 

Malos Aires

A running joke here is that Buenos Aires (literally translated as "Good Airs") is a real misnomer and that the city should be called Malos Aires ("Bad Airs") instead. Between the cars, the buses, the smokers, and the rest of the polluting entities that go hand in hand with any large city, it's true - the air really isn't that great. However in the past few days it has gotten nearly unbearable. A smog has settled on the city and it does not seem to be going anywhere. It is stinky and makes my eyes slightly irritated and I imagine if I had particularly bad allergies or asthma, I would be in even worse shape. I thought that I would get used to the smell after a while, because that's usually what happens with noxious odors, but unfortunately such has not been that case. It's now the fourth day (for me anyway) of living in the smoggy air and I have yet to adjust. I am blowing my nose and rubbing my eyes as we speak, trying to avoid breathing through my nose and having to smell the odor.

Photos Courtesy LANACION.com, Copyright 2008 All Rights Reserved

I am getting ahead of myself though. Let me explain what is actually going on and where all this smog, or humo, is coming from. Apparently at the delta of the Rio Paraná, located in the interior of the province of Buenos Aires, the farmers decided to burn the livestock pastures to renew them. Other reports say that the pastures were being burned to renew and prepare for new crops of soybeans. In either case, these are fires that were started deliberately, but carelessly and without the right technique, equipment, etc. and now the fires are out of control (so the government admitted publicly yesterday). Anyway, newspapers say that the smog itself is really more of an annoyance than an actual health concern. However the smog is causing larger problems as far as travelers are concerned. More than a few major highways have been shut down because the low visibility accompanying the smog has led to large car accidents. Additionally, many of the bus lines that go to the outer provinces are not running, and flights from the domestic airport are limited. Of course the government and farmers are throwing the blame every which way, firefighters have been photographed hilariously carrying a single bucket of water, and the porteños complain that the smog wakes them up with its stink in the middle of the night. The Secretary of the Environment and Sustainable Development of Argentina says that only a climate change (wind, rain, etc.) will extinguish the fires. I personally will be my crossing my fingers for something, anything to chase away the smog. And after this, I will not be complaining a bit about a few smokers and some car emissions. 

Meat and Movies

One of the first things that most people told me when I would tell them that I was going to be studying abroad in Buenos Aires was that I had better prepare myself to eat a ton of delicious steak. And up until a few weeks ago, I was eating lots of delicious carne. My host mom would make meat for dinner at least three times a week and ordering a steak at a restaurant, a delicious steak, would really only run you about 5 dollars. No such luck anymore. The President, Cristina, who is also the former First Lady (her husband Nestor Kirchner, was President before her), has run into big problems in her first 100 days in office. I’m not very good at all of this economy, importing, exporting, etc. stuff, but I will try my best to explain what is going on. Argentina has a huge export economy, supplying soybeans and other crops to many countries around the world. To protect the economy, supposedly, Cristina raised the export tax to 45%, which significantly cuts into the profits of the farmers. Clearly, they are not happy about this. And so, they decided to stop delivering meat and some other food items, but mostly meat, to Buenos Aires.  Since this was probably a less than satisfactory explanation, I will direct you to some more reputable news sources in case you want to learn more. Check out the New York Times and the BBC.

Within days the meat counters at grocery stores and carnicerias were empty save for some chicken, restaurants posted signs that informing customers that certain items were unavailable, due to the situation that everyone is aware of, and what meat could be found was much more expensive than usual. Cristina refused to negotiate with the farmers under such conditions. There were huge demonstrations at the Plaza de Mayo in front of the Casa Rosada, the Argentina White House, and for the first time in what have been many years, the people took to the streets in cazerolazas, a particular type of protest where everyone bangs pots and pans from the balconies, in their cars, out the window, etc. I really wasn’t sure what was going on that first night, but it was crazy. 

One of the most interesting things about this particular issue was that that middle class of the urban areas was siding with the agrarian, working class of the interior. Everyone I spoke to was definitely against Cristina’s crazy idea. However, after a few weeks, even though the Economist predicted it could be two months, the farmers agreed to stop the paro of carne for thirty days to negotiate with the President and see if they couldn’t come up with a better agreement. The meat counters are slowly filling up again, but people are also stocking up, worried that Cristina and the farmers won’t come to any agreement and there won’t be meat again soon. It's a very interesting time to be here!

In other news, I told my mom on the phone yesterday that I’m afraid Buenos Aires is making me soft. I used to be able to just go and go and go. A normal day in New York usually included babysitting and/or interning, going to one or two classes, going to the gym, and then of course doing a few hours of homework. As I’m sure you have been gathering just one of those activities would probably be enough to fill up a day here in BsAs, and I am afraid that when I get back to New York I will have been spoiled by this leisurely schedule and not be able to do all the things I used to. For example, just so you truly understand how lazy it has become, yesterday I went to one class in the morning, my afternoon class was canceled, and so I took a three-hour nap. I know, I hate me too. You aren’t alone. It’s actually sort of driving me crazy. I am trying to get myself to relax and tell myself that I deserve a break, but I definitely wish I had more to do sometimes. Maybe once I have been in classes longer I will have more to do. In the meantime I am trying to find other activities to fill the days so I can at least say I made the most of my free time and didn’t just sit in the apartment watching reruns of old Hugh Grant movies… which to be honest is sometimes fairly tempting.

Luckily, starting today, I can sit around and watch movies and still consider myself to be culturally active. It is the first day of BAFICI, the Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente. I think that is what the acronym stands for anyway. We are going to see a movie at the festival for my Nuevo Cine Argentino class. When I’m in New York, I never have the time or energy (I guess because my schedule is so busy) to find out when and where the movies are at the festivals and then actually go get tickets, and then actually go see them. I am taking advantage of the fact that I can while I am here, and so between now and April 20^th, I will be seeing 12 movies! Now some of you might say that is a bit overboard, but I am very excited. I love movies and I am super excited about the ones I am going to see. Some of them have already come out in the US and I just never got around to seeing them, and then some of them I have never heard of, but have been recommended via some well-directed Google searches. I will be going to see:

Mister Lonely

Glastonbury

Cao Sem Dono

Le Voyage de Ballon Rouge

El Cielo, La Tierra, y La Lluvia

Night and Day

Paranoid Park

Una Semana Solos

Boarding Gate

I’m Not There

Historias Extraordinarias

Go Go Tales

It is going to be BAFICI madness here in Buenos Aires. I’ve never done the film festival thing, so I’m not even sure what to expect. I am guessing it will just be like going to see a regular film, but with that warm and fuzzy feeling that comes with being in the know and part of a hip, cultural event. A little like Sundance with a whole lot less snow, schwag, and famous people. All of which frankly, I can do without. My first film is tonight, right after my Borges class at UBA. I am preparing myself already for the craziness.

I am actually fairly excited for this class, because I’ve read all the material and feel like I know what is going on material-wise a bit more than last time. Which I guess isn’t that hard because I hadn’t read anything before the last class. This time, I have read all the stories at least once, and then even done a little extra online research, just to make sure I understand all the ideas Borges throws in there, assuming the reader already knows what he is talking about. This weekend I even went to go see a theatrical production of one of the stories, “La Biblioteca de Babel.” I wasn’t really sure how they were going to stage it, because it is really just a description of a Library, which “some also call the Universe.” It was a short, staged reading, with three actors. One gave a brief biographical introduction on Borges, the other recited the descriptive parts of the story, while a third actor spoke the parts of the story that are more personal, the parts where Borges’ voice and opinions seem to seep into the writing. It was very good show, taking a lighter approach to the text, and as a girl who I went with noted, this made the canonical text (as far as Borges goes) a bit more approachable.

Afterwards my theatergoing companions and I had to good fortune to have found the information of a little Cuban restaurant called Paladar Doña Fela. I use the term restaurant a bit loosely, and mainly because it was a building, where we ate dinner. That’s about where the similarities end however. It is actually what is called a puerta cerrada, or closed door. They are small “restaurants” hosted at the chef’s house for a small ground of reservation-only guests, usually on Friday and Saturday nights. It’s a bit strange, in some ways more formal that a restaurant, and in many ways less formal. We were welcomed into the chef’s house, and sat in the living room, eating some fresh plantain chips, chatting with the other guests of the evening while we watched fresh mojito’s made right in front of us, mint courtesy of their own plants. We were then showed around the house, onto the patio, and the gorgeous rooftop. Afterwards we all sat down for salad and bread, and then afterwards our dinner of Chicken and Moros Cristianos (black beans and rice). It was really great, but the night was only beginning! One of the waitresses turned out to also be the entertainment for the night. So in between dinner and dessert, we were treated to singing and dancing, with everyone joining in after a few songs. Very fun if you ask me, it should be a required part of all meals, if you ask me. The dessert was a delicious combination of flan and tiramisu and followed by a champagne toast. The meal, which began at 10:00, was not over until 1:30 and cost a whopping 30 dollars, including a nicely paired bottle of white wine, shared between my two dinner companions and me. It was really a “dining experience” more than anything else. I can’t wait to try the other ones around the city.

One of these days I promise I am going to have something to write about that doesn’t make it sound like I am on the world’s longest vacation. I promise. Until then, estoy disfrutando de todo,  or, I’m just enjoying it all.