Don't Cry For Me Argentina

I figured I couldn’t leave Argentina without a quote from Evita, so there it is, stuck in the title.

We’re currently holed up in a small town south of Mendoza called San Rafael. I’m really glad that we came here because it’s not a very touristy town and I feel like we’re getting to see just a regular town… plus its super cheap. We found out about this place through our 4x4 guide in Ushuaia; he grew up in San Rafael. There are about 100,000 people here and it’s still warm (it was getting cold down south). They are known for their rafting and their bodegas (wineries).

Because we’re in a regular town, we decided it was a good place to go bowling. Actually, we just kind of stumbled on the bowling alley. It was about 5 lanes and attached to a movie theatre. Inside the bowling area there were also pool tables and air hockey and foos ball. Everything was pretty run down and Chris and I were the only people in there not born in the 1990’s, but we were also the only people allowed to drink beer while bowling, so there! Chris wanted me to make sure to mention that he beat me in both games of bowling and in our one game of air hockey. He rules, I suck. Blah blah blah.

Today, we rented bikes to ride to some of the bodegas. The first one had a tour starting up so we walked through a 30 minute tour completely in Spanish. Anytime our guide mentioned a number or type of wine or food, I understood, but for the most part, I had no idea what was going on. The tour guide was really nice and while we tasted some of their wine (all of this was free, by the way) he gave us the condensed English version of the tour. Turns out, we were at the oldest winery in the area, some people from France settled there in the 1860’s, and they also started up the town of San Rafael which quickly filled up with other immigrants from Europe. I bought a bottle of white wine for approx. $3.33 and we rode off to another bodega.

It’s interesting because these wineries are all pretty small so most of the wine never makes it out of the state, or the city. We took a wrong turn, and ended up at a really small bodega. One guy was standing outside and he took us into the fermentation and bottling area. He also did the tour in Spanish and spoke no English, so I really have no idea what was going on there. He did say it was a family run business and there were only 6 people who worked there. They’ve had the winery since 1933. While we were walking through the place, there were big open vats of wine fermenting, slippery small steps, low metal beams, and junk lying all over the place. Chris figured OSHA would have a field day in that place. The guide took us to try whatever wine we wanted, so we tried a Malbec (red), some type of white, and then a dessert wine. We bought the dessert wine for about $3.33 and rode off.

So that was our morning, and we wanted to visit more bodegas but we are in the land of the siesta, and everything closes from about 1 to 4:30ish. We stopped for lunch and then tried to return our bikes around 3:30 but they were also having siesta time so we had to wait until 5. Chris was upset because we had to pay for the time they were having siesta, and this cost us about $4 extra… it’s the principle of it.

Tomorrow, we hope to catch a city bus that will take us to the rafting area. Apparently, this is a big place for rafting. Easter is a big travel time for everyone here and this town (and every other town) is packed with tourists and travelers from around Argentina and the rest of South America. We had a really hard time getting a place to stay so we hope we can get a boat for rafting as well.

On Saturday at 4AM (!!!) we have a bus to catch to Mendoza, and then we change buses and head to Santiago, Chile. We start Spanish school on Monday and are living with one of the teachers and his family. Hopefully they’re normal.