Adventure til the end!

I’m making my way home now.  It’s hard to believe that in about 24 hours, I’m going back to the “real world”  It’s been an experience more than I could have imagined and it’s hard to believe that 3 weeks have gone by! 

I did everything I set out to do: learn some Spanish, tour some wineries and paraglide (twice!)  There has been plenty more I didn’t set out to do (celebrate American thanksgiving in Santiago, reach nearly to the peak of some of the Andes, hot springs, great dinners and meeting great people.

It seems that for most of us 2009 hasn’t been easy.  After going thru the emotions of the divorce, going to Asia for work 3 times in 6 months and many other ups and downs this year has brought, I’m extremely grateful that I was able to close out (or nearly close out) 2009 on such a high note.

This trip was meant for me to celebrate the fact I’ve survived 2009.  I not only survived it, but I thrived.  And in order to make sure I’ll remember this great feeling, I got a tattoo.  That’s right.  4 hours before my journey home, I went to a tattoo studio and got permanently engraved!  There were a whole lot of charades involved (the extent of my Spanish doesn’t cover things like “needles” or “font”) and time was tight.  But Mauro, the Argentinean tattoo artist did a great job and with minutes to spare I headed to the airport.  What’s the tattoo? it’s the saying “What doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger.” it’s the motto I’ve lived by and will continue to live by.  Pretty appropriate.  And every time I look at it, I want to remember my great South American adventure and how relaxed and happy I was the day I got it!

 

What does not kill me, makes me stronger.

Posada Cavieres

When I travel, one of the things I hate most is generic hotel rooms.  To me, they’re so bland and boring and you may as well be in any city in the world.  So when I travel, I seek out (ok, obsessively research!) unique places that are affordable.

So far (knock on wood) I’ve stayed at some amazing places in Thailand and Costa Rica. 

In Argentina, the cool unique place turned out to be Posada Cavieres.  It’s near Mendoza in the Maipu Valley and is 100% relaxation.  The posada has 3 rooms and behind is are vineyards and olive groves and a whole lot of birds singing (one of the smallest flaws: they start singing at 5am)

I came here seeking total relaxation and I found it! it’s so amazingly quiet and peaceful here.  They have bikes available and you can tour a bunch of wineries nearby.  And it’s only 20 minutes from the city of Mendoza. 

It’s run by a husband and wife team who are super friendly and who go the extra mile.  Most people seem to only stay here for a night or two as a stopover in Mendoza.  I’ve been here 3 days and am already so relaxed.  I think it’s just what I needed to recharge my battery. aaaahhhhhhh…….

the vineyard behind the Posada

 

                   The front entrance & outdoor dining area

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the front entrance

                The back deck

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Posada’s dog (who reminded me of the sheepdog on the Bugs’ bunny cartoons!)

Termas Cacheuta

Yesterday, I met up with a friend of a good friend of mine and we decided to spend the day at  Termas Cacheuta that a lady had told me about.  The hot springs are about an hour away from Mendoza near the town of Potreillos.

The hot springs are part of this hotel but I have to say, they were by far the best ones that I had been to!  There were a ton of different pools of all different temperatures.  The pools were built of rock and were awesome.  Also incredible, was the view of the canyons and Mendoza river.  Entrance to the Hot springs was about $55cdn for the whole day including lunch.  Over lunch we split a bottle of Malbec.  A bottle of organic reserve Malbec at the restaurant was about $10cdn!  After our filling lunch and wine, a siesta was in order.  I can’t believe I managed to fill a full day of relaxing.  I was so busy relaxing I didn’t even get to the cool grotto sauna thing or read my book.  The biggest stress of the day was deciding whether we should lather up with mud or which tub to sit in.  I love it.  I can’t believe I’m FINALLY relaxing…

the view from one of the tubs

       

the rock footbath/massage thing to walk thru and an indoor tub

 

 

 

 

 

 

the view in one of the tubs

Running off the side of a mountain

Have you ever stood at the edge of a building or a mountain and thought to yourself “geez, I wonder what would happen if I jumped off right now?”  Most normal people would probably answer “hell, NO!” but then again, I’m not normal.  I love heights and I love speed.  The ultimate adrenaline junkie!  I’ve jumped out of a plane before and was hoping it would cure me of my need for speed and heights.  However, since that time, I’ve just wanted more!

So, when I found out that in Mendoza, there is paragliding, I jumped (pardon the pun) at the chance.  Because as if traveling thru South America as a single female alone isn’t adventurous enough, I thought, why not jump off the side of a mountain for a little more excitement.

Aside from skydiving, it was one of the more exciting things that I’ve done.  Unlike skydiving, there is no freefall but it’s one of the more amazing experiences I’ve ever had.  700m above the city, you run off the side of a mountain and float up another couple hundred metres.  From there you soar above the amazing landscape like an eagle.  It was so amazing and peaceful, I’m hooked. 

The launching point

 

me, geared up who knew? a backpack with a built in seat!

 

 

another pilot taking off

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only thing saving me from crashing to the ground!

The amazing view!

the landing circle

The edge of the world part II

Last week, I thought I found the edge of the world in Chile.  It was at 10,000ft elevation and there were hot springs.  This week, I found the other side of the edge of the world: the Argentinean side.  The host of the amazing posada I’m staying at (more to come on that) took us up to past the Uco valley, past Tucuyan up into the Andes.  Technically, you could cross the border into Chile into the very same hot springs I was at last week.  But only by mule and only for one or two months a year. 

Today’s experience was so amazing.  No organized tour would go here.  It was 30C in the valley today and about –5C at 4000m elevation.  You can see from the pictures that this isn’t your every day adventure.  Even more amazing, was at the end of the day, we met up with a group of horse back riders and got to be part of their asada (amazing bbq) inside a hut at about 2500m elevation. 

A real live gaucho in the Uco valley

  The road that we drove up

Our car (look at the boulder!)

This bus broke down and never made it out!

 

 

Snow?

behind the horse is the hut that we ate in

American Thanksgiving in Chile

The other day at school, one of the girls invited me to dinner.  Specifically, American Thanksgiving.  She was friends with an American guy in Santiago for work and being Dutch, she never experienced Thanksgiving.  So, her and I set out to make a Thanksgiving dinner with Chilean ingredients.  There was a lot of compromising to be made…

We called our adventure, Iron Chef Santiago.  Instead of a turkey, we settled for a chicken.  Stuffing wasn’t a problem, however, the spices (thyme, sage, etc…) were.  The American’s apartment only had salt.  One of his co-workers had garam masala at his place, so garam masala is what we seasoned it with.

Yams, not a problem.  The mashed yams with brown sugar and nuts still turned out great (but with walnuts cause there’s no pecans here)

Gravy and cranberries were impossible. No hope.

The pumpkin pie was an adventure in itself.  I went to the Mercado Central which is quite possibly one of the biggest fruit and vegetable markets in the world and bought something that resembles a pumpkin.  Pie crust? Another huge challenge.  I normally would have made pie crust from scratch but didn’t have the time and the kitchen of my homestay is the size of a closest.  But a metro, bus and 20 minute walk (each way) got me to this massive grocery store that sold pre-made pie crusts. (Santiago has a shortage of grocery stores)

So, in the end, I celebrated American Thanksgiving in Chile, on a rooftop overlooking Cerro San Cristobal with an American, 2 Brazilians and a Dutch girl.  For 3 of them, it was their first Thanksgiving ever, it was my first eating Thanksgiving dinner outside, on a rooftop and with a spoon (we had a shortage of forks…)

Ear Tampons?

I really had no idea how hard school for 5 hours a day in a foreign language in a foreign country would be.  I’d rather be at the office for double the amount of time, it’s sooooo much easier!

That being said, it’s amazing how much Spanish I’ve learned! If you’re going to learn a foreign language, this is definitely the way to do it!  Immerse yourself in the language and culture for a finite amount of time, and you’re guaranteed to come out with SOME language skills!

Having to constantly think about what you’re going to say, how you’re going to say it and make sure you conjugate those damn verbs correctly is hard work.  And for someone like me who doesn’t stop talking, it’s downright exhausting.  It’s gotten so bad, I’ve started to dream in Spanish!

It’s gotten so bad for all of us at school, that 3 of us have an informal “club” at lunch where we go speak English just to give our brains a break. 

All that being said, it’s been a great experience.  Because I speak French, it hasn’t been as hard for me as the others.  The other day, the teacher even suggested bumping me up to the next level for the last few days (not that I’m bragging! half the time I just make a wild guess in French and part of the time I’m right!)

I’m having to resort to charades in public less and less.  Today, I even went to the local Laundromat and had a charade-less conversation.  Yesterday, however, was another story.

I haven’t been sleeping very well in Santiago.  Chileans don’t seem to sleep very much! No one seems to go to bed before 2am.  So last night, I set out to buy ear plugs to have a good night’s sleep. 

I went to the nearest pharmacy.  Except for some basics (soap, shavers, etc…) everything else is behind the counter.  I went to 3 different pharmacies hoping one would have ear plugs on display: they didn’t.

So I braved going to the counter and knew this conversation was going to have to involve charades.  I walked up to the counter and used some basic sentences and started pretending to stuff my ear.  The pharmacist’s first guess was cotton balls.  Nope, try again.  Then, as if she won the lottery said “ah, ah, ah, Tampones!!!!!!”  I thought to myself that wasn’t exactly the hole I wanted to fill…. she popped back up with a selection of “tampones” “tampones de oido” specifically.  That’s right, ear plugs = ear tampons.   I suppose it serves the same purpose but I couldn’t stop laughing all the way home.  I am the proud owner of a pair of ear tampons.  And ear tampons is what they shall be referred to forevermore.