Mendoza and Organic Farming

On November 5th I headed to Mendoza because it was the only bus that left at the time I was at the bus terminal. I ended up arriving at the terminal and asked about hiking, but realized nothing was extremely nearby, and I didn´t feel like getting on another bus at that moment. I did end up seeing a girl that looked like a hiker due to a big bag, hiking boots, and a sleeping bag. We ended up heading into to town to find a hostel. Her name was Sara, and she was from Italy. We hung out for several days, generally walking around Mendoza and eating a lot of excellent ice-cream. On the first day, we decided to eat a steak and have some wine. On the way there, we ran into some cool kids break dancing, and organized a meeting with them the next day. The steak was delicious, as was the wine mainly because Mendoza is known for their wine. After a Flan, we ended up walking back to the hostel. The following morning was excellent, as we chilled for a long breakfast with the hostel owner, and drank Mate ( an Argentine tea) and just talked about all sorts of stuff. I really enjoyed the family that ran the hostel, and it felt good not having any sort of plan. The morning started with ice-cream, several I believe, and a cool market. We ended up walking around to a large park with a lake, and I also played pool with 3 guys in a pool hall that were really nice. It was a guy who used to be the coach of a 20 year old who now plays soccer in Sweden for Colmar, and a young kid who was going to be playing soccer in Spain on a junior team. During the day, I also ran into a protest about a mine that was going to be started in the region. It was a group of people protesting the poor water that would likely result, and it turns out they were Organic Farmers. After talking a bit, we decided to go volunteer with them for a few days, starting the following day.

That evening, I met with the break dancers and they gave me a lesson. They were quite incredible, better than gymnasts in my opinion. They could do one handed hand stands while moving their legs around and all sorts of other exercises. After a bit of lesson, which I will have to continue on my own, we went to play pool, and then went to eat all you can eat Asada and had a bit of beer. After that, we went to the casino and I taught them about Craps and BlackJack, but made it clear they were both waste of money. After that, it was near 1:30, and they proceeded to walk home (almost 2 hours) because no buses existed at that hour. It was a great time. The following day started with breakfast with the hostel owner again, and then with more ice-cream and a lesson on juggling. I just asked some street artists to teach me how to juggle with the things that look like bowling pins. It took some time, and I bruised up my hands pretty good, but I ended up sort of getting the hang of it.

Finally we headed to the farm, which was in Tunuyan, about an hour south. We first stopped and got a bunch of random vegetarian food at a restaurant they sold to. It was really good, and I proceeded to eat noting but vegetarian for the following 3 days because I forgot my salami and cheese at the hostel. Anyway, that evening we arrived and pretty much immediately received hoes to but a bunch of weeds. It was good working a bit, and the owner liked to talk and explain what was going on. I learned they had the farm for 10 years, but were frustrated at first because they didn´t have experience. He sort of talked me out of my Colombian farm idea, but said I only needed a bit of experience first. That night we had really good food, with some sort of egg dish mixed with green stuff. I slept like a baby, after having a bottle of wine (I bought 4 in Mendoza). The following morning we had a flour crepe with dulce de Leche. Also, on this random farm, I ran into a girl named Eloise from France-Scotland who I saw in Peru. Pretty random. Anyway, the owner was also a yoga instructor, and we did yoga that afternoon, after starting the morning with a shovel manuyally tilling a lot of soil. The afternoons were great because they also had adorable kids who loved to play, and we would go bathe in the freezing cold river, which was also quite invigorating. We then had a huge lunch, and I had the afternoon off by accident because I had to buy a bus ticket and then we bought fruit, ran errands, etc... It was a great afternoon, because the work is actually really hard. My last day there I also had good luck. I was weeding so we could plant potatoes, tomatoes, etc.. and in the afternoon, they wanted to show me the other farm which is more advanced at the moment. We were supposed to move rocks, but once again, errands got inthe way. In any case, I ended up catching a bus that night, and woke up to another sunset and beautiful scenery. round 3pm, I arrived in Bariloche