Travel highlights!

I haven't been keeping up on my blog the past few weeks so this will be a long one!! Here are some topic titles so you can pick and choose what to read...

1) Where we've been
2) Eye of the Hurricane
3) Amaicha: La Pachamama and God
4) Angastaco: Marcelino's homemade wine
5) Tilcara: Oranges Paraguay-style
6) Random

1) Where we've been
For those of you following me on a map, we went from Buenos Aires to: Córdoba, Villa General Belgrano, Embalse Rio Tercero, Tafi del Valle, Amaicha/Quilmes, Angastaco, Cachi, Cafayate, Purmamarca, Tilcara (now) and then to Santiago, Chile on Wednesday night.

2) EYE OF THE HURRICANE
After climbing mountains in the sun all day, Katie and I sat, exhausted, to take a late merienda (afternoon tea). Katie looked at me and said, "I feel like I'm in the eye of a hurricane. Like everything is chaos emotionally around me, but where I am, everything is so still that it's creepy. And I know that chaos is coming." I'm there, too. I'm stuck inbetween wanting to be alone and with people, wanting to be home in BA and home in Carbondale, wanting to be known and wanting to hide... Ohhh, transitions... Yes, chaos is coming, but I know that where I am is good -- in that it's another chance to form a new life that fits the person I've become in the past six months.

3) AMAICHA: La Pachamama and God
In Amaicha we visited the Quilmes ruins, a pueblo from 900 CE -1667 CE where the native people resisted the Spanish for 130 years by literally living on the side of a mountain(completely impressive). Sebastián, our guide, is a native of the area and also explained to us his belief (and that of the people of Quilmes) of the La Pachamama - "Mother Earth." The people draw their energy from what they have: the sun, the land, and what the earth gives them. Since talking with him, this beautiful spirituality has deeply impacted me. So often I look to the future or to something man-made or to memories to give me energy and life, when if I draw energy and life from what is present and what I have, perhaps I too could carry the grace, calm and peace that Sebastian carries. Also, the idea of the La Pachamama has allowed me to meet a part of God that I haven't before, and once again I was struck by how I can't define Him, I can't box Him in, and He's so much more than I can imagine...

4) ANGASTACO: Marcelino's homemade wine
While in Cafayate, we met a guy who said, "You should go visit my friend Marcelino. He has a farm outside the village of Angastaco and a little vineyard. It's super tranquil." He wrote "Marcelino. La Escondida." on a scrap piece of paper and off we went to find this hidden vineyard. We arrived in the middle of NOWHERE at this 70 year old man's humble house, and immediately pulled up chairs to help him pull the stems from raisins. We borrowed the neighbor's horse, and I rode without a saddle behind Katie through all the vineyards... my first time on a horse. Good times. I kept saying, "Katie, are you SURE you've ridden before??" It was beautiful to fall into a house and be so welcomed, and it was so fun to see what life in a TINY pueblo is like.

5) TILCARA: Oranges Paraguay-style
Yesterday we landed in Tilcara, a small pueblo surrounded by mtns. We quickly befriended (or he befriended us) Miguel, a 37 yr. old Paraguayan who has lived in Tilcara for the past 3 months. He is super out-going and immediately said, "Meet me in the plaza in an hour to take a hike and then take mate." We spent the rest of our time in Tilcara with him -- drinking mate, talking about life and culture, laughing, and getting to know tons of locals through him. Both nights in Tilcara, we went to this Peña (live folklore music) and hung out with the musicians, one of whom is 74 and has ridden a bike from Ushuia (southern most city in the world) to Alaska. He is one crazy Argentine. All the tourists were like, "Who ARE these northamerican girls that get shout-outs from these old men musicians and know the owner of the restaurant?" haha. Yesterday Miguel came with us for an 8 hour day of hiking, and at one point while chilling in the sun in front of a waterfall, he taught us to peel oranges paraguayan-style. (Man! I have so many more skills now! haha)

6) RANDOM
We traveled for a week with 3 super fun and chill Argentine girls we met... From Angastaco to Cachi we hitch-hiked in two different pickup trucks through the mountains (shh! don't tell my mom! haha)... I am ridiculously addicted to hiking mountains; I want a mtn. in my backyard that changes form each day so I can hike whenever I want... I day-dream of sleeping under blankets of llama wool... Llama meat is super tasty (yep, look at my resourcefulness! - wool, meat - haha)... I wasn't a huge beer fan - until I tried artesanal beer in Gen. Belgrano -- cerveza roja? I'm in... In Purmamarca we climbed these cerros (smaller mtns.) that had so many colors that the ground was like a rainbow. We counted 9 colors from violet to yellow to green to pink... In Amaicha we hung out at a peña in the Bar on the Corner (original, huh?) and Katie and I were the only girls who knew how to dance folklore! We put the argentines to shame, dancing their native dance... AND life is good. How I love random adventures like this...

It snowed in Buenos Aires yesterday. For the first time since 1918.

It was beautiful snow, too: fluffy, big snowflakes that my sister and I caught on our tongues, shrieking with delight and dancing. People leaned out of apartment building windows to feel the snow; camera flashes lit up other windows as people attempted to document the first white sky in almost ninety years. My porteña mom and my sisters giggled and ran up to our terrace to see the sky, and an argentine friend repeated all night, "Beyond imagination..." It was beautiful. And so fun to see all of the excitement...

I have officially left Buenos Aires... es medio raro... de hecho, es muy raro... (it's kinda strange... actually, it's really strange...) I'm a mess of emotions and thoughts and memories and hopes and regrets and... a mess. But the past week was wonderful: I accomplished all the important things on my list, and had an amazing time with my family in the campo this past weekend = countless games of UNO, argentine tag and hide 'n go seek, homemade popcorn, movies, tea, laughter until tears, fireplaces and hugs...

Random things: In Argentina, Daffy Duck is called Pato Lucas. I still die of laughter each time someone says that. I have an illegal middle name according to Argentine standards (there's a list of legal names). My goal of next winter is to learn how to ice skate backwards. This whole concept of consciously falling in love with a city that I know I will leave still confounds me. Even Argentines are astounded by my lack of American movie knowledge. (That's awful.) The only way I can live in a city my whole life is if I have a campo. When I'm tired or cry, my eyes get greener... the two together make for super-green-Megan eyes.

The end. (haha)

Peacein´ out of the BA...

To do list before Monday (when I leave BsAs):

--practice the four folklore dances I just learned
--go to a milonga of tango electronica (like techno tango music!)
--see my dreaded bandoneon player with La orquestra típica Fernandez Fierro
--dance party with my sisters
--red wine with family friend to charlar de history, politics, social activism and his life
--tomar cafe in Café de las Madres
--watch my little sisters' hiphop dance class
--buy red wine and dulce de leche
--rent and watch 2-3 Argentine films, one of which is Los Rubios
--buy lunfardo dictionary (underground, evolving slang of BsAs)
--learn to cook a few more peruvian dishes with Reina
--go for a long run through BsAs's incredible public space
--buy political and literary magazines
--say goodbye to the fruit men, Jose at the locutorio, my laundry lady, and my sister's best friend Martu
--watch Katie sing/play with folklore artists Sunday night
--hang out with mis amigos argentinos una vez más
--say goodbye WELL to my family Monday morning
--challenge myself to live as much as possible, as well as possible, and on as little amount of sleep possible until Monday.

Y... va! (And... go!)

Una ciudad en un pueblo

While BsAs is definitely a modern city, I have these moments when it seems that buildings and air pollution and public transportation just fell into a little pueblo and caught it off guard. Life is extrememly neighborhood based, and relationships are así (thus/like that). I buy groceries, fruit and vegetables, bread, pasta, calling cards, go to the gym, fix my shoes, visit the laundress, and rent movies all within two small blocks of my house. Betty at the movie rental sends her son to pick up my movie after I finish it. Miguel carries the produce to our door. The cafe on the corner buys its bread from the panadería one block away, and the man carries it on his head in a basket. Random días the man on the opposite corner is selling brooms from the sidewalk, and at 9am and 4pm the street is filled with parents who walked to the school to walk their children home. The empanada place on my corner knows which types and how many I like, and I buy ice cream from Willie's Window. Even in the busiest part of the city, old men ride bicycles with baskets of steaming bread to bring it to their cafés, and friends yell across the streets at each other. And this feeling is one that I will miss tons...