Las Spinsters Storm South America 2010: Part III

I know I've probably completely overwhelmed my blog readers and leeches these past couple of days with all my posting but I feel so good that I'm finally starting to get caught up so I don't really care if everyone's minds are spinning with way too much information about my travel adventures.  

So here's the last part of our little spinster trip to South America.  

From Salta we hopped a 15.5 hour long bus ride (as mentioned in my previous post) and headed to San Juan.  

San Juan was part of my mission, the Mendoza Argentina Mission.  It is made up of the provinces of San Juan, San Luis, and Mendoza, Argentina.  These three provinces are also known as the region of Cuyo.  

So, once we hit San Juan we were in mission territory.  Not only for me but for Corinne too.  That's how we met.  We were first MTC companions and also served together in the Mendoza mission.  

Corinne and I traveled back to Argentina (and to Chile and Uruguay too) back in 2004.  We stayed a lot longer that time and we visited a ton of people and spent time touring around the mission.  

This trip however we didn't have much time at all so we just visited the people we'd kept in contact with the best over the years and tried to track down a few that we'd lost contact with completely. 

Cuyo is a very beautiful part of Argentina (at least as far as I'm concerned).  It has vineyards galore, fields of crops, ranches with gauchos, streams, rivers, lakes, orchards, and the beautiful Andes mountains running along the whole western edge.  

We stopped off in San Juan so I could quickly visit some people I taught while I served there as a missionary as well as a mini-missionary who served with both Corinne and me.  

I am however not posting any pictures of that stop since we had been on a 15.5 hour bus ride before stopping in San Juan and so of course I was extra ugly and I don't like any of the pictures we took that day.  But it was good to stop and visit with a few people there before heading on to Mendoza.  

Mendoza is a beautiful province and the capital of Mendoza, which is also Mendoza, is a beautiful city.  Even the view from the Walmart parking lot seen below, is fantastic.  

Mendoza has a huge city park called Parque San Martin.  Here's a picture of part of the park.  It looks like somewhere in the countryside or something but it's actually right in the middle of the city of Mendoza.  

If I lived in Mendoza you'd always find me at Parque San Martin.  Except at night...I'm a bit afraid of the dark and of scary people in the dark.  

We spent one day in Mendoza with Kate taking her to all our favorite city sites like Walmart, Las Tinajas restaurant to try some typical Cuyo food, and central Mendoza to see some of the beautiful plazas.  And then Kate headed back to the USA.  But, not before we introduced her to Soap on a Stick and I taught her the Soap on the Stick song that I made up while serving as a missionary in Argentina.  

A lot of the public bathrooms in Argentina have what I call Soap on a Stick instead of liquid soap.  It is just what it sounds like...a ball of bar soap on a metal bar that you roll between your hands.  The soap is attached to the little bar so you can't remove it, lest you decide you want to steal a bar of soap from a public bathroom.  

Anyway, Soap on a Stick always freaked me out a bit.  Especially since often there was dirt and hairs and bugs smashed into the soap bar.  I don't know how they even got there since the soap is permanently attached and could not have been dropped.  

Anyway, here's my Soap on the Stick song.  I used to always sing it on the mission while I was rubbing my hands on it.  

"Soap on a Stick,

Soap on a Stick.

If you wanna get sick use Soap on a Stick.

Got a disease?

Share it please, with Soap on a Stick!"

Copyright 2002 by Becca

I can't help but sing it anytime I see Soap on a Stick.

Anyway, here are some pictures I took with some of the people I knew and loved in Argentina.

Maria Jose (on the left) and her wonderful family.  We taught her whole family but Maria Jose was the most receptive and the first to be baptized.  She was 12 when we taught them and attended church for months (usually by herself) before she got baptized.  She was such a great example to her family that about six months after her baptism her dad got baptized and another year later her mom followed.  A year after that they got sealed in the temple.  They are a fantastic little family.  

It was so fun to be able to see Maria Jose now that she's all grown up and to get to hang out with her a bit.  Corinne, Maria Jose, and I went down to Tupungato, an area south of Mendoza where they have lots and lots of vineyards.  We were there during the grape harvest so it was a great time to go.  

Here we are in front of a vineyard.  

We saw all these trucks full of grapes driving down the road so we followed the trucks and ended up at a bodega (place where they make wine).  The driver of the truck hopped out to go into the bodega and I pretended like I was going to get in his truck and drive off with his grapes.  I was just messing around but then he was like, "you can get in," (except in Spanish).  So, I did.  I mean how many chances do you have in life to drive a grape truck?  I couldn't pass it up.  

He thought it was pretty funny that we three girls were just walking around the countryside checking out the grape harvest and so we got talking to him and the other drivers and then the owner of the bodega showed up and invited us in for a tour.  Luckily none of their wine was done fermenting so we didn't even have to refuse their offer to taste their wine because luckily they didn't have any.  

A lot of people pay to go on winery tours in Mendoza but we got our own for free.  It was great!

A truck with green grapes being weighed in front of the bodega.  

The beautiful harvest.  

We wanted to drive a little bit further out where you can get great pictures of rows and rows of grapevines growing with the Andes towering over them.  So, we called a taxi from the bodega.  Well, the taxi took FOREVER to come (I guess there's only like two taxis or something out in this little town) and so we explained to the taxi driver that we wanted to drive out a little ways to get a few good pictures but that we were in a big hurry because we had to catch our bus back to Mendoza.  We told him what time our bus left and everything and asked him if we'd have time.  

He told us we would and so we got in.  Two seconds later he decides he needs to stop to get gas (even though he still had a quarter tank and we were not going that far at all).  And of course in Argentina you can't actually pump your own gas so we had to wait for an attendant  Then the gas takes so long pumping you'd think they were sucking it out of the earth itself and not just out of a tank.  Then our taxi driver checks his tire pressure and chats for a few minutes with a fellow taxi driver.  

We're in the car stressing but we figured that he knew what time we were leaving and he knew how far out you have to go to get the really good pictures so we just had to trust that he knew what he was doing.  

He gets back in the car and he starts driving and heading out of town (and of course he slows for every dog in the street and stops at yellow lights, or so it seemed) and he says to us, "what time does your bus leave?" So we told him.  And then he's like "oh, well I guess we don't have time now to go out there, sorry."

What the?  What part of we're in a hurry did you not understand when you picked us up???

So we're like "okay then," and we had him drop us back off.  Normally I think I would have been a little mad but he was such a nice guy that I just couldn't get mad at him.  Besides, he probably doesn't see many tourists...especially tourists who want to be quickly driven out of town and back just to see the scenery.  

So, in conclusion, that's why I didn't get any amazing pictures for you.  It was beautiful though...we saw the terrain, but we were on the bus.  

Anyway, back on task.  

Corinne and I went to the mall with some of our Argentine friends.  We got a slightly yucky pizza and went to the movie Alice in Wonderland.  We had such a great time and loved that we got to hang out with some of our favorite Argentines.  

Originally we were planning on going bowling though, so on the way to the mall I said to Maria Jose, "Tenemos que tener calzones para ir a bowling?"  

What I thought I asked was, "do we have to have socks to go bowling?" 

What I actually asked was, "do we have to have underwear to go bowling?"

Maria Jose just looked at me with a confused look on her face (like aren't you already wearing underwear?) and then she realized what I was trying to say and just started laughing. 

I got calzones (underwear) mixed up with calcetines(socks)...I know it's a beginner's mistake, but give me some slack...it's been a long time since I've spoken Spanish, and besides, they both start with the same letter.  

Corinne, me, Lily, and Maria Jose...

Santiago and Corinne

Corinne and I were in neighboring areas for the last three months of our missions and even lived in the same apartment.  So, we got to know a lot of the same people so it is nice because we can both visit some of the same people at the same time.  That was the case with Lily, Santiago, and Maria Jose.

Then we split up for a couple of other days so we could go to our different areas.  I took a bus out to Villa Mercedes to visit a bunch of people and also traveled around Las Heras too (an area within Mendoza).  

Gabriel was one of the youth I knew in Villa Mercedes.  He was so great then and still is.  He is now serving as Bishop of the ward there.  

His little girl is so cute and she really took a liking to me.  

Me with Adolfo.  He was my first baptism and is the funniest little old gaucho guy ever.  He drove a Ford Falcon (which is the same kind as my old car Phyllis) so I had an instant bond with him.  He is hilarious and my comp Hermana Porter and I probably had way too much fun teaching him and his wife.  I remember one time when we were eating lunch at their house and we all got laughing so hard that we started crying...good times.  

I taught Daniela and her friends when they were just 15.  They were such an amazing group of kids.  Her husband is now the Bishop of the other ward in Villa Mercedes.  Both Bishops are so young!

Daniela and her husband and their darling little boy.  

I ran short on time in Villa Mercedes and didn't get to see all the people I wanted to see but luckily all the people I wasn't able to visit came to the bus station to meet up with me and luckily my bus was way late so we had plenty of time to visit.  

Emmanuel and his sister-in-law and friend all showed up via motorbike...the same motorbike.  I have no idea how they all fit on one motorbike but it always seems to work out for the Argentines...squeezing whole families on bikes and motorbikes is the Argentine way.  

Ercilia (Adolfo's wife) and her sister and niece were also able to make it to the bus station to see me off.  It reminded me of being a missionary when people would come to see you off when you got transferred.  

Me and one of my faves, Isabel, in front of the capilla in Las Heras. 

Me with the Manriques.  I got there in perfect time since Matias (the oldest boy) was leaving soon for his mission in Columbia.  They are definitely some of my favorite people that I taught as a missionary.  

The three Manrique boys

When Corinne, Maria Jose and I were on the bus to Tupungato there was this guy sitting in front of Maria Jose and me who kept taking pictures of me with his cell phone.  I think he thought he was being sneaky but "hello dude, when you keep half turning around and pointing your cell phone at me and then I hear a click and then you turn back around and show your wife the picture you took it's pretty obvious that for some weird reason you are taking pictures of me."  

Maybe I was the first "true" blonde or foreigner he'd ever seen or something.  Corinne is lucky because she blends in a bit more with her dark hair.  I didn't get too offended though because I heard his wife say, "que linda" (how pretty) so I don't think they thought I was some type of freak show or anything.

Anyway, about the 10th time he turned around to take another picture I just grabbed my camera and took a picture right back of him.  FLASH!

I caught him in the act and he knew it.  We (including he and his wife) all started laughing, a lot.  

I know from my history of trying to take stealth pictures of random people that the more secretive you try to be the lower your picture quality is.  But I also know that, generally speaking, Latinos cannot take pictures.  Now I know I am stereotyping and generalizing and all of that, but it is kind of true.  

Here's an example of what I mean...

and no, this picture was not taken by a two year old or by a dog.  It was taken by an adult human.  And, this is the best of about four pictures they took.  

And this...

is what Corinne and I got when we asked this lady to take a picture for us.  Seriously, this is her trying to take a picture.  This is not fake nor is a reenactment.  We could not stop laughing.  We finally turned it around for her.  

Anyway, I'm sure there are some Latinos who can take good pictures but I haven't met them yet.  And, it doesn't matter anyway...I love Latinos, with or without basic photography skills.  They are fun and loving and warm people.  

I'm so glad I was able to serve a mission and especially to serve it in Argentina.  Even though it was difficult I LOVED being a missionary and have been blessed so much from having served a mission.  I would highly recommend it.  

So, overall, our Spinsters in South America 2010 trip was a success.  And even more of a success is that I got all done blogging about it.  And, if you made it this far in reading all about it then you are a success too.  So, yay for all of us!