Thursday, March 31, 2011

Farm life, the Lake District, and wine touring in Mendoza

Hola! Wow, I´ve been through a lot since my last post. I´ll try to catch up in a somewhat concise way, but bear with me cause it´s been a while! Honestly, it´s been harder to find the internet time to write these posts than I thought it would be. I guess I´m having too much fun out there to be in here, if you know what I mean. I´m currently in northwest Argentina, only a few days away from crossing the border into Bolivia. I´ve been on the go pretty hardcore since leaving the farm only 2 weeks ago.  

So from where I left off, farm life... well, early on in the planning of this grand trip, I knew I wanted to work on an organic farm (through WWOOF... ¨world-wide workers on organic farms¨) as part of my travel experience. I knew I´d want a break from the ¨gringo trail¨ lifestyle and I wanted to get some first-hand farm experience as well as be a part of a like-minded community. My time at Chacra Millalen was all that and so much more. It´s really hard to put my experience into words... let´s say it was magical and abundant. The people there were amazing, I learned lots, and the landscape was just idyllic. The farm is 4 km from the nearest town of El Hoyo which is 20 minutes from the more known town of El Bolson. It was a bit of a trek into town if we wanted to use the Internet or buy anything that the farm didn´t provide. But really, what didn´t the farm provide?! One aspect of farm life that I dearly enjoyed and now thoroughly miss was harvesting the veggies and fruits that went into nearly every wholesome meal. Corn turned into corn chowder, spinach and onions into ravioli filling, tomatoes and basil into pizza sauce and salsa, blackberries into pie... We all took turns cooking and I ate some of the best meals of my life while there. Much team effort went into creating these meals, and I learned lots from my fellow volunteers.

A slightly unexpected, but welcomed lesson came in the form of learning way more Spanish than I thought I would. Even though most of the volunteers also happened to be Americans, one of their goals in working on a farm in Argentina was to learn and improve their Spanish. Their Spanish seemed fluent so this ended up being a bit of an immersion experience for me, and while it was certainly frustrating at times (especially since I hate missing parts of conversations), it has proved very helpful since I´ve left the farm, and I´m sure it´ll be even more helpful once I reach Bolivia in a few days (where folks are less likely to know any English).

So what did I actually do on the farm? Here´s the rundown:
-harvesting plums, peaches, and apples and making jam with them
-harvesting veggies
-weeding garden beds
-harvesting herbs, hanging them to dry, and then picking the leaves off for use as tea
-clearing out irrigation canals so water could flow freely
-making adobe bricks using straw and clay (they were in the midst of a construction project of adding on another room to the main house)

As a part-time volunteer (meaning I worked less and paid the farm a small fee), I had plenty of time to relax and enjoy the scenery. Being in this special place and living a very simple lifestyle got me thinking about my next steps when I return to the States. If you know me, you know I´m very passionate about compost (and in general, working towards a zero waste society!), well, at this point, I think I want to delve into the sustainable agriculture aspect of it. It´s really all connected. So I think I want to work/volunteer on an organic farm/CSA for the summer and fall... as Argentinos say, ¨vamos a ver¨ (we´ll see). If you´re in the Bay area though and if you have any connections to organic farms that are looking for summer help, I´d love to hear more...

I made some dear friends on the farm, and it was so nice to really get to know some wonderful folks for a few weeks rather than a few days or even a few hours. There were three of us part-time volunteers, and we enjoyed several local adventures together on our time off and during the weekends. We ventured out to the nearby river and lake, and we did a weekend backpacking trip to the Cajon del Azul, a canyon carved out by the Rio Azul (a truly blue river!) with an excellent trail system, very rickety bridges, and several mountain refugios (very basic hostels) to spend the night in. I could spend months exploring all this area has to offer (and maybe I will!).

So now it´s back to the traveling lifestyle... it was quite the transition to go from my cozy farm life back to living out of my pack and being on the go. My first destination was Bariloche, a very touristy town about 2 hours north of the farm. It´s considered the ¨crown jewel¨ of the Lake District of Argentina (of which El Bolson and the farm are a part of as well). And make no mistake, this area is inundated with tourists for good reason... it´s gorgeous! The views of the lakes and mountains are really spectacular. I was fortunate enough to meet a fellow solo traveler from Germany on my first night there and we, along with 2 girls from Spain, and one Canadian, spent the next two days exploring around, eating at the best veggie restaurant in Argentina (if you don´t count the farm!), sampling the locally made chocolate, and hiking up the two nearest mountains to town: Cerro Campenario and Cerro Otto for some really outstanding views.  

As it turned out, the two girls from Spain were planning on renting a car to drive the Ruta de los Siete Lagos, this very scenic drive around several lakes and through a few villages, at the same time that I was planning on taking a bus through the area to get to my destination of Mendoza. I ended up riding along them and it was super cool to be able to stop and take pictures whenever we wanted and I got a lot of Spanish practice in!

After that road trip, it was time to say adios to Patagonia and hop on a 18 hour bus heading to Argentina´s wine capital of Mendoza. However, I was not that impressed with Mendoza afterall. First off, fresh off an overnight bus ride, I ended up at the worst hostel that I could have reserved. I spent the next several hours finding another hostel and getting my stuff there. Then I spent the next two days fighting off a cold, though on a positive note, it gave me some time to research my route through the northwest and Bolivia. I ventured out a few times to the plaza which was pleasant enough, but the traffic in Mendoza was ridiculous! What a change from the small mountain towns of Patagonia. I was somewhat better for my bike ´n wine tour, but it was overrun with young American college kids studying abroad in Buenos Aires and talking about missing Wal-Mart. Really? Seriously? So this was probably one of the few times where I really wished I could have met some fellow like-minded travelers to do this with. It was a little lonely. But that comes with the territory of solo traveling... 90% of the time, I meet cool people or I really want to be alone, and then there´s that 10%. All part of the experience. I left Mendoza a day early which is weird to say since I´m not really on a schedule, per se! But I was happy to get out of there and head towards the small towns of the northwest!

I´ll save my most recent stories of the northwest for the next post. Here are just a few pictures from the last month since they take forever to upload. But many more pics are and will soon be on Facebook so check there and enjoy! 

clearing out the irrigation canals for the herbs

magic garden

top of Cerro Otto in Bariloche

in front of Trapiche winery in Mendoza