Mendoza, Argentina

For whatever reason this Monday was an Argentine national holiday (one of 20, compared to the US which has 11), so that means long weekend! Most of us have been able to arrange a schedule where we don't have class on Fridays, so holiday Monday + no class Friday = road trip! My two roommates and two other classmates, rented a car and decided to drive to Mendoza, 12 hours. Not bad, five people, three drivers and the open road across an unknown country. We only got lost once and the end result was way worth it.

Obviously, Mendoza's big draw is the Andes and the wine, so we did a wine tasting one day and rode horses the next. I took a million pictures of vineyards with the mountains in the background, and while it is difficult not to take a good picture of this spectacular landscape I won't bore you with all of those.

The first winery we visited was called Andeluna, which is owned by the same family that owns Frito Lays. We took a tour of the winery and then sat down for some tasting. They had three different levels of wine available - the 1300 (the youngest and therefore cheapest), the Altitude (comes from the high altitude), and the Pasianado (the premium line).

We all tried to get a selection of samplers so we could all try the different styles. The region of Mendoza is renowned for their Malbec but I have to say that I was impressed with their white wines and I'm not a white wine person.

I tried the Altitude line which included a chardonnay, malbec and cabernet sauvignon. The cab was by far my favorite. From 2006 (a very good year for the grapes according to our guide), it was very dry and earthy which is how I prefer my wine. Too much sweet and fruit and I feel like I'm drinking a cocktail. See I sound like I know what I'm talking about.

We stopped at a couple of wineries and had lunch at Azul, which was a really small craft winery. The lunch was 5 courses and was delicious asado made right next to the building. It was a gorgeous day and they had couches out in the yard, which we took full advantage of. This ended up being our last stop, which was good because after our fourth bottle I think we all needed a break.

The morning of the last day, we took a horse back ride through the foothills. The ranch was a small operation of about 6 people who were very nice and friendly. There were 7 of us in the group and I was the only one who had ridden a horse more than once before this. However, no one fell off which I think is quite the accomplishment.

This is me and Pepe, my horse. He was very mild mannered and steady. The guide gave him to me I think because he was really sensitive and still quite green. We bonded, friends for life now. I considered riding him back to Buenos Aires and riding him to school instead of the subway.

Riding off into the foothills.

Everyone after the ride, lots of people were sore, but in all honesty it felt great to be back on a horse again. The landscape was beautiful, we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day.

Thus, ends our trip to Mendoza. After the ride, we piled back into the car and drove the 12 hours home. We smelled.

Villa 31

School has officially started which means studio is beginning to get into full swing. Historically the Buenos Aires studio always designs some kind of tango museum/studio because that is the token characteristic that people think about Argentina, right? I wasn't very excited to be doing this project because it seemed really trite and I am always hoping to do something with a little more teeth and meaning. However, I got my wish because our project this semester is brand new and the site location is Villa 31, a controversial shantytown in North Buenos Aires. The project is called "School + Project." Using the idea that education is one of those basic human rights that is essential to pulling a community out of poverty, each student is designing an elementary school or a high school that incorporates a second program (recycling center, theater, park, bridge, etc.).

 

Villas (favelas in Rio, barrios in Mexico City) in Buenos Aires are community of people who have taken over and inhabit unclaimed or empty land, building their own houses and infrastructure. Many of the villas have their own economic system with markets and services. In Buenos Aires, if someone wants to rent an apartment they must have at least two references from previous landlords, no exceptions. So, for immigrants coming into the country (frequently from Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay) it is really difficult for them to find places to live, especially with a limited budget. Often they end up in one of villas because less questions are asked about their history.

Villas in Buenos Aires are not uncommon, but most of them are relegated to the southern outskirts of the city. Villa 31 (our project site) is unique, and thus controversial, because it is directly within the city and furthermore butted right up against some of the most expensive real estate in the city. As you can see from the aerial above, the villa is sandwiched between the Recoleta neighborhood on the bottom and the port on the top. Recoleta residents are the equivalent of NIMBYers and have been pressuring the city to get the villa moved.

Villa 31 has been in this location since the 40s when Italian immigrants would camp out their to be able to get up early to get the best jobs at the port. Eventually this developed into more permanent residences and the lesser fortunate native Argentinians moved in. Later the city developed the main bus and rail stations adjacent to the site. This development made transportation to the rest of the city really convenient for the residents of the villa, who typically didn't have cars and who frequently worked in different parts of the city in service jobs (construction, housework, etc) and needed to be mobile. Over the years the city has tried to eradicate the villa, most notably in the 70s when Argentina was a dictatorship, but has been largely unsuccessful. During Argentina's economic crisis in 2001, the population of the villa swelled to 30,000 people and has been growing steadily since.

Now, a professor from the University of Buenos Aires has been working with the residents to develop a master plan that can be implemented that will hopefully allow the city to incorporate the land into the city giving the residents access to the city's infrastructure and services.

 

We visited the villa as a class one evening. We had to go as a group with the professor from UBA because obviously the villa is a very dangerous place for someone not from the villa but not native to the country or even continent. So, 19 wide-eyed Americans went into the villa and I think got a serious wake-up call. I don't think I was necessarily surprised by anything because this is the kind of work that I've always wanted to do so I had some background, but the danger level made me a little nervous. I had always approached this kinds of situations with the mindset of if your open and honest about what your doing with the residents they'll be open back to, and certainly this has been my experience (in N St Louis and New Orleans), but you could clearly see the concern on our professor's faces and not speaking the language was a little unnerving. Walking in wasn't as big of a deal, we got a lot of stares, some (what I assume) snide remarks or comments. We attended a community meeting where the UBA professor was discussing the master plan with residents. By the time we were done, it had gotten dark and we had no less than eight residents escorting us out of the villa - THAT was when I got the full effect of the danger level.

Don't worry, everyone has promised to not go back without a proper plan. 

Buenos Aires

We arrived in Buenos Aires last Sunday and have been spending the week at orientation, which is really just a million tours of the city. This has been nice, but organized tours can be a little boring sometimes. The city is divided into several distinct neighborhoods that include San Telmo, Recoleta, Palermo, La Boca, Downtown, and Congreso. Obviously there are more but these are the ones I am familiar with now. The neighborhoods range from really modern, sleek highrises to cobbled stone streets and questionable electricity.

Buenos Aires has a ton of public plazas and parks that celebrate their heros - historical and political. Big ones being Evita, San Martin and Leloir. It makes for a nice break up of the bustling street traffic, but can make getting around a little difficult. 

San Telmo, is Buenos Aires' oldest neighborhood and is noted to still have cobbled stone streets, but we came across these in other neighborhoods as well. But the buildings in San Telmo did have their own old world charm. Characterized by the colonial style of the buildings, they all go right up to the sidewalk and then once you enter it opens up into courtyards.

This one that we stopped at opened onto several courtyard lined from front to back and was two stories. The building was occupied by several shops and boutiques. The San Telmo neighborhood is well known for its tango bars, restaurants and coffee shops.

The La Boca neighborhood is right on the harbor and is historically where all of the shipyard workers lived. It is now occupied by a vibrant arts community but is very local heavy and not very tourist heavy. It is also home to Boca Juniors, Buenos Aires' championship soccer team.

The buildings in La Boca are very colorful and bright, many of them sided with corrugated metal that was discarded by ships in the harbor and repurposed by residents. The water is super polluted and did not smell good at all. 

Many of the buildings that were non-residential were industrial style buildings, but didn't really seem to be in use anymore. But that may not be true because I have still yet to figure out when people work here. 

We did a bike tour where we rode from Palermo, where I live, to the Universidad de Buenos Aires to see the architecture school. We tried to mainly ride through the park areas because the streets of Buenos Aires are still not friendly to bicyclists. 

View of downtown across the park.

Machu Picchu

So, obviously Machu Picchu was amazing. We took the first bus up in the morning to try to catch the sunrise, but it was really foggy so there wasn't much sunrise to see. But I kind of think that the fog added to the quality of the place and gave it a really powerful feeling.

We hiked up to the sungate which is about 1.5 miles one way and is at 8924 feet and they aren't kidding about the altitude getting to you. It doesn't seem like it should be that high but the air is definitely different and the hike was quite rigorous.

The terraces are a common sight and are part of the sacred rituals that the Incas employed not just for farming but they considered the stepped terrace a sacred symbol. 

Alpacas, or llamas, roaming around. 

Aguas Calientes, Peru

We arrived in Aguas Calientes by train. Aguas Calientes is at the base of Machu Picchu and is where you stay before or after the climb to the ruins. Again, it is clearly a tourist town but as opposed to Cuzco there were no personal vehicles or even taxis. The only vehicles were buses that took people up to Machu Picchu.

We walked around and explored this town aimlessly as well. Everything pretty much went right up to the streets and all of the restaurants opened onto the street. The people who worked there were always out front trying to get you to come inside by bribbing you with free food or drinks. Instead of "happy hour" several of the places referred to it as "happy days," which I thought was funny. 

I love all of the color that they use, it really makes a difference in the street scene.

Aguas Calientes has a hot springs right above it that we walked up to but as the day goes on the pools get pretty grimy so we didn't go in, but this is a good illustration of where this town is placed right in the Sacred Valley. The surrounding landscape is obviously pretty spectacular and breathtaking. We went to bed pretty early this night because we were taking the 6am train to Machu Picchu to try to catch the sunrise.

Cuzco, Peru

Arriving in South America after a 24+ hour travel, we got into Cuzco, Peru at 7 am and checked into our hostel. Luke, Jess, Ashley and I took a 5 hour nap. When we got up, after a hot shower we went out into the city to find tickets to Machu Picchu and food. Cuzco as a city, is teeming with cars, dirt and people. Seriously, the cars are bumper to bumper all everywhere and are not concerned with pedestrians at all. I'm pretty sure I almost died at least 5 times, both as a pedestrian and a passenger.

The street scene in Cuzco was really vibrant, everyone was really nice and friendly. While obviously primarily a tourist town certain parts of the city had their own thing going on. In addition to cars, people were everywhere on the sidewalks as well. There were lots of street vendors selling everything from lemonade out of a bucket, meat on a stick to carts and carts of candy and ice cream.

We ate lunch at a place called Pacha Papa's, which was recommended by our hostel as a place to get good local food, that was pretty safe. Even still, we had all heard a lot about the water and food and were being careful not to get sick. So, we ordered pretty safe dishes - margherita pizza and quinoa soup.

Jess and Luke were adventurous enough to try Peru's national drink, Pisco Sour. It is a cocktail of pisco (a white brandy), lime juice, sugar, bitters and egg whites. Sounds kind of gross right? I know but it almost tasted like a margerita and while very strong it was rather tasty. Too many though and you might regret some decisions and have quite the headache the next morning.

 

After that we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the city and checking it out. Cuzco has a lot of public squares and plazas and we came upon a parade in one of the plazas that was for the Virgen del Carmen celebration, which is a combination of Andean pre-Columbian ceremonies and Catholicism where they parade around in masks reliving ancient gods and rituals that celebrate the virgin which represents the Mother of God and Mother Earth. The masks were a little creepy, but puppets freak me out so that isn't a surprise, but it was really pretty cool all the same.

The neighborhood areas were really charming and were really interesting to walk around in. Narrow, cobblestone streets, mud bricks houses, hole in the wall markets, lots of handmade crafts, etc.