FarmFAIL, Ruta del Vino, and traversing the Andes...

Soooo, about that 2 weeks on the farm...

I actually only ended up staying 2 days because let's just say it was not a welcoming place for enthusiastic volunteers like myself. Unfortunately everything on the website was a thing of the past and now it is a pretty depressing place. A few years back a fire destroyed the volunteer house, the husband lost it, ran off to Buenos Aires leaving wife and two young kids behind. Immediately upon my arrival the woman (from the US) gave me a rant about the sad tale and several expletives about her ex and I realized that no one comes to this place to volunteer anymore - for a reason. Then she invited me in to sit in their little shack and I played with the two kids who were pretty cute (3 and 8)and despite the underlying weirdness of the whole sitch I was still feeling motivated to help out...whatever that was going to entail. In the dark with a tiny flashlight I made my way up the hill to my, umm, lodging. It was rainy and windy and there I was in what used to be a loft barn. No animals on the farm anymore because like I said, this "farm" doesn't really exist anymore, so you can erase any images of me curled up next to horsies and rabbits. It was pretty ridiculous though, and I am still laughing/shivering thinking when I picture myself there.

My first full day of work involved digging up and transplanting currant bushes, then fertilizing with heaps of fresh manure from a nearby grazing horse borrowed from a neighbor. Day two, after a full day of preparing beds for planting and then planting a ton of garlic I started losing steam quickly because of the really bad vibe I was getting from the woman and the place. I felt like I was more in the way than anything, she seemed annoyed by me being there even though I was doing a lot for her and the WHOLE time she was off somewhere on her cell phone talking to a boyfriend in Buenos Aires. It was so bizarre, so not the farm volunteer experience I was looking for, plus I wasn't feeling so great so I told the woman I had to leave. It was kind of awkward, she called me a taxi and I made my way to a hostel in town. THEN the next day as I was heading to a bus out of town they pulled up right in front of the bench I was sitting on. Super awkward. The kids got out of the car and came running towards me, shouting "Jenny!!" and the woman told me the best place to buy a ticket to Mendoza. Farm #1 = fail, BUT I have gotten some leads on places that look much better for what I am looking to do in terms of farm volunteering/learning, so we shall see.

When I fled the farm I decided to hightail it north to Mendoza, the Napa of Argentina, and treated myself to a nice hostel with a pool. Ahh, the weather was my idea of perfect- dry, sunny and warm - very Fresno late spring, so I was loving it. There was a really fun asado (BBQ) at the hostel Friday night, a meat + vino feast by the pool with everyone who was staying there. Great fun... excellent food, pool, ping-pong, and hilarious convos with new Aussie friends - just what I needed to recover from farmfail 2010.

Saturday I spent the entire day on bike touring the vineyards of Mendoza along the "Ruta del Vino." There are tons of bigger, fancier ones to visit, but I LOVED checking out these family run, artisan wineries instead. I've only seen the large-scale models of Napa so this was quite a different experience and I learned a lot about the wine-making process. AND you can tool around from winery to winery doing tours and tastings on bike! Pretty great. I really enjoyed the city of Mendoza itself as well. Pretty plazas, a cute center square area, and a relaxed vibe. A lovely 4 days.






THEN, I decided to change my plans up again and see central/northern Chile after all. So today I hopped on a 7 hour bus, had an amazing day watching the scenery change as the bus crossed over the Andes, went through a super quick border crossing, and here I am at a hostel in Santiago! Not to fear, it has been business as usual in this area for awhile now, and after getting the consensus of many fellow backpackers I decided I had to see Santiago, Valparaiso and the northern coast, eventually getting to the desert of San Pedro de Atacama where I will start a 3 day trek of the famous salt flats, crossing into Bolivia to see Salar de Uyuni.

Excited to start my city exploration tomorrow!