01 December 2009

five-step gratitude

1) i'm thankful that i had the opportunity to watch my niece's eyes grow wide and brain explode during her first trip to new york. it reminded me that i need to be more child-like

2) i'm thankful for fighting with my other niece. it reminded me that i'm not always right and that i can really fuck up sometimes

3) every time i make a big move i get curmudgeonly and swear i have enough friends already. with that, i'm thankful for the new friends that have turned into old ones

4) i'm grateful for strength and the freedom that comes of it

5) i'm grateful for cold air that smacks the life in me awake

26 October 2009

Here I go

In taxi to airport.
It's been a fabulous trip.
:)

The backyard of my hotel

I kinda love the public buses here

Cactus greenhouse at the botanical gardens

Abandoned billboard + bus

Some BA street art (on the outer wall of the zoo)

The 12 lane Av del Libertador

I go all the way to Argentina to see an Andy Warhol exhibition

This didn't quite turn out as I would have liked...

Outside the Malba, a stray dog was sleeping under a bus stop. The sun
was on the LCD screen so I could see what I was taking, but you might
still get the gist.

Japanese Gardens (overlooking the Koi pond)

25 October 2009

i'm gonna love you for 11 miles

this morning rufus wainwright and i went on a run
he was in my head singing i'm gonna love you from his seminal rufus does judy album. loop de loop de loop over and over again
i'm gonna love you, i'm gonna love you
i was pounding my ass down the road

speaking of love, there's an american couple bickering down the hall
ah love

it's nice to know that men are equal opportunity sexual harassers to female runners the world over. Argentinian men, like their new york Hispanic counterparts, enjoy a overdone kissing sound when you're running past, kinda like when you're calling a dog. it's so lovely. but unlike other locales, i also got plenty of old school wolf whistles, which i don't hear anywhere else in the world. gotta hand it to them for the classic approach. they score big points.

yesterday was pure debauched laziness with about five hours spent in the spa and another few out shopping to fill out the fall wardrobe. amazing how good everything looks with fictitious leather pants.

today i'm off to a big antiques market. i don't expect to find anything, but its quite big and popular and there's always stuff going on around a market that's worth looking at.

now the american couple are asking the hotel people how to get to the market and worrying that they'll get lost and asking if they can hire a driver to take them around so they don't get lost. good lord.

i'm off.

24 October 2009

Back in BA

I'm sitting in the lobby of my hotel having just returned from the countryside via the ten hour overnight bus.

I miss the ranch. I miss the horses and I wish I was going out for a ride this morning. I still have the dirt of the ranch all over my boots and under my fingernails, the dust in my clothes and my eyes. I'll spend the next day or so re-acclimating to city life - I'll clean my boots and do my nails and get a massage and eat at some chic restaurants but I think I'd rather be back at the ranch with the sun on my face.

My seat on the bus was the same as going out: seat uno which was on the top deck right in the front. in the times I was awake, I had a beautiful view of the trip and I was going into BA, the billboards gradually getting thicker I just sighed. I hate ads. I avoid them at all costs in my own life. yes, I realize the irony.

I'm quite tired, it's 8 am here, the city is closed and I can't check in until 2:00. whine whine whine.

sorry.

so I'm going to grab breakfast in a bit and then maybe a massage. troll around and see some shops. and relax. just relax.

Yesterday's ride

(this applies to all the pics posted below - as it sucks typing on an iPhone i had to wait until I was computered up to write this)

yesterday we went on a day trip up the mountain - the longest ride I did while at the ranch. we left the ranch at about 9:30 in the morning and didn't get back until about 5:30, exhausted but happy. I really liked being on the horse all day and lo and behold I could walk when I got off!

Six of us set off - Lola, myself, Diana, Sue, Saralee and Dwight. Diana, Sue Saralee and dwight deserve a post all their own, so I'll save that for later. Lola and I had packs on our horses (you can see it on the photo of me sitting on Rufigi) which carried food, water and wine.

As you can guess, the first half of the ride was going up, the second half of the ride was going down. The photo of Lola leading us up the mountain was partway through a particularly steep incline (we would periodically stop on that ascent and let the horses rest) but it was by no means the rockiest. There were parts of the trail that were just pure craggy rock, jutting at every angle and the horses took those passages in stride. It was amazing.

Partway up the mountain we stopped and visited a Serrano (native) family. Their family has lived in the same house for generations and generations and the house is way up the mountains with access only by foot or horse. Every morning the boys of the family hike 2 hours down the mountain to go to school and then two hours back up at night. The grandmother lives in the valley so they keep their nice school shoes there and trade their mountain shoes for them when they hit the valley, and then again in reverse on the way up later that afternoon - very Mister Rogers.

Immediately the woman of the house (the one who was afraid of me in town - see below) brought out a Mate tea to do the welcome ritual. She brings out a small cup of tea with a silver straw and presents it to a guest. You're not supposed to stir the tea, just drink, until finished. But it's rude to slurp! No slurping. When done you hand it back to the hostess and she makes a serving for the next person. She'll keep going around the circle, visiting each person again and again until when you hand it back to her you say "gracias". then she knows you're down and to skip you on the next round.

The family was wonderful and very welcoming, but the day was quite hot so we had to keep moving. We ascended for a bit longer and then hit the main stream where we watered and tied the horses, loosened their saddles and removed their bits and let them rest. Then we had lunch and after Lola, Saralee and I hiked around a bit. Saralee is very into plants and birds so Lola was showing her some specific specimens and I went along for kicks. It was really cool.

Then the descent. The sun was blazing by this time but it didn't seem to affect the horses at all - I think it bothered us more than them! Again, they were amazing at navigating the trail. I think the best part is when you're home and take all the tack off the horses, water them down and then drink a beer on the patio while the horses roll in the lawn 20 feet away from you.

It was a really cool day.

Lola leading us up the trail

Mate welcome

Serrano saddle

The Missus of the house

This was the wife at the serrano home. I didn't catch her name in
Spanish, but it translates to "little bean" because she's so small.

When she saw me she kinda cried out and then started laughing and
speaking really quickly. Apparently she was in town earlier in the
week and saw me running. My blonde hair had scared her but when she
saw me again she just laughed and laughed and kept patting me and gave
me a huge hug on the way out.

Serrano home

Lola making lunch on the rock

Lunch view

After lunch lying on a rock by the stream I look up and this is what I see

The onion/rose tree

This tree was really interesting. It's a relative of the rose so the
trunk twists and meanders like a monstrously oversized vine. The bark
is multi-layered and each layer is thin like paper. And it only grows
in a very limited altitude, so we had to climb to get to it.

23 October 2009

Rufigi and me saddled up for our last ride

Argentina morning

21 October 2009

Lomo Bolo

This is the next village over. Lomo Bolo means Bowl Hill and it's
called that because it's so round. There's a cross at the top with 12
stations going up the hillside to the cross. Every Easter pilgrims
come from all over to pay respects.

Muy dangerous apparently

View from the terrace

Alejandro getting Rufigi ready for me

A pause in the morning ride

View from the horse

20 October 2009

spoiled gringa

(for those that are wondering, CC ;), I'm in the state of Cordoba in Argentina at a ranch in the village of Corralito. The nearest town is called Merlo, it's about 30 minutes away and 10 hours away from Buenos Aires by bus)

i can't write about the ranch without writing about the food. Caro (short for Carolina), is the resident chef here and three times a day i get absolutely spoiled. I haven't eaten this well in... i don't know.

Every meal is at least three courses (appetizer, main and dessert) and she makes everything from scratch from local, fresh ingredients. She's very into cooking and cooks quite elegantly - you can see and taste the French influence. Dinner takes her about 3-4 hours to cook, lunch 1-2. All the food she cooks with is grown around here or on the ranch itself (yesterday we had wild asparagus that grows in the olive grove. oh my god. wild asparagus is amazing. i love wild asparagus. sign me up for more wild asparagus). it truly is so (this is going to sound corny, but here we go) nourishing to eat like this, where you can feel the connection to the land around you.

because we're on the olive grove, we always have fresh olive oil with every meal. apparently, their olive oil is among the best in Argentina (it goes to competitions) and they only sell it here - no stores, no shipping. it's amazing stuff and they're very passionate about it.

oh and last night we had grass-fed argentinian steak, grown about 30 miles away from here. everything they say about argentinian steak is true. it's so rich and has such depth of flavor. it doesn't taste like steak (oh the sad irony of living in a society where our cows our industrialized). i died. and the coffee. i'm not a big coffee drinker, but again, this doesn't taste like coffee - smooth, rich, easy on the throat. i die.

time for breakfast, ciao ciao.