La Vendimia

Hola a tod@s!

Sorry it's been a while since my last post, but I'm hoping to get two up before the week is out to compensate. Today I'll be talking about La Fiesta Nacional de la Vendimia!

La Vendimia is important here in Mendoza because it celebrates la cosecha de las uvas -- the grape harvest. It begins with the election of a queen in each district; from these 17 reinas a committee will later select La Reina de La Vendimia who will represent Mendoza on both a national and international level for the rest of the year.

The festival gets started in earnest here in the capital with La Benidición de Las Frutas. The Sunday before El Acto Central (more on that later), the archbishop blesses the harvest and thanks is given to la Virgen de la Carrodilla, the patroness of the Mendocinian vineyards.

The religious ceremony is also accompanied by music and dancing, and there is much rejoicing.

The following Friday, a parade called La Vía Blanca makes its way through the streets of Mendoza. Each departamento has a float that carries each reina and her entourage, and is designed to represent a characteristic part of the culture. In between the floats there are also groups dressed as gauchos riding on horseback.

Oh, and instead of throwing candy like lame parades in the US they hand out fresh fruits and veggies, ice cream, alfajores, and bottles of water or wine. Of course, by hand out I really mean chuck at unsuspecting tourists. Watch out for the melons!

The next morning is El Carrusel, which is similar to La Vía Blanca. However, the floats are not lit up and there are more gauchos and traditional dancers. Also, as this takes place during the morning, and mornings are not my friends, I don't have any pictures from this part of the festival, so instead here are some gauchos from the night before.

El Acto Central is, as its name suggests, the main event of La Vendimia. It is an incredible show with music, lights, and hundreds of dancers, plus a finale of fireworks. Each dance represents a different aspect of life on the vineyard, and the Virgen de la Carrodilla once again plays an important role.

It's held in a Greek-style theater reserved specifically for La Vendimia. Its location in the hills add to the already wonderful acoustics as well as provide extra seating for crowds of people who don't mind roughing it a little to see the show.

Each year comes with a new Acto Central, although they all contain similar elements. This year there everything was tied together by the framing narrative of the MC remembering his childhood.

On Saturday night they also elect the new Reina Nacional, who then presides over the repetitions of the show in Sunday and Monday. This year's queen is from Malargüe, and she is only the second queen to be elected from that departamento in the entire history of La Vendimia.

And that, my friends, is a belated overview of La Vendimia. I loved being able to experience what National Geographic ranks as #2 in their Top Ten World's Harvest Festivals -- the energy here in the city was indescribable. Keep your eyes peeled for my next post where I'll talk about my weekend spent in San Rafael.

Ciao,
Nancy

Buenos Aires

Hey everybody!

I'm in Mendoza with my host family now, but when I first arrived in Argentina I spent a few days in Buenos Aires for both orientation and some sight-seeing.

After driving down la Avenida de 9 de julio and seeing the obelisk there (couldn't get any good pics from the bus, but I'll try again when I go back to BA) we went to la Plaza de Mayo. This is where you'll find la Casa Rosada when the president works.

The plaza is a popular place for protests, including the march of those who lost children, grandchildren, or parents during the Dirty War in the 1970s. This movement, and those affected, are commemorated by images of mothers wearing cloth diapers as head wraps, which are painted around the statue in the center of the plaza.

The cathedral in the plaza holds the remains of San Martin, one of the liberators and great heroes of Argentina.

After the plaza, we headed to La Boca, a neighborhood right near the port that's famous for having many Italian immigrants. Many of the tenements were built with the leftovers of the shipyard, namely the corrugated steel exteriors coated with the brightly colored paint used for cargo ships. Now it's popular with tourists, but there's still a lot of poverty, so we were repeatedly advised not to go alone or at night.    

Then we drove to a restaurant on the coast of Río de la Plata. In addition to great food we had a fantastic view of the skyline of Buenos Aires.

Our tour guide, Alejandro, also taught us about mate and let us have our first tastes of this Argentinian tradition. Mate is a strong, bitter herbal tea -- takes a bit of getting used to, but it's growing on me.  

 

That was basically it for our first day of touring. The next day we visited Palermo and Recoleta in northern Buenos Aires. Recoleta is named for the sub-order of Franciscan monks that lived there. The cemetery attached to the cathedral is very exclusive and a huge tourist attraction.    

Now when I say cemetery, that doesn't quite do it justice. There are rows and rows of mausoleums built and maintained by the wealthiest families in the city. 

It is also the final resting place of famous Argentinians leaders like Sarmiento and Evita.

 

In addition, there's a sizable population of stray cats hanging around.

Outside the cemetery and church is a fig tree that's over 200 years old. It's so huge that the branches need special supports. It took all I had not to climb up on it, and I can only imagine what Danny would have done ;)

 

 

I'll post soon with pictures from my first few days in Mendoza and talk more about my host family, etc.

Nos vemos,
Nancy

Bienvenidos

Hola!

25 hours ago I was saying goodbye to my family at the security gate of Newark airport, about to begin my adventure abroad.

Since then I have:

• eaten mediocre airline food
• tried (somewhat successfully) to sleep through a 10 hour flight
• had my first taste of Argentian beef
• learned that a bidet is not "a little boys' toilet" 
• eaten flan with dulce de leche -- yum!

It's been a very long, very tiring day. Tomorrow we tour Buenos Aires and go through some more orientation before flying to Mendoza on Saturday and meeting our host families! Woohoo!

I'll use this blog with updates on what I'm doing/where I'm going, as well as posting pictures. Otherwise you can keep in touch with me via Facebook, Twitter, email, or Skype.

Tomorrow I'll give a more in depth update -- for now I'm going to get some rest.