Living as a retired Argentine

Laura and I arrived in Mendoza, Argetina last Thursday, excited to have our first WWOOF(World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms)experience.
Our bus dropped us off on the side of the highway and we asked around until we found the home of Harmando y Teresea, the world's cutest 70 year-olds.

A german shepherd and boxer greeted us warmly at the front gate, along with a couple emus. Good vibes already.

Teresea is about 5'2", decked out in a cardigan and glasses, and speaks in the softest, sweetest little voice you've ever heard as she shuffels around the kitchen making lunch.
Then there is Harmando who is loud and boisterous, reminding me of an Italian with his "buon giorno!" greetings in the morning and a kiss on our cheeks. His face is full of deep creviced wrinkles from years of expression. Mostly laughter I imagine.
Where much of the conversation is focused on politics and social issues, these two still know how to have a good laugh, often tearing up at the table.
Harmando is an incredibly intelligent man who still finds poop funny- a very respected quality in my book.

They have a nice-sized farm where they grow raspberries, tomatoes, oregano, figs, walnuts, pomegranates, garlic, olives and lots and lots of grapes for making Malbec vino, famous in this region.
One of the first questions Harmando asked me, after finding out my name and what I studied, was when I drink wine.
"Whenever you drink wine", I replied.
Little did I know that meant with every meal except breakfast.

Another WWOOFer from Austria, Maria, was with us for our first week here. With short bright red hair she constantly wears a smile and a rasta-colored sweater given to her by her Argentine boyfriend Coco. At the age of 26, she has been WWOOFing for 10 years, hitch-hiking around Europe every summer.
This girl is badass in her braided pigtails.

At first arrival, the constant spanish was pretty frustrating for me as Maria and Harmando would talk for hours on the latest politics and I had no idea what was going on. It was hard not being able to contribute like I wanted to. I found myself washing a lot of dishes to try and compensate.

However, it has gotten a lot easier with time and Laura (god bless Laura) has been a wonderful translator and I've come to really enjoy our time here. These people are so eager to share knowledge. Harmando will put on his glasses and pull out a letter written to Obama or an article in National Geographic or even the encyclopedia to further explain the deaths of thousands of workers planning an uprising.

"If we knew all the crises of the world, the problems occuring everywhere, then we'd be so much more likey to fight for social justice," says Laura.
It's true. This knowledge is empowering.

I sit journaling, looking past rows and rows of grape vines to white-capped jagged mountains and feel at peace. I am lost in time here and can't help but feel inspired. Inspired to learn and grow and touch and see and feel all that I can, forever.
Entering the homes and lives of these people is unlike anything I've experienced before. Sure, we help them with some tasks around the house- gather some firewood, help make wine and cure olives, preserve vegetables, or make humitas and empanadas- but the real reason we are here is for the exchange of cultures. Of stories and of lives.

"El mejor vino es vino compartido," says Harmando. The best wine is wine shared with others, and we all toast to the food and the company.

We havent't seen much of Mendoza except for a few excursions into the city. We tried to take a bus last Saturday but after it flew past us on the highway, we decided to hitchhike, inspired by Maria (if she can live to tell about it...)
A trucker named Juan Carlo picked us up after only a minute of sticking my thumb out. He was on his way to San Juan with a truckfull of soybeans.
Shortly after boarding his semi, he showed us his hand-carved knife for carne asada.
"...or how he kills helpless hitchhikers" I whispered under my breath to Laura.
Juan Carlo turned out to be a wonderful man and dropped us off a couple blocks from the bus stop in Mendoza.

We spent the rest of the day walking across the city to its biggest park, stopping along the way for a delicious 3 course meal, some ice cream and coffee, and to be sexually harrassed by a creeper on his bicycle. No joke. Now maybe the jeggings play a part, but this nasty man on his bike slowed down just long enough to grab the booty and whisper something in my ear.
I began instantly shouting obscenities at him as he pedaled down the sidewalk. People from across the street began gawking at this crazy gringa shouting, but I only wished I was able to scream them in Spanish.

It helped having Laura with me as she found it utterly hiarlious and made me realize this creep was just creepin, nothin more. We strolled the rest of the way to the park, hands covering my behind and eyeing men suspiciously.

No mas choncho

Saturday evening I walked into a hospital room to see Laura passed out covered in blankets on a janky bed with an IV stuck in her arm. Tears began instantly running down my cheeks and only stopped after she assured me she was feeling much better.

Remember those pig insides we ate? Or the half-raw burger later that afternoon that maybe I forgot to mention? Both likey suspects for the cause of Laura's case of salmonella.
Sarah and I sat in the hospital with her chatting and doing cross-word puzzles until the last drops of the IV entered her now hydrated body.

Without a down girl, the next couple days weren't very exciting. Sarah, Andy and I (three's company too...) went to Cajas, the National Park near Cuenca which was like taking a trip through some bizarre fairytale.
"I could just live here and be a forest nymph forever", Sarah said. I agreed.
I continue to be amazed by the variety of topography Ecuador offers...from lush greenery to volcanoes to mountains to beautiful beaches to the rainforest, and now these strangely beautiful trees with orange and gray bark bending every which way and the countless other types of 'Brother's Grimm-type' plants surrounding a crystal-clear lake.

That night, we just watched a movie and hoped Laura would be better for our flight to Argentina...