Day 16: Cultural Awareness

In the last update, we had just returned from conquering/retreating from the mighty Andes mountains, and were waiting for our Brazilian visas to get processed. While we waited in Mendoza, we basically did two things:

1) Wandered around town, and
2) Figured out what we were going to do next.

Given the vast amounts of planning we have put into this trip, item 2 has turned out to be a common pastime for us. In this case, we were deciding between heading west directly into Chile, or south to San Carlos de Bariloche.

In the meantime, we figured we would see what events of interest might be happening around town. A couple of blocks down from our hotel was a theatre, so we wandered by to see what was on. To our great interest, it turned out that there was going to be a special presentation for the 'Dia Nacional del Tango' (National Day of Tango) the next night. We hadn't been able to get to a tango event in Buenos Aires, so we stepped inside to find out what the details were.

To our surprise, we were ushered into the main auditorium where we discovered a group of young people at the end of their performance of an electronic/hip-hop dance piece. Somewhat intrigued, both by the performance and the lack of an entrance fee, we stuck around, and the dance number was followed by what turned out to be a documentary on a concert held in Mendoza in 1988 by Peter Gabriel, Sting and Bruce Springsteen (among others), and some of the socio-political events happening at the time. The interviews were a bit tricky to follow, being in a foreign language and all, but it was interesting watching the crowd get into the music, clapping along, and afterwards the production crew came onto the stage and took a bow.

Having failed in our quest for information about the tango event, the next day we tried again. Our first attempt was foiled by the fact that unlike everything else in Mendoza, the ticket booth opened at 1pm. I don't think we've mentioned it before, but in South America the concept of 'siesta' is quite popular. In Buenos Aires, most places stayed open during 'regular' (aka Australian) business hours. In Mendoza, they love siesta. Well, I should say that most people love the siesta, except one old lady we met who informed us with an extremely croaky voice that she couldn't stand it. In any case, most shops close between 1pm and 5pm, and then reopen from 5 until 8 or 9pm. Food vendors and restaurants typically stay open, but not much else.

In any case, we came back at about 2pm and secured our tickets. Ready to go! At 9pm, we put on our best clothes (jeans, t-shirt) and joined the growing queue outside the theatre. Anticipation was in the air, although it was possibly also humidity due to the rain earlier in the day. The doors finally opened at around 9:30, and we strategically chose our seats with the shortest people we could find sitting in front of us. In true Argentine fashion, the show started another 30 minutes later. But it was worth waiting for.

Throughout the night there were dances by a local tango troupe, as well as music played by three different groups of musicians (a double guitar and violin group, a piano, double-bass, and violin group, and a 6-piece band which included a piano accordion and a saxophone), and a female singer with a fantastic voice. Overall, a great night, and I don't think we would have found a better one in Buenos Aires. There was definitely a lot of preparation and effort going into the presentation.

The next day, we successfully aquired our Brazian visas and hit the road again, this time to Mendoza. The overnight bus took about 19 hours, but the last two presented some amazing lakes, with pure blue water that was transparent, surrounded by mountains rising up into the sky. Amazing.

Bariloche is a very touristy town, but is surrounded by some great natural beauty, and we spent today doing a road-trip/walk around one of the national parks near by on a trail called 'Circuito Chico' (aka the small circuit). On the way, we were assisted by a friendly Argentine couple from Buenos Aires, followed by a local hotel's dog for about 3km, chatted with another couple from Israel, another from Spain, and finally another made up of a guy from Argentina, a woman from Sweden and their little boy of 8 months. These guys were nice enought to give us a lift back towards town where we could catch a bus the rest of the way, on the way taking us by the 'Llau Llau' (pronounced by Argentines as 'Shau Shau') 5-star hotel which looks a) spectacular and b) rediculously expensive. Needless to say, our accommodations are much more modest.

Finally, tonight, in our final night in Argenina for a while, Dave Cohen suggested we visit a local theatrical production here in Bariloche. We weren't exactly sure what form it would take, but it turned out that it was essentially an interpretive dance group, made up about a dozen young girls, three older girls in their early 20s and one much older woman who seemed to be the coordinator, as well as comic relief. The evening consisted of 8 pieces. The first 5 or 6 consisted of various configurations of the younger girls performing to recorded songs. The last two were the centre-pieces and were performed mostly by the three older performers (with a couple of cameos by the old woman). Not being experts in either the Spanish language, interpreting dance, or comprehending female body language in general, the plot of the two major pieces were a little difficult to follow. However, here is our best guess:

1. Entitled 'Duesta en escena, Crisis', the first piece involved three women, each evoking some kind of emotion individually, assisted by projected images of odd ghostly aparitions and occasional red lighting. We believe this was a representation of the trial and tribulations of being a woman and eventual victory by working together and ocasionally giving each other a hug. Or, possibly something totally different.

2. Called 'Transparencias', the second piece was actually a bit easier to follow, possibly because there was less dialogue, as well as assistance by being accompanied by fairly obvious physical gestures. Without going into too much detail, it seemed to be a reflection and commentary on the negative effects of social pressure on women with regards to body image.

Anyway, an interesting day all around. Tomorrow we head to Puerto Montt in Chile, after which we'll start heading back north in Chile towards Bolivia and Peru. Until next time...

Hasta luego,

Los Davides...