Mendoza- Part 4: Highlights/Lowlights & Goodbyes

(Another long one...)

Over our 11 weeks, it felt like we had the opportunity to take advantage of many (most?) of the fun things Mendoza has to offer young families. After the heat waves of summer subsided in mid-march, the weather was really spectacular. It was bright and sunny 95% of the time! Temperatures in the fall were usually in the low to mid 70s, and then dipping into the high 50s low 60s overnight. Occasional light rain showers passed through. The weather is mostly arid and dry- though the locals say it has gotten a lot more humid over the past decade or so. This means we could easily spend time outdoors without worrying to much about having the right gear- and most of our activities were outside, which was such a lovely change from how many hours we're normally inside from March-May.

Some HIGHLIGHTS include:

Our second full weekend in town we were lucky to catch the tail end of the Vendimia Festival- essentially the harvest festival of Mendoza that primarily celebrates the wine harvest and viticulture of the area. Many of the celebrations including spectacles with dance and music performances were way too late for us to attend or were in fancy bodegas or vineyards not suitable for kids. But we got the tip to attend the daytime parade which was super fun. It started with floats with a beauty queen from each region of Mendoza that would hand out various fruits. And then ended with multiple beautiful dance troupes representing the indigenous immigrant communities of Mendoza- primarily from Bolivia and Peru. This was my favorite part- the music was lively, the dancing was fun, and the indigenous costumes were vibrant and bejeweled! I was so happy to see these communities celebrated in this festival! We were also happy to get to partake in some of the celebrations- for Mendoza this is the biggest festival of the year.

Pretty early on during our time in Mendoza we did a weekend trip to visit Mount Aconcagua Regional Park -the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere at 22,840 ft! Eric took a longer trail run up the valley to one of Aconcagua's base camps while the girls and I meandered more slowly along the trail. It is a very stark, dry landscape with lots of shades of brown and grey, and occasional patches of green near sources of water. It was a beautiful day with clear views of the peak, but also super windy!! And we hadn't realized that the hike starts at 9,000 feet- so we were all more tired than we'd expected after just a couple hours of hiking.

(Screaming into the wind- it literally almost knocked the girls over at times!)

(Eric catches up to us after having run about 12 miles while the girls and I did about 3!)

On our way back from Aconcagua, we spent an afternoon at the local natural hot springs Termas Cacheuta resort with the girls. The family friendly side has dozens of pools and areas with various water slides and fountains, including a small area for little kids. It was busy with many, many local families enjoying the pools and having asados (BBQ). We had a great time!

A few weeks later Eric and I each individually treated ourselves to the "adults only" quieter part of Termas Cacheuta for each of our birthdays. I even made a friend for the day with my guided meditation session there, another healthcare provider from Cordoba, Argentina in the area for a conference and taking advantage of the spa- here's a photo of us during the mud bath part! So fun and amazingly relaxing!

One weekend we visited the neighboring town of Maipu and a small farm & petting zoo there that was surrounded by olive trees, and then stopped by the town's main square and its super fun playground.

We have explored many of Mendoza's plazas, which is the easiest, free outing. My favorites are (after the yellow plazoleta that has been our go-to spot):

The large central Plaza Independencia which has the Mendoza sign, a playground and a beautiful fountain, that later in the evening (we recently discovered) has a music and light show that coordinates with the fountain- Nell and Mae LOVED dancing to that! On the weekends it hosts a local artisan market too.

The Plaza Espana- one of the most beautiful plazas adorned with gorgeous Spanish tile and a really beautifully maintained fountain with clear (not brown or murky) water. It also has a small playground.

The Parque Central is a very popular spot with locals on the weekends, we've seen drum circles and singing groups there, people practicing their hip hop and lots of mate being enjoyed (a very popular pastime of sipping a strong type of green tea-mate). The girls really like the climbing structure with embedded slide there. and painting!

We attempted kite flying up on a small hill at the end of the large Parque San Martin during a celebration of fall with the girls' school. And went again on our own as a family to try our luck with the kites (not too successful but a nice hike through the brambly cactus landscape and view of the city from up there).

Two weeks before we left, we discovered the largest play ground in the area- actually about a 25min drive away in the neighboring town of Lujan, literally called "kids plaza" (Plaza de los Niños)- and we can see why! It had multiple huge play structures and nice space for kite flying too. I took the girls once and then Eric did too- they LOVED it.

Another fond memory I'll keep was the spontaneous school playdate one afternoon in Parque San Martin- coordinated by Andrea, my friend who helped welcome me into the parents WhatsApp group. One way they irrigate the grounds at this large park is by running water through these small dirt canals through the grass (no sprinkler systems here). After a shared smoothie snack at a food cart, the kids had so much fun with a spontaneous run and romp through the small waterways and puddles!

I think I already mentioned it, but we really enjoyed visiting the mountain park Villa Vicencio with 2 other classmate's families. The girls loved the ropes course there, and I marveled at the desert flowers blooming in the fall! We even collected some chest nuts on our hike that we tried roasting for the first time (turned out okay, a bit of a learning curve with that!).

One indoor activity we participated in with some of Nell's classmates was going to the Circus- what a blast! The girls were totally enthralled- this was their first circus show. The acrobatics and performances were very fun and definitely geared towards kids- and Nell and Mae could not get enough. This activity was one of several coordinated through that WhatsApp parents group- we have been so impressed with how welcoming the families have been to us!

We were invited to several fun birthday celebrations too- including one with a magician for Nell's friend Praga's birthday. This was a neat way to get a sneak peak into family-life. Birthday parties did not seem too different from the states- usually at a park or playground- but felt a little more relaxed and hands off with the kids than I've seen in the States.

We did not get too involved in the soccer culture (or mania) of Argentina. But we did attend a local futbol match, which was actually a pretty mellow scene (not a big rivalry match) and was a fun way to spend an afternoon. I also watched one of Argentina's world cup qualifying matches against Uruguay at a local bar cafe over some pizza and drinks- Argentina won 1-0 securing their qualification (no surprise!). Nell thought that was a pretty cool big thing kid to do (although TBH she mostly just watched shows on my phone instead- ha! I don't think she's developing into a big futbolista...).

One day after trying to visit a new park in Mendoza that ended up being closed, we happened upon a serpentarium- that was pretty cool! I don't think the girls have been able to see many snakes close up before, they even had several boas.

We feel grateful to have been able to have all these fun experiences and really take advantage of what the area had to offer! That being said, there were some downsides about our time there, though in the scheme of things relatively minor...

"LOWLIGHTS"

The keys of Argentina are unique- they seem to be a hold-over from colonial times and are beautiful, with a nice, hefty hand feel. BUT they are really hard to use. You can flip them right side up or down but only one direction actually works, and then they require usually twisting and adjusting multiple times within the lock before it clicks open. Additionally doors are locked with the key from inside the door as well- no deadbolt knob - you have to use the key. This means if you are in an emergency or misplace your keys you are screwed. Most doors also have a handle, or knob lock which means the door auto-locks behind you, but to do the deadbolt you still need the key. In our first Airbnb the house had a front patio with a separate key to the street. I had the unfortunate experience one time of the front door to the house locking behind me just after I realized I didn't have the keys in my purse. Which meant I couldn't get into the house but also could not leave the front patio because I needed the key to unlock the front patio door too! Fortunately I had my phone and Eric could come get me out - but the experience left me a little freaked out. I do NOT like the feeling of being trapped!

Our second apartment- we decided to stay in Airbnb's during out time in Mendoza, primarily because of the convenience of finding a furnished rental this way, and having some reassurance from the platform as to quality and flexibility around booking and changing bookings. But it was also impossible to find a place for the full 11 weeks, so we had to switch locations about half way through our time. Our second home was a second story apartment on the corner of two busy streets with the bedrooms facing out. Additionally, the first floor space (previously a bar) was in the process of being repurposed and remodeled into an apartment- this meant that M-F from about 9a-6pm (with a break from 1-3pm daily) there was all sorts of jack hammering and banging noises- terrible for Eric who was trying to work from home, and the street noise, though not terrible for a city, was also not great for sleeping! And while we generally like the concept of bidets and floor drains in bathrooms, the execution in this particular apartment was poor, which meant there was a constant puddle on the floor of the primary bathroom due to poor plumbing- I found this super aggravating... but I know it comes with the territory of being a renter. The redeeming part of this home was definitely the sunny terrace, and that it continued to be a short walk to the girl's school! Though there wasn't really furniture to relax on the terrace, Eric and I each made a point to be up there for some part of each day taking in the sunshine and views.

Robbery- we felt actually very safe in Mendoza over all. Granted we were staying in one of the nicer neighborhoods and weren't out late at night at all due to our sleep schedule, but exercising normal precautions we did not feel nervous or threatened moving about the 10 block radius of our home. And even when walking within 1-2 km of our home felt quite safe during the day. Unfortunately, one weekend during a long run for Eric when he was trying to run from our apartment to the nearby foothills Eric was held up at gunpoint (he wasn't sure if it was a real gun, but wasn't going to find out!). His running pack with cell phone, fancy running watch, and shoes were stolen, and he was left untouched. He said it was mostly a sad and annoying experience as he could tell the young man (who's face was mostly covered) seemed pretty nervous and was likely pretty desperate. None of those things were super valuable, but Eric did get an annoying bout of plantar fasciitis after walking home for 4 miles on pavement barefoot. Later we learned that the poor villages nearest the foothills are notorious for being unsafe... We both anticipated that at some point during out travels something like this might occur, so we weren't super surprised but it was a disappointing reality check about 7 weeks into our stay, and we were mostly relieved Eric was not directly harmed.

Potty training- An annoying, but probably not too surprising, outcome of all of this travelling and transition meant that Mae took a real step back in her potty training. She has been much slower to potty train than Nell who was deceptively fast (1 week!). Before we left she was still having accidents about once a day, but once we began traveling it was like she forgot everything. We were changing her clothes multiple times a day, even when we were in our rental apartments with access to the bathroom, she wouldn't spontaneously use the toilet. We hoped once we got to Mendoza that would improve with the regularity of school, but it never really did. We had to send her with 2-3 changes of clothes a day. Finally, I got tired of washing sheets daily and we put her back in a diaper for nighttime. We tried all the things of regular sitting, asking the teacher to do the same, incentives, star charts, minimizing liquids in the evenings, using bathroom before and after activities, etc, etc, without luck. This is another reason having access to clothes washing was so helpful for us! We hope this will improve after we are settled in Portland, OR. She will be 4 in July, so this feels frustrating to have to deal with for so long, but we know we just have to keep at it and eventually it will click...(P.S. Update- even in just the week since leaving Mendoza and travelling as a family where we have eyes on her all day for several days in a row, now her training is improving with only about 1 accident per day! We think maybe she was nervous at school to ask and probably the teachers didn't have as much capacity to really be consistent with her either...there is hope!)

Playground Vandalism- I think we've just been lucky (and sheltered) in Burlington and haven't experienced much vandalism of playgrounds. But here in Argentina nearly every playground we went to (except the Plaza de Los Ninos- which is gated and outside of town) had some element vandalized. Even at our favorite yellow park. And you could tell it wasn't just normal wear and tear- for example you'd see a plastic swing seat cut in half or a metal bar of a see-saw broken off, or very commonly the rope and wires of climbing nets torn and ripped apart. I can understand that some people have excess energy and aggression and need to vent- but to do it on kids play equipment seems extra sad. The girls would often overlook this stuff, but it did mean for fewer play structures or more dangerous elements- like some of the rope covered wire webbing would have sharp poking wires sticking out. It made me realize why some playgrounds were actually fenced with only certain hours of availability. ¡Qué lástima !

(Mae loves to climb, even if the rope web is partially broken. And this was one of her favorite trees in the yellow park to climb)

Chau Mendoza!!

Overall we had just the adventure we were looking for in Mendoza- with all the ups and downs that go with that. There were times when we wondered what we were doing or if we should leave earlier, and then by the end it was hard to believe our 11 weeks were done already! Each of us has significantly improved our Spanish, and though the girls are not fluent (3 months is too short for that)- I was so happy that by the end both of them were spontaneously saying some short sentences in Spanish or common playground phrases with no prompting from me. Nell's Spanish is a few steps ahead of Mae, but both girls took an interest in learning and absorbed quit a bit, I think. I can also see how Nell is cluing into conversations without prompting and it makes me so proud of her progress! I'm hoping when we move out West to Portland, OR they can continue to study Spanish in their schools or at least use it with Latino neighbors and friends in our new community. Regardless, I think language immersion is a great neuroplastic exercise, and also good practice for all of us in learning, struggling and being flexible.

I am also so incredibly grateful for the sweet community we were able to dip into during our time in Mendoza- what great people! It was hard to say goodbye, especially not knowing when or if we will ever be back. Nell and Mae's classmates both made efforts to have despedidas for the girls and many classmates drew them going away pictures as a keepsake. It was all very, very sweet. They will be missed and remembered with much fondness!

(Mae's class)

(Nell's class)

(Last goodbyes to teachers)

(Playground despedida)

(Goodbye to my friends Nati- left- and Andrea- right)