Back in Mendoza and short on sleep, just in time for the wine festival. After setting up camp in Parque General San Martin we headed into town to get the low down on the weekend festivities. We found out that there was a parade that evening, but that it would be repeated the next morning. We were advised to go to the morning show as it is easier to see the pageant queens. That worked well for us as we were exhausted, so we bought some groceries, and speakers for our iPods, and headed back to the campsite for a relaxing evening.

The next morning we overslept (as usual) and ended up scrambling to get downtown in time to catch the parade, as we were told it started at 9:00. Again, getting downtown proved to be an impossible task. We eventually gave up trying to figure out the ridiculous bus system and took a taxi. When we arrived downtown things looked pretty quiet. We were soon informed that the parade wouldn´t pass that way until 11:00. Wrong information....once again. We were starting to realize the truth in our Argentinian friend´s words when she told us in Uspallata: in Argentina, you always have to ask for directions from 3 different people. If you ask one person and they don´t know, they will tell you something anyways. You have to ask at least 3 people if you want the correct information, thus insuring that at least 2 people give you the same information.

After walking a few blocks, we settled on coffee from McDonald´s (sadly, the only decent coffee you can get down here) and sat down on the curb to wait for the show to begin. It was about 12:30 when the parade finally rolled by. We were put in hysterics by the first float which, instead of throwing candy, threw condoms and lubricant (most of the spectactors within catching distance were under 14 years of age and were carrying nets tied to poles). The floats were incredibly elaborate - complete with moving statues and more than one dinosaur, and towing huge generators behind. At the front of the parade many of the pageant queens threw grapes into the crowd (there was absolutely NO candy at this parade....only fruit). As the parade progressed, the fruit seemed to get larger. First it was grapes, then apples, then pears. Soon we were seeing delicate beauty queens hurling out full sized melons into the crowd. At one point Braden had to jump back to avoid getting a melon in the head. At this point we joked that it would only be natural for the next fruit to be a watermelon. Be careful what you wish for. From the next float we witnessed a queen give a mighty underhand toss and lob a watermelon (bigger than her head) somewhere into the crowd. While we were busy laughing and exclaiming at this, we didn´t notice her wind up again and toss another one in our direction. Luckily she missed us, but the watermelon broke open on the pavement in the middle of a crowd of people. It was quickly devoured by those nearby.

At this point we decided we had better leave the parade. Who knew what was coming next. We retreated back to the safety of our campsite to cook dinner, before heading to the main event that evening.

The main show took place in an amphitheatre in the park which was a 15 minute walk from our campsite. We left the campsite following the crowd of people up the hill, not sure of where we were going. As we approached the hill we were bombarded by numerous girls in matching outfits handing out free things (e.g. flyers for safe sex/anti drug campaigns, key chains, plastic bags, more condoms etc.). After collecting 15 or 20 of these random items we by-passed the pay seating section and wandered up to the overlooking hill (we heard this was a better place to watch the show from anyways). When we got to the top we realized there were very few seats left. The hill was absolutely packed with locals. We managed to find 2 seats beside a very rowdy group of Argentinian ladies, who very kindly provided us with some rocks and a flattened cardboard box to sit on. We settled down and opened our bottle of wine. This we offered to the rowdy Argentinian ladies, who in return gave us cheese and cake (yummy!). Soon after we were joined by another group of Argentinians (closer to our age), with whom we shared our wine and their mate. They asked us why were sitting on the hill instead of down in the seating area. We replied that it was cheap (in actuality it was free). They seemed to get a laugh out of this. They told us that no tourists came to the hill to watch the show, and that we were a very rare sight. They said most of the tourists went to the seating area to watch, but they could not because they were poor. We replied that we were poor as well. This was the second time we had heard from locals that the festival had been taken over by tourists and rich Argentinians from Buenos Aires, and now the locals (who had created the event), could now only afford to watch the show from afar.

The show itself was quite a spectacle. Complete with light shows, dancing, and a presentation of the queens. We never really understood what the dances were all about - at first there seemed to be some nomadic type people running around the stage...then there were some tango dancers....it must have made sense somehow. Unfortunately, we had to leave early as there were no bathrooms on the hill.

The next day we packed up camp and headed to the bus station (our new home away from home). Heading to San Martin de los Andes (19 hours away). Talk to you all soon!

xoxoxoxoxox

Braden and Maya