Hey guys....so now we are only about 3 weeks behind on our blog....yikes. Lots of catching up to do. We last left off saying we were heading back to Santiago (en route through Uspallata) to watch field hockey and buy another painting that Maya had her eye on. This was on the 4th of March.... yes the 4th.... making us three weeks behind on the blog.

We left Mendoza on the 4th to spend one night camping in a small town/valley called Uspallata. The valley itself is actually located in the outskirts of the Andes about 2 hours northwest of Mendoza. We had decided to go here because the Lonely Planet had described the valley as being ¨exceptionally beautiful.¨ The town itself turned out to be nothing special... uninteresting buildings in need of repair and dusty dirt roads. The valley however was indeed beautiful. From our campsite we had an uninterrupted view of the Andes with a large grassland/marsh and forest in the foreground. With this view, we were able to witness the advancing lightning storm later that evening. We were also able to take the beautiful photos of sunrise and sunset which are in the photo section. Before dinner that evening, we went for a walk into town to pick up groceries with an Argentinian girl who was staying at the campsite next to us. In town, we picked up 3 stray dogs, who decided to make it their business to befriend us and protect us for the rest of our stay in Uspallata. On the walk home, and during a walk exploring the valley, they made it their goal to terrorize any horse in our path (and within a one km radius). During the night, they slept outside our tent and kept other dogs away. One other quick sidenote from Uspallata. Our Argentinian friend invited us to try mate (an Argentinian version of tea). Mate is consumed by filling a mug (with a cone shaped bottom) with Yerba (herbs), inserting a stainless steel straw (with a strainer on the bottom), adding water and possibly sugar, and then sipping/slurping until empty. The mug is cone shaped because the idea is to share one cup and straw between a group of friends without putting it down. One person will refill the water and Yerba, and pass the mug to each of his or her friends. The person drinking the Mate must finish the cup before passing it back to be refilled. The procedure is designed to be a bonding experience, for relaxation and contemplation. Mate is said to be good for satisfying hunger, ease aches and pains, and be a minor stimulant (like caffeine) but does not have any drug like qualities.

The bus trip back to Santiago was uneventful, although this time we crossed the Andes during the day. Not as beautiful in this particular region as we hoped. Very dry and thus lacked much vegetation.

We woke on the 6th with the intention of leaving the hostel, heading to the main square in Santiago to buy the second painting, mailing the two paintings, and then heading out to see the field hockey game which we though was at 4:00pm. The day started smoothly. Had breakfast at the hostel. Then had some bread and cheese from a market we passed. Arrived at the main square. The painting Maya had spotted a few days before was still there. Excellent. We asked the man selling it how much it cost and he said it cost 50,000 pesos (100 dollars). However, we already knew that the true price was 40,000 pesos as we had talked to the painter a few days before. We told the man that we would pay 40,000, as per the original price, and asked him to roll it for us while we headed to the bank for extra money. Got money out of the bank and a McFlurry from McDonald´s (Maya by this point was in love with ice cream more than Braden), and thought we should double check the game time on the internet. Oops, the game started at 2:00, not 4:00, and it was already 12:30. Rushed back the main square (the man still hadn´t started rolling up the painting!!!) and Braden ran to buy a plastic tube to put the painting in. Got the painting in the tube, paid the man, and walked 50 ft to the post office on the corner of the square. Outside the post office, we found paper and tape and packaged up our paintings. Inside to mail them. Here is where we ran into trouble. It turned out that in addition to the mailing charge (about 30 dollars), Chile has a law that says it is illegal to mail paintings unless they are approved by a specific museum located about 20 or 30 blocks away (however, the museum is closed in the afternoon, and we were leaving that night back for Mendoza). Recall also that we had just purchased the paintings only 50 ft away and any clerk in the post office could have seen this. We then found out that each stamp of approval (we needed two) would cost 80 dollars! 80 dollars! One painting only cost 30! Not willing or able to spend almost 200 dollars to mail two paintings worth only a little over a 100, we decided we would take the paintings back to Mendoza and try to mail them from there.

After this setback, we hightailed it through 3 subways and a sprint down 5 or 6 city blocks including two stops for directions to make it to the game just 4 or 5 minutes late. Just a quick refresher... the game was between England and India, who were competing in a tournament where only the winner would get to go to the Olympics later this year in Beijing (interesting we just read that Britain and the USA are recommending that their athletes where respirators when not competing because of the air pollution. We have also heard that two athletes are refusing to compete because of the pollution). Anyways, the game we saw was one of the last games in the round robin. It was amazing to watch. The hockey was really good, but at times, Braden thought it was comparable to some of the good moments the Vikes have had. At the game there were very few spectators. At the beginning, there were about 100 school kids, but they had to leave when lunch hour was over. After that, it was just parents and friends of the athletes.

After the game, we headed back the bus station to wait for our overnight bus back to Mendoza so we could make it for the wine festival that weekend.

Lots of Love.

Braden and Maya.

xoxoxo.