WWOOFing with Blanca

In the morning, we wake up and have a cup of tea around 9 am. Breakfast here in South America is clearly not the most important meal of the day (get to that in a second) as it pretty much universally consists of small crouton-like bits of white bread with butter and jam. The average argentine seems to take in maybe 60 calories during this brief time, munching on a mere two or three crustinis con mantequilla y marmalade. I however, am both accustomed to and dependent upon a breakfast of sustenance, complete with whole grains, and a little protein, especially if I am to be working hard outside without a snack til lunch at 2 pm (though this is a quite filling, replenishing meal, and the most important one to Argentines. For some, like our official host Blanca Rosa (yeah, her name really is white rose--can I put parentheses inside parentheses?) it's the only one.).
To remind, after that challenging sytax, breakfast: I usually put away around a dozen toastettes. The jam is homemade at least, and quite tasty, and much of the time, there's homemade whole wheat bread at our WWOOFing spot.

Next, it's out to the yard. We've learned a ton. On day one, we harvested lettuce seeds of three different varieties (which were all identical plants in seed form), then climbed up on the roof of Blanca Rosa's main home to help repair a green roof (for the non-hippies and -landscape architects out there, that's a roof made by laying down a waterproofing plastic, followed by dirt and actual grass or something similar. Pros include cheap natural insulation, ease on the eyes, slowing of storm water runoff, and potentially even edible crop production!). On day two: the beginning of our still ongoing adobe project. We've been working with an interested Chilean architect named Chino on this one. Together we've built up a rough frame for the wall of an outdoor patio mostly out of old palettes and wine bottles, then added busted car windshields and other salvaged glass for windows, and finally enveloped the whole mess in adobe (that's clay, sand, hay, water, and horse shit). Chino has made this project his baby, and as soon as we can wrestle the photos he's taken off his camera, I'll post em.

At 2, the afternoon meal, where Caitlin and I crowd around a kitchen table with Blanca, her daughter Vida Luna (yeah), her grandchildren Azul (uh huh) and Gabriel, Chino, and whoever else happens to be around that day, so +3 ish. Sometimes we have a hearty soup, or pasta, or a baked casserole, and always a salad. I have a reputation with Vida for always taking seconds, which always exist, and of which she approves due to my rather slim figure.

This meal is frequently followed by an hour or 90 minute siesta (a gift to the new world from the old) of reading and napping. Then, back outside for more.

In the evenings, Cati (as she is known 'round here) and I sometimes walk the few kms into town for a beer (which are sadly a little mediocre, even in the hops capital of Argentina, though we've found some that aren't bad) or helado (gelatto). The night life doesn't begin until around 2 in the morning when the bands advertised to go on at midnight start up, and so Cati and I have had trouble seeing much music so far. The lupulo (hops) festival is this weekend and goes from 8pm to 5am, so we'll find a way to adjust our circadian rhythm.


- Señor Halfsnarl

Location:Ruta Nacional 40,,Argentina