water bottle fights.

after a 22 hour bus right through the topsy-curvy passes from iguazu, we arrived in cordoba, argentina's second largest city. we were very grateful to have a few hours to walk around and stretch out.. walked a few markets, charged our ipods, and got back on the bus for another gruelling 12 hours. although almost half the length of the first one, it seemed much longer as we were sitting right in front of the wheels.. the potent smell of motor oil settling into our skin.. baggage thumping behind us at every brake and turn.. blasting air conditioning, no blankets.. no lights to read.. it is so so good to be in mendoza.

we found a quiet, simple hostel, and took a walk through the town. going nowhere in particular, we were walking down the sidewalk when mike got bumped on the head with a water bottle by a passing stranger.. turning around he was quite taken aback, and not sure how we was going to tell this girl in spanish that she had mistaken him for someone else and did not deserve to be beaten with her drinking container.. after a moment, recognition set in.. it was natalia, a girl he had gone to school with in regina. hugs and introductions took place.. and we had plans to meet up at the market that evening.

natalia is here visiting family in chile, and came to mendoza after iguazu and cordoba (both places we would have been visiting at the same time..) she is travelling with another girl from bermuda whom she met in chile. we had a really nice evening walking the park and market stalls, and going for a few drinks.. chatting about mutual friends (turns out we know quite a few of the same people..) and the funny encounters that life inevitably brings.

we had high hopes of getting accepted for private lessons from a girl that comes highly regarded here in mendoza, but unfortunately she is unavailable right now.. so today we are on the hunt for a spanish school. i got us some couches to surf in santiago for next week, so we are excited to see some of chile.. and danelle and i signed up for 'wwoofing' in northern chile.. we are going to spend a week or two working on an organic farm! room and board for free, 3 hours of work a day.. it will be an amazing way to save some money, live locally for a time, and learn some cool tricks of the trade. not sure exactly where we will go yet, but there are some avacado farms.. we'll shoot some emails out in the next day or two and weigh our options. mike has done the wwoofing thing before and figures he has the money to spend, so would rather go look for a beach town with a good book. i don't blame him. we will meet up again afterwards and head into bolivia..

life. exciting.

this morning i woke up and took my coffee up to the rooftop. reading anna karenina with the mountains on the horizon..