¡El Vino!

I am getting more culture in just a few days that I usually get in a month. After a night at the opera, I went to bodegas (wineries) to learn about winemaking and, of course, wine tasting. I learned more about wine than I care to write about here, but it turns out that there is a lot more to it than mashing grapes into a bottle. I also learned that 15 pesos will fetch you a decent bottle of wine here, but only Charles Shaw at home. My favorite part was seeing the huge french oak barrels in the cellars. Every few years, some guy has to crawl into them via a door a bit smaller than your computer screen to scrape and clean them. No thanks; I´ll keep my job teaching adolescents. The plazas tonight are lit up with friendly artisans and vendors and the whole place takes on a chill, bohemian feel. Too bad I am not interested in buying anything. Even though I overslept this morning (it could have been due to the bus ride the night before or due to the fact that of the 8 beds crammed into a dorm room the size of a Dana Hall math classroom, I was luxuriously the only occupant), I must rise early tomorrow, for I´m taking a day trip to the Andes. I´m nervious about the many hours I´ll spend in a "micro" (small bus)--nearly 6 there and 6 back, including stops--but I am eager to get a closer look at this mountain range that, from here, appears to be only a cardboard cutout shape on the horizon.