I'm sure you have all been sitting at your computers wondering "Where has Jacob been since October 21st?", so I apologize for being behind on my blogging. This has been a pretty eventful week or so, so I will try and sum it up:

Last week I left Buenos Aires to meet up with Joseph and Victoria a second time, this time in Mendoza. Located about 2/3 of the way between Buenos Aires and the border with Chile, Mendoza is right on the Andes foothills and is most famous for its wine production. The dry desert climate plus a very extensive irrigation system have proven to be perfect conditions for growing Malbec graps which make exxxxccceellleent red wine. My favorite, at least.

When we arrived in Mendoza on Wednesday morning, everything was closed for the census. Literally everything...grocery stores, drug stores, businesses, etc. Why, you might ask, does a census require everything to be closed? Because this country never misses an oportunity for any kind of nationalistic propaganda to take the attention away from the negative aspects of its corrupt leadership. Therefore the census is a national holiday. Nearly 600,000 census workers went around to every house in the country to ask the questions "¿Cuántos somos y cómo estamos?", how many are we and how are we? The result was a 97% response rate (allegedly...).

Wednesday October 27, 2010 will certainly be a date for Argentine history books, but probably not because of the census. Nestor Kirchner, the immediate past president and husband of current president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, died of a heart attack at his summer home in Califate (in Patagonia). The response here in Argentina was "impresionante" to say the least. 150,000+ people gathered in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, the story did and continues to dominate the news, and nearly everyone seemed to focus on his accomplishments (leading the country out of a recesson) rather than the polarizing side (there are a lot of people who do not like the Peronist party). Great for a day of national pride, no? Is it a coincidence that Nestor Kirchner died in an isolated location on a day of national pride when everyone was required to be at home, a day that the government had been talking up by hiring people to create nationalist graffiti to advertise the census, and a day to forget the corruption and have pride in the country? We will never know...and we certainly won't be able to tell from Cristina's facial expressions, which, at this point in her life and in true Argentine fashion, don't necessarily look...well...natural...or unaltered. (Basically, la presidenta has that "work done" look.)

The rest of the world, however, didn't seem too concerned. Cnn.com, for example, posted their article on Nestor Kirchner's death not in the headlines but at the bottom of the page...the 4th article down under the Latin America section. The headline was "ARGENTINA'S KIRCHNER DIES", which is quite misleading since the current president is Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. It also focused more on Hugo Chavez's tweet @CristinaFernandesdeKirchner offering his condolences than the actual implications of his death.

Anyway....the trip to Mendoza was a success. We attempted to make the census day into a hiking day, which kind of failed a little bit, but followed it with a day of renting bikes and riding to different vineyards. Not a bad way to spend time. Friday we walked around the city of Mendoza and explored what is without a doubt one of my favorite city parks ever.

I will finish catching up tomorrow, but in the mean time, enjoy the pictures from the trip here.