A (two day) Party in Our Honor

When we purchased our camper in Buenos Aires the dealer linked us into an online group of Argentine camper owners. Among the many welcome messages in Spanish, one couple, Jorge & Fabiana, reached out to us. They inquired if we were coming through Mendoza, and, if we were, would we please come to their house for a barbecue.

We accepted, thinking someone who so rapidly and generously offers hospitality to strangers must be very interesting people.  At the time we were several days and hundreds of kilometers away, so we made a date for the following Friday night.  As we made our way south along Ruta 40 we kept them posted as to our progress.

We arrived early to Mendoza and settled into a hotel for two days, awaiting Friday.  Friday came, we evacuated our room and drove towards their home to locate it early so we would be on time later. Moving on, we found a campground. We also found a roadside florist and bought some flowers to bring to Fabiana and a bottle of wine as a gift for the family. We arrived a few minutes after 6 o’clock and politely parked outside the front door. We waited, we texted, we waited, and we rang the bell and waited.   

Two very surprised people came out of the gate wearing swimming suits. Neither Jorge nor Fabiana spoke English and our Spanish, being poor, prevented us from understanding them completely so we got out our iPhones and Google translator.  What we got was they were expecting us on Friday and it was Thursday.  It seems we had lost track of the days. Lynnette and I about doubled over in laughter upon realizing the faux pas.  They quickly joined us and their faces were absolutely shining with love and humor.  

We told them we were sorry for the mistake, we had already picked out a campground and we would move on & see them tomorrow. They wouldn’t hear of it.  They quickly opened up their gate and told us to pull in; they insisted we would stay with them that night.  

Jorge immediately made a couple of telephone calls then invited me to accompany him to the grocery store.  Upon returning from the grocery store, he jumped into his car and returned a few minutes later with a beautiful young woman, his daughter, Camila.  Camila is a student at the nearby university studying to be an English translator. She explained she was working out in the gym when an urgent phone call from her father explaining the Alaskans had arrived a day early and she was needed to translate. 

Through Camila, we learned Jorge and Fabiana love meeting people from around the world.  They showed us photos of their friend Jack from Thailand, for example, and of his adventure motorcycle riding the Andes  

We had a delightful dinner of meats cooked on the grill, and conversation translated by Camila. Jorge explained he worked for the government as a tax collector, and that he and Fabiana worked at the same office. They would need to go to work the next day but we were welcome to use their house. We in return explained our plan to explore the countryside and see them the next evening. 

We were shown to the spare bedroom which was once used by their two boys who are now off to college. The bottom bunk was made with Hot Wheels sheets. The top bunk was made with Barbie sheets. I got the top bunk because Lynnette couldn’t climb into it. I could barely climb into it and, it being made for children, it was very unstable. We both thought the beds would collapse at any moment. Being made for a child, the top bunk was six inches too short for my frame. The night was hot. The windows were open.  Between the sounds of the town, hot temperature, short bed and discomfort from eating a heavy meal at 11 PM we barely got any sleep. 

The next morning after wishing Jorge and Fabiana a wonderful day at work, we got into our truck and drove to a campground called El Club de Caza y Pesca de Maipu (The Hunting and Fishing Club of Maipu)  and bought a day pass for 160 pesos ($2.35).  The day previous, we had found a card for this club stuck under our windshield wiper when we were in a nearby town having lunch. The club was spacious and quiet. It had an artificial lake that had coots and one persistent beggar duck swimming on it and a population of carp and small shiners within it.  We walked once around the lake while the duck followed us the complete circumference.  We then fed the duck a couple crackers before setting up the camper to sleep peacefully in the shade for several hours.   

Returning to their house we found Jorge & Fabiana busily preparing a long table in front of their asado fire. The table was set for sixteen. Adjoining side tables held long rows of glasses, wine bottles and spirits. They explained several friends were coming to meet us.

They also introduced us to their sons Franco and Mariano, who were back from university with Mariano’s girlfriend Milly.  The boys and Milly spoke excellent English and, with Camila, we all rapidly felt comfortable with one another as we conversed.

Jorge carefully prepared a special cut of beef and applied it to the asado rack. An Argentine seeing these pictures later confirmed by the color of the fat this was indeed a special cut. 

As the meat cooked Jorge encouraged me to ham it up for some photos by me pretending to be an Asador (grill master).  Meanwhile, the wine and drink flowed.  The kids quickly realized Lynnette’s sense of humor and began teaching her inappropriate Spanish phrases and set her up to greet the arriving guests accordingly.  

One by one the arriving guests walked through the gate to Lynnette greeting them with “Hola culiano!” as everyone else stood around to watch the shocked reaction.  As complexions turned red and hands covered faces I suspected this was a considerable prank.  The kids had a hard time translating but I get a ‘culiano’ is someone who likes sex in the ass.  

Whatever doesn’t get one beaten breaks the ice faster.  We had a fabulous dinner accompanied by questions for us all along the table, translated by the kids.  

We had a lot of questions about Alaska and how we make our lives there. Argentines are extremely interested in politics. We had a lot of questions about President Trump versus President Obama and our opinions of the political landscape of the United States and the world in general.  We hope we were good drunken ambassadors. In the end, we all got to the obvious conclusions that human beings around the world all want the same thing: a peaceful, comfortable life with the ones they love. 

After dinner and dessert, we all danced and laughed until 3 AM. Actual quitting time may have been later.  Dancing sessions were interrupted repeatedly by dunkings in the pool. We crawled into our camper, at the sidewalk, and slept the sleep of the dead as traffic passed all night.  

We departed the next morning, completely hung over and, through tearful hugs and goodbye’s to all, promised we would see one another again in Argentina or Alaska. We received heartfelt texted notes of love and appreciation for several hours after our departure.

Egualmente. 

Muchas gracias, mi amigos.  That was an unforgettable party.