el marzo

March, to quote Dylan, it flew by faster than a lubed up hippo on a slip n slide. But, as they say, time flies when you´re stompin clay. So summer has officially ended in El Bolson, otoño has arrived with bitter frost on the grass in the morning. But, we have boarded up the house and have been keeping warm by the fire, sitting on little stools and chairs we made. Most days, however, we experience all four seasons of weather...15 minutes of sunshine, followed by a rainstorm, with some crisp wind in the afternoon. I am pleased to say that I have become quite competent in the use of various powertools as well. Its fucking awesome. In other important events, we witnessed our first murder of a cow. One strong blow to the head, a wailing moooooo, and then a slice to the throat. That night we ate hamburgers for dinner, and things really had a new perspective. The next day we got to see how Chuno, our gaucho neighbor, slices up the dead cow with his chainsaw (which he uses for just about everything, I bet he would use it to cut his steak if it would fit at the dinner table). Dylan and I also had a nice mountain holiday. Surrounding El Bolson, in the mountains, are small log cabins called refugios. We backpacked all day, through a forest of tall trees, rotton morel mushrooms (such a travesty), and over rickety old bridges. Our refugio destination was called El Cajon del Azul, which we learned the meaning of as we crossed a bridge over a canyon that was maybe 10 feet wide and 100 feet high. at the bottom of the canyon flowed the Rio Azul...a vibrant blue river with the clearest water I have ever seen. Dylan was drooling over the plentiful trucha (trout) everywhere. One awesome thing about the refugios is that they all make their own beer! So, we charged in and got a delicious pizza and some cerveza casera (home made). Another awesome thing about this particular refugio was that there were millions of little kittens running around everywhere outside. it was magical! Yay! Kitties!!!
This weekend we are going to Chile I believe, Los itos, so that we can get our tourist visas renewed when we come back into Argentina. I hope everyone at home is enjoying the first days of spring!
love