Week 4, Mendoza Argentina

Monday Sept. 8,  I started the day early doing my shopping at Carrefour, Carrefour is our supermarket and it’s only 10 min. walk from our house, just the other side of our main C Train station, or surface train here we call it la linea verde.  

In my way back got some fruits and veggies from Gaby 2 blocks from our place and the best one in la Quinta, and at a small stand that only open in the morning located across from Leon Cafe Bar.

Came back home and got our ADT alarm tested, ADT Tech. Angelo was very nice and took the time to show us how our system works, during that test he did a real panic call from the system and 5 min. later the police showed up, a young female officer, she chatted with us and Angelo wrote a note for her report and left.

One thing that didn’t work during the test and that’s why the police came, ADT was supposed to contact us on our cell, before sending the police, as we found out later we were not first on the contact list, our friend Frank the owner of our pass Management company was, OMG he wasn’t happy and asked us to correct the situation right away!

When Angelo left, we took a walk to find the place to sharpen our knife, we had an idea of the location and walk till we were very close by, stop at a shop to ask for the direction, the clerk looked at me and said it’s just the other side of the street, I look and the only thing I saw was a gun and hunting shop it looked like a place to buy armament and firearm, not exactly what I was looking for! 

To enter such a store you have to ring a bell and they come an open the door to let you in, very impressive place, never saw that many guns in my life, not only guns all kind of weapons.

I took out my knifes and showed them to the clerk, he looked at me and said “ha for kitchen”I answered yes, he looked at me and said no problem it will be done by tomorrow afternoon, not cheap 450 pesos to have 6 knifes done, not sure if that expensive or not, I never had any knifes sharpen in the past.

We left and walk directly to Leon Café Bar, there we meet our friend Carl he is from Germany and live in Argentina since ever, in Mendoza since 1998. We didn’t want to stay to late but David Leon’s owner pay us a beer and bla, bla, bla, we end up passing the evening there, during that time I asked David about a song that I was searching since our first visit to Argentina in 2007, he went to his computer on my FB page listen to a 2007 Ford Fiesta commercial that had that song in the background and give me the name of the singer and the song tittle right away, after 7 years of research without any success I was pretty happy.

To finish the night we cross the street to Trivato the butcher shop and bought 2 bottles of wine, and yes it’s inexpensive, and to respond to a question from my dear twin sister, that I love so much, the bottle water is also inexpensive, as I always spoke about the price of wine and beer, and had no clue about bottle water not that I don’t drink water, I drink tap water, I checked and it’s about $0.80USD for 2lt of the best bottled water.

Tuesday, waked up early as I had a meeting that morning with Craig and Gabriella the owner of Taler 4, one of the biggest printing co in Argentina.

Craig bought a print from me and wanted to be print 16 x24, we looked at different kind of paper and the one we picked only came in 48” roll, Gabriella told us that it will be more economical if we had two prints instead of one, I asked her if I could come back with another image to make the second print, no problem she said. 

The 2 images we picked were,

Music Reading picked by Craig and Mystery picked by me.

 I went  back home to get the file, walk back there late that afternoon and in my way back picked up my knife “they are dangerously sharp”, after what I stopped by the Alliance Francaise of Mendoza to check out an exhibit “photography of Paris”. That evening we stayed home and watch TV!

Wednesday we had to get a “Certificado of Domicilio” it’s just a paper that certified that we have a place to live in Mendoza, it’s an important piece of paper for immigration if you want to get a resident visa, or to proof to any service providers like ADT by example that you really live in Mendoza,  

To get this piece of paper you have to go a police station, we have one few blocks from our place and decided to start with this one.

When we got there the door seems lock and we didn’t want to force it! As we decided to head back to our place we saw a car getting in the back of the commissariat, looked like a phantom police car.

 Marc my husband said to me hey I am sure they are cops, they look tough, they were far from us, but when they got out of their car they had big guns and bullet proof vests, yeap they had to be cops!

Marc said to me, go and ask them for our paper work, I began to walk toward them and one of them put his hand up saying no permiso, something like that anyway, I knew that he didn’t want me to go forward, and I walked very slow as he walked very fast toward me closer to the street. He explained that it was forbidden to enter that space, but he told us everything we wanted to know and told us to force the door of the office as it was not lock but only difficult to open. 

He was right we forced the door and walked in. Inside the office we spoke with Officer Florence, very nice women, we explained what we were looking for, she made us sit, and made some calls. She gave me the phone and let me talked to another officer that spoke English, that officer told me to come to his office DT to get the paperwork done, I wrote the address and before we left Officer Florence gave us her phone number.

To get to DT we passed by Pietonal  "Pedestrian only" always musicians playing, very nice and relaxing place.

Took us about an hour to get to his office, Marc is a very slow stroller, got to the office had a meeting with the Officer Ariel, nice gentleman, we filled the paperwork, chatting with him, he worked in NY in the past that’s why his English was so good, he gave us some info about where to get our police check done, and before we leave he told us, that if we need anything we can come to his office anytime, he added be careful, we looked at him and we laughed, he worked in NY and we are from Montreal, every place on earth can be dangerous, “a lot of Argentine think that is very safe in North America “no crimes”!!!

After we went to the printing shop and meet with our friend Craig got our prints, they were perfect, I am going to use this place for all my printing needs.

After we walked to the church to check if they had a Priest that speak  English, they did, we are going to meet with him next week.

From the church we walked few more blocks did some shopping, and took the cab back home.

When we arrived, I opened  the door and walked in to turn the alarm off, when Marc tried to close the door it was impossible, the lock wasn’t completely close and the two pins were still out, we tried with our keys, impossible, real panic “we didn’t want to pass the night the door open”.

I called our locksmith the one that changed our lock, he said that he was coming shortly, he did, he explained to us that when I opened the door I probably turned the key once and took the key out leaving the lock half open, we didn’t know that it was possible to take the key without completely open or close the lock, because from the inside you cannot take your key out before it’s perfectly lock or open, but from the outside it’s possible, we felt stupid, but now we know.

Anyway he took the lock out to please us and cleaned the inside to make sure everything was working right, a real gentleman.

Thursday morning I walked to ADT to change the emergency contact when the alarm goes on, took out Frank, and added our friend Craig. I showed the secretary our Certificado of Domicilio that we got from the Police, I wanted to change the name on the account that is still under Frank, and she couldn’t do it, she asked me to come back with a front person that is resident with a social insurance number.

 I asked Craig our dear friend and he will come with me next Monday. I hope that it will be my last visit to that office, it’s a 45 min. fast walk from my place, it’s a good exercise, but I will prefer going for a swim instead!

That night we had to wait for our house insurance inspector to check my equipment as I wanted to get extra insurance for it, that inspector never showed up, never called, not sure I trust that company, I am going to shop around for a more reliable one.

Friday, I cooked all morning, and after I went for a walk in my neighborhood to take some shots for this post. 

Stopped at my favorite helado “ice cream” place Perin, the taste is amazing, I always go for the smallest portion as the Argentine portion are very big, this time I took, dark chocolate and dulce de leche with walnut, dulce de leche is like a caramel done with milk, it’s very good, the price $3.00US.

I also stopped by Brillat Savarin one of the best pastry place in Mendoza, fresh breads, homemade dark chocolates, and all kind of pastries, as local say here “you get fat only by walking in”.

I also tried to take a shot from outside a Tenador Libre Restaurant where you can eat tonnes of meat!

Today I going to pick some wine, directly from the producer, about $2.00USD for 2011 Malbec Reserved aged in oak!!!

I took all the shots with my small Panasonic Lumix.

Next post will be on Wednesday, a pasta recipe from my own kitchen!!!

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