Workaway in the Andes

At the recommendation of our Workaway host, Marco, we got a bus ticket to Rio Salado from San Rafael. Rio Salado is not a bus stop, just a point on the highway that the bus crosses a river and they pull over to the side of the road and let you out….with no buildings, signs, or any other infrastructure in sight (not to mention: absolutely no cell service). It only cost us $3.15 for the 2.5 hour bus there! Fortunately, Marco was waiting for us in his Defender (which we'd come to know and love) and we continued the rest of the way into the mountains. We arrived at the property, which is technically a thermal spring hotel, that we’d be working at for the next 2 weeks. We had again lined this up via Workaway.info (definitely recommend, usually free accommodation and meals in exchange for 25ish hours of work per week). We were showed our room downstairs in the main house, where they have rooms and bathrooms for seasonal workers or volunteers, while Marco, his wife Silvia, and their 2 month old Angelina live upstairs. We were the only volunteers/workers here during our stay so we had the entire floor to ourselves. We were invited up for midday meal and left to unpack and get situated. Shortly after, Marco gave us a tour of the entire property, from the hotel, thermal baths, workout room, property lines, “portal”, pig pens, etc. Marco mentioned he would go to the store the following day and asked what groceries we’d like for the 2 weeks. We gave him a list of fruits, veggies, and meats as there was already rice, quinoa, flour, and spices in the kitchen. A few things we noticed and loved (or hated) right away; they have 5 dogs, deadly spiders and scorpions, access to thermal baths every day, our own kitchen, a workout room, and a very arid climate.

Our first day of work consisted of sweeping out the pool on the property. Due to a large mudslide this spring, it was covered in dirt still even after Marco had bulldozed most of it out. We set to work thinking it would be a quick task, but quickly realized how large the pool was. We were 3 hours into our task and through sweeping, and about to start power washing, when we stopped for our morning descanso/mate break. Mid-day descansos are HUGE here….with many companies closing down between the hours of 2 pm - 5 pm or variations of this. As we were working outdoors, generally we took our descanso a bit earlier to avoid the hotter parts of the day (around 11-12). This allowed us to work from 8-2 daily with an hour break and get in our 5 hours each day.

The other big part of the culture here is mate. 🧉 Mate is a type of…..tea? It is made up from the Yerba mate plant, dried, and chopped into small, leafy pieces that you fill your gourd (calabaza) with and then fill with lukewarm water. Everyone carries a thermos around to keep their water warm and most shops have hot water to refill them at (usually free). The first use usually has a bitter taste, but you reuse the mixture until it loses flavor, at which point you dump it out and refill with new mate. This is our VERY simplified version of mate and how we drank it - but there are many experts who have perfected the art (and terminology) of mate. See example here: https://yerbamatero.com/blogs/guides/how-to-prepare-yerba-mate Or on the official Buenos Aires tourism website https://turismo.buenosaires.gob.ar/en/article/step-step-how-prepare-mate. So naturally, there was plenty of mate around the house and this also turned into part of our daily descanso and post work relax time.

Back to the job - returning from our first descanso we discovered a tarantula in our freshly swept pool. We carefully removed him and set him in the bushes where he belongs (OK OK….KYLE moved him, we all know Nicole’s a bit terrified of spiders). It took us the rest of the day power washing to get halfway through the pool, largely because of the difficulties of removing minerals that had crusted over the paint and scooping the copious amounts of dirt that continued to come up. We knew we most likely had another full day of washing ahead.

That afternoon, Marco returned with our grocery items. With a slight language barrier, and a large culture barrier, sprinkled with limited access to foodstuffs, our grocery list had turned into a fun, but odd assortment:

• What we asked for: chicken (expecting some chicken breast, thighs, or even drumsticks).

  • What we got: an entire chicken, mostly plucked, and with the heart, liver, and neck included in a separate bag.

• What we asked for: an assortment of vegetables

  • What we got: dozens of onions, tomatoes, and potatoes, along with a few carrots, some lettuce, some avocado, and corn (a surprise because we had told Marco that Nebraska had a lot of corn, and he thought it might remind us of home)

• What we asked for: "dulces" (meaning "sweets")

  • What we got: Argentine "dulce" which is similar to Mexican flan. Basically a block of gelatinous flavored something or another. Our flavors were sweet potato and chocolate.

• What we asked for: beef.

  • What we got: a couple of t-bone steaks, some ground beef in a plastic sack, and some flat, thin slices of meat. Marco said they were "for Milenesa" to which we replied "oh yes, of course!" before frantically looking up what Milenesa was. It turns out that Milenesa is a very typical Argentine dish very similar to chicken fried steak, so we whipped some up for lunch that next day.

• What we asked for: some wine and beer

  • What we got: an average bottle of wine ($3) and a high end bottle ($5....seriously)

• What we asked for: muchos huevos (many eggs)

  • What we got: Many, many, many eggs

Overall, our first day set a great tone for what our next couple weeks would look like. We woke up the next day and headed back to the pool. After a few hours of power washing, weeding, and our descanso, Silvia needed Nicole’s help inside. Kyle headed out to finish (for a couple of confused hours by himself) the pool before we called it a day.

Well, Silvia didn’t really need Nicole's help - she was actually helping Nicole with a birthday surprise for Kyle. Yes…..we did leave Kyle to power wash a pool by himself on his birthday….BUT we also finished the day surprising him with a three layer homemade cake and an asado (more on this later). We had already set out our steaks for a “birthday” dinner, so Kyle was pleased with the array of meats, salads, and dessert for a birthday meal. After our meal, we headed down stairs to relax a bit.

Back to the cake and asado - asado is also a BIG part of the culture here. You may know beef is a large part of Argentine dining, and it is incorporated into almost every meal. An asado is a large meal in which they build a wood fire and cook multiple cuts or parts of meat to be shared amongst friends/family. Often you’ll see an asado done over an outdoor fire, but Marco had also built and asado grill where you build the fire on one side and then push the freshly created coals into the middle where you then cook your food. For their family this is generally a Sunday tradition, but with a birthday on hand they moved it forward a few days. As for cake - we baked a typical chocolate box cake, like any we’d have back home. Sylvia told me to cut the cake, and I think she nearly cried when I started to cut it in half. She quickly stopped me and explained she meant to cut it into 3 layers. Confused (and wondering if perhaps I lost something in translation), I did as she said. She then proceeded to throw 2 pots on the stove and get a large mixing bowl. As she handed ingredients and told me what to stir/mix when - I began to realize we were home making 3 types of toppings. We made a milky cream filling to go on the inside layers, a merengue to frost the entire cake with, a layer of canned peaches, and a sweet rum liquid to pour onto the cake between each layer and keep it moist. If it was just me cooking - Kyle would have had a plain chocolate cake. When I told Sylvia this she laughed and asked if we never made cakes like this at home. I told her rarely, usually just the box and a store bought frosting. She was appalled and said even a child would be disappointed on their birthday if they only had a one layer cake. So - note to self - meat and three layer cakes in the future or Kyle's birthdays will be incredibly sad?

When the cake and meat finally settled, we hit our first gym day. The workout room has a great view of the mountains, yoga mats, kettle bells, free weights, an phone hookup with surround sound for music, and maybe most importantly, a ping pong table. Yes - we did start and end every single workout with a game of ping pong. Yes - Kyle did beat Nicole 49/50 games (yes - Nicole snuck in a single victory). After this am another walk around the property, we decided to still cook steaks for dinner as they were already out and seasoned (and of course we let Kyle have two big grilled beef meals on his birthday) and enjoyed them with wine and more cake for dessert before calling it a night.

Over the next few days we continued working on the pool (we had gotten paint as well), started removing invasive weeds with hoes and shovels from the property, began building dams near a stream in the foothills to create steady water flow, and cleaning pipes to get fresh water down to the trees and pigs. We knew, as the blisters formed, that we were in for a good couple weeks of hard work and getting in shape, especially when you add in the daily workouts. Frequent visits to the thermal pools helped with the soreness. Meals included cooking the whole chicken (we started it in the oven before Marco made us move it to the wood-fire grill, which is "the only way to cook real meat in Argentina), as well as many salads to help get through our immense amount of quickly ripening veggies. At this point we also started a homemade bread adventure that would end up producing 3 loaves of a simple water/flour combo and 2 more loaves of sourdough during our two week stay! One of the loaves also had - inexplicably, according to Nicole - a silicon engagement ring baked into the middle. There's many reasons why we didn't take the real one with us, but baking bread was not on that list!

One day during descanso, Marco came in and proposed an idea for the afternoon. As we always say yes (mostly for better, sometimes for worse) - he suggested we go to a valley 45 minutes away and spend the rest of the day fishing. We quickly agreed and before we knew it we were off-roading in the Defender on our way around the mountain to Valle Hermosa. We were given the option of fishing the lake or river. After some deliberation, we decided on the lake. We crossed a marsh on the way to the far bank, and got very stuck in what seemed like an innocuous section of mud. We spent 45-60 minutes attempting to get unstuck, digging out tire wells, bringing rocks to use, shaking/leaning/pushing the defender as Marco tried to drive out, and even throwing Nicole to drive while the boys tried to push. Unfortunately - we were still stuck (and very muddy at this point). Marco went to ask the nearest people around if we could use their car to anchor and pull ourselves out that way. As he knew the car owners, he sent us on to fish while her got them. We had a quick lunch, started some fishing, and next thing we knew the vehicle was out and we were all casting lines. We spent a few hours at the lake, and while Kyle and Nicole both had fish trailing and even some bites, Marco was the only successful fisherman of the day. We returned home (avoiding the marsh this time), showered, and made dinner before turning in for the night. The next morning we woke up with more weeding to do and dug an irrigation ditch to put in a drip line to water the baby trees. Again - digging (shovel/pickax combo) is a real adventure here thanks to the very rocky and dry soil. We finished majority of the line and were ready for the weekend!

As an aside: Kyle would like to apologize to the Behm family for his terrible fishing skills and/or luck. Tim, if you're reading this and now need to pull back the marriage permission, we understand!

Saturday we had planned a hike (plan is a loose term here). We wanted to hike from a nearby ski town called Las Leñas to our home - which we guessed would be between 15-20km (9-12 miles). We spent the evening Google earthing potential routes and had 2 in mind (an easy route and a hard route) when Marco dropped us off that morning. We ended up taking neither, and instead went in between, where, when planning, we had all agreed looked like a terrible option. While it may not have been our BEST decision, it wasn’t as bad as we originally thought it would be. After we made it down a very sheer face of the mountain and to the creek in the middle valley, we though we only had a small mountain to go over before home. Joke's on us - once we were up we realized we had yet another down and up before we were to our valley again. Luckily we had packed plenty of food and water, and made it home with daylight to spare ! We cleaned up, made dinner, and immediately hit the thermal baths to relax our already aching muscles. The hike was our first long hike through the mountains with no trails, no signs, and no guide. But it did include some fossil hunting and plenty of horses, sheep, and lizards along the way!

The following day we followed Marco's family's Sunday tradition - sleeping in, relaxing, and an afternoon asado. To contribute, we made multiple loaves of bread (both sourdough and regular), some fresh squeezed lemonade, and a caprese salad. Another workout and walk with the dogs made it feel almost like a Sunday back home. Over the rest of our time in Los Molles de Melargue, we helped clean hotel rooms as we had anticipated guests coming; cleaned an outdoor thermal pool, which we all referred to as “the portal” (see more below), planted baby trees, washed all of the exterior windows of the hotel, and cleaned the Defender after it's muddy adventure. We also spent a lot of time hanging with the dogs, and even feeding the pigs some table scraps that we saved up each day for them (the dog's got the good meat bones first though, of course).

“The Portal”, or outdoor thermal pool, has a rock wall built around it and drains into a nearby lagoon on the property. We removed mineral buildup and algae which grows in the warm water before power washing the stone. One of the very peculiar clients/neighbors who had passed through and became a regular client has a theory that this pool is a galactic portal that will open in 2025 in a rapture event to send all of the good people/believers to another galaxy, or something like that. He consistently refers to this as the portal, and since discovering it on the property has been bringing his daughter there for thermal bath treatments. So…..if you’re looking for a vacation spot in 2025….it might be a happening place. Feel free to dm us for more details.

We made our food last perfectly through our time, trying a lot of new recipes, spent multiple nights playing gin rummy, and truly enjoyed our time in isolation without really interacting with other people. One of our very few times we did, was actually a day Marco and Silvia had taken Angelina to Melargüe for a doctor checkup and we had the place to ourselves. En route to workout - we heard a car horn at the gate. As we went to greet the man, he told us he was there to pick up the pig. Marco had mentioned he had sold a live pig that the guy hadn’t ever showed up to get it, and he had also just recently butchered another. So our initial confusion was how is this guy going to fit a live pig in his little car, and how the hell were we going to wrangle it up in the first place? Fortunately, once we saw the cooler we realized it was the recently butchered pig that he was really here for. We were able to get it out of the freezer and loaded into his car, while confirming with Marco he had already paid. As most Argentines use all parts of the pig (or cow), it was freeze wrapped whole. This meant it obviously did not fit into the guys cooler and instead was laid out across his entire back seat as he left. We laughed as we hit our workout - never thinking we’d have to converse in Spanish about selling a live or frozen pig.

When it came time to go, we were sad to leave. We knew we would miss Marco and family, the dogs, the work, the space, and the thermals, and even more so: the simple, honest, and hard-working routine of it all. Marco took us down to the river crossing (remember, it wasn't a real bus stop) where we flagged down the bus and said our goodbyes.

A few things to note:

1. At the butcher shop - Marco is known as the intestine guy. When he buys meat, they always save him the intestines as they’re one of his favorite parts of asado. He braids them and cooks them until crispy and served them before the bigger chunks of meet - like an appetizer.

2. We often had treats appear on our table - Chipas (made from plantain flour filled with cheese bread balls), a bread that had little chunks we initially thought were chocolate but later found out were the remainder chunks of meat from fat boiled down were taken out, then baked into bread , or the “dulces”…which were gelatinous, sweet potato flavored sugar bombs. Marco also left us some of the trout he caught on our fishing day as we had no such luck.

3. Junior, the largest dog, had to be penned up at night and wasn’t allowed to leave the property for walks. When we asked why, the simplified explanation was: he will kill and bring home a goat. It was hard to believe since he was the most loving, most goofy, most turn-over-for-a-belly-rub of the bunch...but the one night he did get out he brought home a hind-quarter of a goat, so I guess it's for real.

4. There were signs and warnings about scorpions (2 types…one poisonous and one not), and spiders (both poisonous…..black widows and the South American version of a brown recluse….called a violin spider) that were frequent in the area. While we only saw tarantulas while we were there….it took us a few days to be comfortable sticking our hands near cracks and crevices during work or reaching into dark areas.

5. This was the perfect amount of time in an area like this. While we offered to stay a few days longer in case they wanted to be with their family for Christmas….we knew another week or 2 of work and isolation would most likely have us pretty beat down.

6. This was the longest period (2 weeks) we had gone without wearing a mask since COVID started. Crazy to think about.

Levi's shirt count: As Marco and family did not wear a Levi's shirt, nor did pick-up-live/dead-pig-guy, the count remains at 264!