So it’s the weekend of Valentine’s day here in the great city of Mendoza. Normally I’d be hating said weekend, since I’m usually conveniently (or not so conveniently) single for the Holiday of Love. However, this year I have a wonderful Valentine..except he’s thousands of miles away. Dammit. But, I’m not depressed or sad that it’s Singles Awareness Day (or weekend, in this case), because I’m hanging around living la vita bella here and making new friends. Yay!  Also, just got an email suggesting that me and 2 of the other girls hit the spa on Monday night for a 2-for-1 spa special, so that could be very relaxing.

Last night my friend who took me to the music on the rooftop event came through AGAIN and invited me to go with her and her husband to Jazz in the Park, a 3-night mini jazz concert festival in Parque General San Martin, the biggest park in Mendoza. The park itself is gorgeous; it has a huge man-made lake, running trails, giant fountain, tons of little areas, weeping willows, a health club, etc. It’s huge, and I think I’ve only seen a part of it so far. But anyway, the jazz is set up on the “lake”shore with chairs all around and some elevated tables and chairs in the back with waiter service. The event is totally free and it’s part of the series of events leading up to the Vendimia. The music was actually awesome, and culminated with a band who had a Brazilian bossa nova singer with them who had an incredible voice. We drank Andes beer and ate empanadas while listening to some seriously good music. It was over at 12 or so, and we walked home the other way from the way we came in.

This is kind of interesting. Turns out, at night on weekends here, teenagers and early 20-somethings take their cars up to the road in the park, parallel park them, open all the doors or trunk and have a little party where they blast bad techno music and drink crappy beverages akin to Smirnoff Ice and others. I really wish I had my camera out to capture the amount of mullets, rattails and dreadlock mullets I saw. Yes, dreadlock mullets.

I’m told that families do it too, earlier in the day or on Sunday afternoons for barbecues, but that late on Sunday the teens and college kids take over and it’s unbearable to be there past 4pm.

It reminded me a little of what they do in Queens under the Triboro bridge, is it? I always get my bridges mixed up.