More Fun with the Language Barrier
We took a long but beautiful bus ride to Bariloche, then a short but amazing bus ride to a little lake-bound town called Villa La Angostura. We spent two days there, my favorite town so far. From there, another really nice bus ride to the mountain town of San Martin de los Andes. Then a boring bus ride to the city of Neuquen, which is not only not beautiful, but is actually pretty depressing. Finally, we took an overnight bus to the wine-making city of Mendoza, where I am now, and where we'll spend the next two-and-a-half days before flying back to Buenos Aires.
A few anecdotes from the "fun with language barriers" front:
# The "C" on the shower faucet stands for "caliente" not "cold." This is important to remember as you're actually standing in the shower.
# If there's an "M" on the door to a public bathroom, it likely stands for "Muejeres," not "Men." Knowing this will save you some embarrassment.
# The language barrier cuts both ways. There ought to be a "Spangrish" website like the "Engrish" website. Some of the English translations on menus and in hotel rooms I've seen have been amusing. My favorite example so far: I ordered a pizza to go the other night. Fortunately, the place had a poorly-translated English menu. Where I can only guess they meant to write "small" or "baby" or "pieces of" pizza toppings like tomatoes, peppers, and such, they wrote "fetuses." So you had the options of getting "fetuses of tomato" or "fetuses of onion" on your pie. A bit of an appetite killer.
More to come. It's been a pretty amazing trip. Gorgeous vistas, massages, and great food.
by Radley Balko on June 01, 2007 |posted in The Agitator
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