I read in the newspaper about an upcoming festival in Lujan de Cuyo so I recruited Brad and Gillian to go on an adventure with me. La Vendimia Gaucha is a three-day festival celebrating the gaucho way of life: tradition, folklore, food, dance, artisan products, etc. A gaucho is loosely equivalent to a cowboy.
TRANSPORTATION: The festival was located outside of town in Lujan de Cuyo so it was quite a challenge getting there as no one knew how to get there, including the tourist office. We hopped on a bus to the center of Lujan but found out on the bus that the fairgrounds of Lujan are not even close to the center. So we follow the advice of a kind fellow passenger, get off the bus in the middle of the nowhere, and switch buses. THEN we get off the next bus at the side of a highway. You can’t see the fairgrounds right when you get off the bus so for a good ten seconds we looked at each other like uhh what now?
THEN on the way home, we had to wait a full hour by the side of the highway in the freezing cold. It’s perfect weather during the day but can get pretty cold some nights. Luckily, per usual, locals were extremely friendly and helpful, showing us where to get off the bus and entertained us with their love of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Friends, the Simpsons, Michael Jackson, etc. One of the guys even named his daughter after Liv Tyler because he loved her so much.
To get to the Lujan fairgrounds, you take the 850 bus at Rioja & Pardo. FYI
FOOD: Highlight of the night, obviously. This is only the grill or parrilla of one vendor.
Choripan: Grilled sausage on french bread that came with mustard, mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato. We paired our choripan with wine and empanadas. Our wine also came with soda water as many Argentineans like to mix the two but we decided we prefer our wine untainted.
DANCE: Check these videos out to see the traditional dances of the Italian, Spanish and Middle Eastern ancestors that make up Argentina’s diverse population today.
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