Dinner with Zapala locals

As mentioned in the last entry, on my way back from Copahue to Zapala I started chatting with 3 guys traveling together, we shared stories and photos from our stay there and had such good fun that they picked up the stray that I am and invited me to dinner at their house that night. Manu and Pablo's parents live in Zapala, that is where they were staying, with Pablo's boyfriend Damian.

I got there shortly before 10pm, Argentinians never eating before dark, and as he days are long here, that means late dinners! Manu and Pablo had made their mom go into a near panic because they thought I might be vegetarian (we talked about so many things on the bus that we might have touched upon the subject) and, on top of the many dishes of varied meats, she had prepared a variety of absolutely wonderful salads. I was so happy to see so many vegetables!

The Gastaminza family are wonderful, funny, intelligent, full of life and incredibly open about everything. Around the table were the parents and their 3 sons (Manu, Pablo and Santiago, whom I had not met yet), Damian, and a girl visiting from Germany. They seem to take in strays from everywhere, there are always foreigners in their house, and if I had not already had a reservation at a hostal, I think they would have had me stay over too.

The lively conversation never stopped, with everyone offering really well thought-out and researched opinions presented in passionate voices; we talked about everything from politics to climbing, gay rights, the environment, other countries, all mixed with excellent food, good wine, and high spirits. It was 3am before I realised, and the ¨kids¨were getting ready to go out to the pubs and discos (which only open at about that time here anyway) but this little one was tired. They dropped me off at my hotel. It had been a while since I'd had such a wonderfully lively evening. In North-America, such an evening would have been considered too confrontational, but here, it is done in good humour, with lots of laughing and warmth, everyone remains friends, having a different opinion does not mean lacking politeness, on the contrary, and it is such a wonderful way of learning new things and having one's ideas provoked into growing.

As I was drifting off to sleep, I thought how this is such a highlight of traveling. New people, new ideas, wonderful moments.