Just Another Tuesday In Carlos Paz

Argentina beat Brazil, we took a chair lift to the highest spot in Carlos Paz, and later watched several fire fighting planes put out a large fire close to our co-workers’ house. Not bad for a Tuesday, heh?

And it all started because I needed to do some laundry.

Well, except Argentina beating Brazil. That’s simply ninja soccer skilz by one of the world’s premiere teams. Or so the hubby tells me.

Our co-workers (have I mentioned how amazing they are?!) came over after lunch to haul us and our piles of dirty clothes to their house so we could have clean underwear.

And in the middle of laundry we decided to hop in the van and cruise downtown to check out what it will take to get the hubby’s Blackberry functional. Ah, but how could we forget it was siesta and everything is closed? So the next thing I know we’re at Aerosilla, taking a chair lift to the top.

Have I every mentioned an unreasonable fear of heights that might afflict me on occasion? As in every time I get higher than three feet off the ground? Make that two feet.

So. As you can tell, the hubby’s in 7th heaven and I’m trying not to throw up since obviously bending over isn’t an option because then I’d be looking DOWN. Down is bad when you are up.

Once we arrived at the top, the panorama was breath-taking! The city spread out as far as we could see. I knew it was a good sized city but until today I had no idea how big it really was. Wow! This is looking toward downtown. We actually had to take six pictures to cover the entire city, and even then we missed some parts hidden from view by lower mountains to the right and left.

I’d have been quite content to leave it at that and GET OFF THE MOUNTAIN. But our dear co-workers had arranged for us to take a little train ride. “Little” being the operative word for both the size of the train and the length of the ride. It just went a little way out and around the mountain but, people, we were perched in those wee cars on a tiny little track high above the earth. Definitely more than two feet. I must admit that my eyes were firmly shut for 99% of the train ride as I clutched the side of the train and my hubby’s leg. He was the one taking the pictures while I moaned “Oh, I feel sick!”. [He thanked me later for not throwing up then either.]

Coming down on the chair lift was such a relief that I OPENED MY EYES.

And as we drove back we saw a huge fire less than 500 feet above our co-workers’ home. The smoke soon sent me inside since smoke of any kind is a major trigger for my asthma. But everyone else in the neighborhood was out quarter-backing the action. A difficult place for the fire trucks to reach so three planes were sent in and within the hour had put out the fire. Don't blink as you watch this video clip; it's only nine seconds -- just long enough to show the plane dropping its load of...well, whatever it is they drop on fires.

Our co-workers said that several years ago a fire came within 150 feet of where they built their home. I guess the very dry conditions make this area comparable to California and the brush fires that plague that region.

Now how do we top this Wednesday?