Stitches Removed/Ready to Leave for Chile

Stitches Removed/Ready to Leave for Chile

Monday, Jan. 23, 2006, Mendoza, Argentina

Late yesterday afternoon I did as I had planned. The rain stopped, so I went to Parque San Martin, the huge park on the west side of Mendoza. It is a WONDERFUL place. I don´t know of a nicer park anywhere in the U.S. It is clean, neat, and large. There is a very long rowing lake with a nice building housing the rowing club. There is a children´s playground with a carousel, special roads for them to bike or skate, playground equipment, etc. There is a tennis stadium, a football stadium, etc. Mostly, it is just large patches of woodland with medium-sized open spaces scattered throughout. People bring their tables and chairs and set them up wherever they want them. They picnic or drink coffee. They play games nearby. The park is so big that everyone who goes can find a place that is semi-private. It reminds me a little of my favorite park in Copenhagen--Frederiksberg Have--but it is about 50-75 times the size of that park.

On my way back into town, I bought picnic supplies for my room. I got a bottle of Santa Julia Malbec; a package of chunks of cheese, ham, and salami; a package of crackers; and a small bag of stuffed olives. I sat on my bed and enjoyed my meal at 8:00 p.m. without having to wait until the restaurants opened. Then I read for a while before going to bed around 11:00.

Today, I went back to San Jorge Tramatological Center. To me, my wounds where they put in the two pins still looked rather pussy and bad. But Sergio took out the stitches and cleaned them well. Then he put the splint back in place and wrapped me up with gause and paper tape. He told me to clean the wounds in one week, so I will have to buy supplies for wrapping and taping it again and some hydrogen peroxide for the cleaning. Then in two weeks, I have to have an x-ray to see if the bone has healed. If it has, I will go to a similar clinic to get the pins removed. If not, I will wait two more weeks and have another x-ray. If all goes well, I could be half-way toward using my thumb again already.

I ate assado (charcoal-grilled meat) for lunch today. A restaurant down the street had it as one of their luncheon specials. I got three slices of beef and one piece of sausage along with fried potatoes, a small loaf of bread, and a 500 ml cola for $2.33 U.S.

Tonight, I will snack in my room again. I have crackers and olives left from last night. That should be enough to take care of my needs after that lunch. Tomorrow morning, I will check out of the hotel and go to the bus station after breakfast. I´ll miss one aspect of my hotel: Every time I have left the room, even after my afternoon naps, someone has come into the room to make up the bed so that each time I enter it is fresh and nice looking!

My bus for Valparaiso, Chile, leaves at 9:30 tomorrow morning. I´ll travel all day getting there at 10:30 at night. Much of the time will probably be spent at the border crossing. I have heard that it can take up to 6-8 hours to get through there. Anyway, I will be in another country I have never visited before, and to get there, I will cross over one of the great mountain ranges of the world (and go through a 1.5 mile-long tunnel through the mountains). I won´t have a chance to update the blog tomorrow, but I will try to get online Wednesday to tell all about the crossing and my reactions to being in Chile.