Ruta 40 |

Several years ago now, my dear friend Cecilia introduced me to a group of her friends which they call Ruta 40. This is a major highway that runs the length of Argentina, similar to the TransCanada Highway or Route 66. These friends all do lots of road trips and often find themselves traveling the legendary road — hence the name.

They meet once a month at someone’s home, and when I first started going it was a challenge for me because everyone was speaking at once in rapid Spanish. Now it’s kind of a measure of how far my Spanish has come, as I can pretty much keep up for most of the conversations.

Anyway, now that I have a nice big apartment, I can take my turn at hosting, and last night was my first time. It was a smallish group, just eight plus me, but we made plenty of noise with chatting and laughing. These photos will give you a taste.

Thanks for coming, everyone!

My friend Cecilia is part of a social group called Ruta 40, because they originally met many years ago around their common passion for traveling Argentina along Ruta 40. They meet once a month at somebody’s home, and over the past couple of years they have welcomed me into their group. They are lovely people and I always enjoy the parties.

This one was at Cecilia’s house, and the main idea was a goodbye party for me, as I am leaving in less than two weeks (sigh!) When I arrived, Cecilia had written a message in soap on a big mirror, and over the course of the night everyone took up the soap and added their names. It was hard to take a photo because of the lighting, but here it is anyway.

The translated message reads, “Helen, bon voyage. We’ll see each other in A6”. As you may know, all my Argentina adventures are labelled with an “A” for Argentina. This one is A5, and in November I will start A6.

Instead of the usual asado, this time we had Peruvian food, courtesy of Cecilia and her niece Nicole, from Lima. The main dish was a delicious stew of meat and potatoes called carapulcra, and one of the desserts was a delicia de limón. There was also a tasty non-alcoholic drink called chicha morada, with a base of black corn — although with all the Malbec flowing around the table, it didn’t get much of a chance to shine! It was all yummy.

I made this little video just to give you a flavour for the party spirit. I hope you enjoy it.