5.05.2008

Andreas comes to Buenos Aires

Andreas came to Buenos Aires from NYC for his spring break. So I hopped on a plane from Chile to BA to celebrate with Dre, Smiley and Gabe for Dre's week in in the southern hemisphere. These shots are all from Smiley's terrace at Pasco.




He had been working out and it showed.

in smiley's room


dre and andy

pictures after sunrise...


Tigre




singing Weezer?







and dre leaves....

5.01.2008

a saturday afternoon at Don Jorge´s





compost.

this blissful day ended with watching the full moon rise over a lake and orange mountains at sunset. Then George and I sat in the most beautiful concert room I have ever seen with glass walls looking out over the slapping waves of the lake with mountains and the full moon beyond. It was the home and studio of the virtuoso violonist Joaquin Bello and the concert was divine: visceral and full.

El Molle

One evening, I hiked to the top of a hill above George´s place for the sunset in the Valle Elqui.

one of George´s sculptures in his orchard bordered by peach and quince trees

the same sculpture from the side

In addition to a ton of grapes, George had over 100 trees: almond, walnut, citrus, apple, persimmon, citrus, peach, pear, apricot, quince and olive trees.

La Señora Flora was very agile for a 74 year old. She comes to George´s twice a week to irrigate the orchard and help with the harvests and weeds. She lives down the road from George, has over 25 grandkids and dug all the irrigation ditches.

Vicuña

George, (or Don Jorge as the locals call him), was kind enough to let me come stay at his home in El Molle, a tiny town in between La Serena and Vicuña. Many days we drove into Vicuña where George is working on a sculpture of a dead pink pepper tree in the town´s main square representing an old indigeneous myth of the area.

George was born in Hungary, spent his adolescence in Chile, passed 11 years in Ibiza, Spain and has lived the last 25 years in Manhattan working as a math professor and a sculptor. We passed many days harvesting grapes, smashing them and making wine in his house. In the evenings, we made food and shared his last season´s wine.


these grapes were in the backyard of Osvaldo´s pastelleria in Vicuña.