It’s been a while since I’ve blogged, I’ve been so busy! Our program is quickly approaching the end so I’m trying to do everything I can before I have to leave. Since I’ve last blogged I’ve gone surfing (so much fun!), eaten the world’s best empenadas, witnessed a violent protest from the fishermen, and gone sledding in the Andes Mountains!
Monday this week was another holiday so we got another long weekend. Two of my friends and I decided to take a bus to Mendoza, Argentina. The bus ride is supposed to take seven hours, but going through customs can take a LONG time. It took us three hours, which is actually less time than anybody else who I talked to that went Mendoza this weekend too. The drive felt pretty short though because it was so beautiful. We rode directly through the Andes Mountains which was amazing but also caused some problems. First of all, it was terrifying. Look at this picture of the road we had to conquer:
And that’s not even the top- we kept going up higher and higher after I took this picture! The pass between Chile and Argentina is often closed during the winter due to snow and ice. Luckily, it’s been unusually warm last week and this week so we were able to pass through on the way there and the way back. The next issue we had was altitude sickness. I have never experienced it before until this trip and it was awful. Avoid it if you can! The last problem I had was that when I was getting ready the next morning, my hair product exploded everywhere when I opened it up because of the pressure that had been put on the bottle. But, let’s be honest, those “problems” were nothing compared to how beautiful of a drive this was! The 7 hours passed by so quickly. I was happy to get out at the customs office as well because it meant I could play in the snow.
^^ A ski lift that goes over the highway
^^ Me, Jackson, Robin at the customs office
^^ How gorgeous is this??
Once we arrived in Mendoza on Friday, we got to our hostel, Hostel Lagares, and saw that they had a ton of excursions available. We did a winery tour on Saturday since Mendoza is famous for wine (70-80% of all Argentine wine is produced in Mendoza). We also decided to do a bus/walk tour of Alta Montaña on Sunday. We spent the rest of the day (we didn’t arrive until about 5:30pm) walking around the city and seeing what we could do the next few days.
Saturday’s wine tour was a lot of fun. I’m not really fond of wine but I really liked the kind we had a the wineries- Malbec. Malbec started out as a French wine but because the climate in Mendoza was better for the fruits used in malbec, it became an Argentine wine. We also toured an olive oil factory the same day. The second winery we visited on our tour was really cool because they still make wine like they did 100 or more years ago- without pesticides or sulfates and they even hand cork every single bottle. After the wine tour, we set out to eat famous Argentine meat. It’s supposed to be the BEST in the world- I don’t know if I agree. I had a really good steak but I am waiting until we return to Buenos Aires in two weeks to officially decide. We also went out on Saturday night which was a challenge. In the USA, bars close at 2:00 and I can’t even do that; in Argentina, nobody even goes out until 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning!
On Sunday, we woke up to the sound of a knock on the door at 7:30am- we missed our alarm clock, OOPS! We had five minutes to get ready for an 11 hour day touring the country. It ended up being okay though because we were on a mini-bus for most of the trip and we all had to rent boots anyways for walking in the mountains. Our tour began at a big lake in the Andes, and I have no idea what it is called. Our tour guide was talking to us over a microphone on the bus that was really difficult to understand because it was full of static. I just guessed what we were seeing for most of the trip. The hilights of the day included seeing Puente de Inca (Inca Bridge), Alta Montaña (the highest point of the Andes Mountains), and sledding in the Andes!! It ended up being a really fun day and we met a lot of people from all over the world. I was so happy that I was able to speak Portuguese with a few Brazilians on the trip!
The trip back on Monday was just as beautiful (this blog post is going to have A LOT of pictures in it!). We had to transfer buses about two hours away from Viña del Mar and we were the only three people on the entire bus that had to transfer. We got a 16 seat mini-bus for just the three of us and the driver dropped us off right by our houses instead of the bus station. It was a really great weekend and I can’t believe that in two weeks I’ll already be back in Argentina- this program has gone by way too fast.
^^ The lake
^^ Plaza de Independencia in Mendoza
^^ Vino
^^ The second winery
^^ Puente de Inca- a natural bridge formation. That building is the bathrooms of an old hotel that was ruined by an avalanche
^^ Sledding in the Andes!!
^^ Alta Montaña
