this is why i dont do shit like this. I hate keeping up with it. Im kinda sorta forcing myself to write this but i´know i´ll appreciate it in the future. I think every night while I¨m here alone Im going to try and write some random memories. But for now I´ll start with my trip to Mendoza that I took last week.
Mendoza is a city / province in Argentina known basically for its wine. Its also pretty much as close as you can get to Chile without crossing the Andes. My classes ended two fridays ago and after a weekend of a program goodbye dinner and one more group event to a feria we went were off to Mendoza.
It was a 14 hour bus ride in a nice little double decker bus. When buying my ticket i opted for a semi-cama chair. (Even though i was advised to spring for the full cama...stephanie) all and all it wasnt too bad of a bus ride. Just a little shitty din din a night sleep and i was there. Something i learned about myself during this trip is that i can sleep basically anywhere. Which i´m going to say is a newfound talent. I´m calling this a talent basically because i realized that it would suck if i couldnt fall asleep so easily. For instance the bus ride for my friend brian wasn´t so great, i would even go as far to say it was nightmareish. He didnt really eat, definitely didn´t sleep, and got a gusher of a nose bleed. I woke up refreshed to find him zombie like with blood stains on his sleeves. Not so funny to him at the time, hilarious to the rest of us. But alas, we made it to our hostel without too much fuss.
We stayed at the hostel independencia which was pretty nice all things considered. Each night was about $ US 25 with breakfast included. Ya it was freezing and the first day i woke up with three beetle bugs on my bed but the people there were so awesome. When we arrived to our hostel it was around 10:00 and we couldnt get into our room until noon so we went and got some coffee and looked around the the main plaza area where out hostel was. Our plan was to go back and take a nap and hten have a peaceful night in the town. However my friend sarah convinced us to go trekking and repelling which turned out to be awesome. We drove to the base of a lot of the outdoor activities that the hostel offered called argentina rafting. It was about an hour away. So we met our guides and began our trek. We trekked up a small mountain that i believe is one of the Andes. About and hour into trekking we got to our location to repell. Right next to a natural waterfall. We got to climb behind it and play around (where i managed to fall directly on my ass because i slipped on a huge piece of ice, and i mean i ate it in every sense of the word) anyways then it was time to repell. For those of you dont know i´m afraid of heights. Why i opted for repelling I have no idea. My friend andrea went first and did it wonderfully. I was planning on going third in line but the man who was helping called me out and it was my turn. Its amazing how quickly my hands can get so sweaty. (sweaty hands = not good for repelling..thank god for gloves) I was so nervous but i did it. Which i must say i´m rather proud of. I stood on the edge of the cliff thing and just giggled. I basically giggled the whole way down. My giggles are usually a horrible defense mechanism but this time it came in handy. After we all repelled we trekked back down, which might have taken more balance than going up. Another thing that was so awesome about that adventure was that andrea and i were ablet to drink from the small stream the watterfall fell into. It was natural water off the top of the mountain. I have never been able to drink from nature like that.
After that whole day we were all exhausted and went back to the hostel showered and ate one of the cheapest and best asados of my life. It was a day very well spent.
The next day we let ourselves sleep into about ten and after a little coffee and time in the plaza with a friend it was time for a wine tour. Which honestly, was not as cool as i thought it would be. We went to two bodegas one se llama Lopez y la otra no puedo recordar. We also went to a olive oil factory which might have been the highlight, i had no idea how olive oil was made or how smelly it was. After that we got some dinner and called it a night. That day in mendoza was still fun mainly because of the friends i was with. I think our group of friends could make any situation hilarious.
The next day we decided to go horseback riding. This was in part an agreement that my friend elizabeth and i had made. I repelled (my fear) and she would ride a horse (her fear). My horse was named furia, aka fury. awesome. We horse rode for about two hours in one one of the prettiest places i´ve ever been. It was so quiet and so tranquil not to mention the weather was fantastic.
Id write more about this but elda just came in and wants me to eat dinner. I´m a little nervous about whats waiting for me in the kitchen.
