Mendoza

Wednesday evening we headed out to Mendoza! Finally. It had been such a long week…Somehow something had gotten mixed up with the buses, no surprise, so we actually got upgraded to the first class seats, which meant huge, leather la-z-boy type seats. I slept like a child. This bus did have some entertainment, however. We played bingo. Correct me if I’m wrong, but bingo means you get all 5 numbers in a line, and then you yell bingo. So, I got 5 numbers all in a row, and I yelled. Apparently, this version of bingo required you to get all the number on your mini number board. So that became awkward, and the bus steward looked at me, sighed and shook his head, as if it was just one more bad mark against my being American. I don’t know what this new version of Argentine bingo is about, but I do know that wine bottle should have been mine.

To make things even more interesting, the bus steward puts on the movie for the evening…The Witches of Eastwick, with an all-star cast of Jack Nicholson, Susan Sarandon, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Cher. Shoot me. It may be one of the top 5 worst 80s movies of all time, which is an achievement in and of itself. But you know those things that are just so awful that you just can’t look away? It was like that. For those of you who haven’t seen it, don’t. You may never be able to eat cherries again.

Thursday morning finally came, and we dropped our things off at our hostel, Mendoza Inn. We realized that pretty much every hostel that we stayed at was part of Hostel International. The best advice I could give people looking to study abroad is to get a Hostel International membership card. Though paying the whole $11 USD is not really an issue, you could still be paying something more like $2.75 per night, which is just absurd. That afternoon we signed up for a “wine and bike tour.” Yes, we rode bikes from vineyard to vineyard. We were shocked when asked to sign a waiver, because to be honest, that is rare in South America. Our trip began at an organic, family-owned bodega, or winery, called Familia Cecchin. Our tour guide, Andrea, showed us around the fields for a bit, explaining that the variety of trees they had planted around the land, among them peach, orange, olive, and nut trees, was to block the vines from bacteria in the wind. She later took us into the buildings to get a behind-the-scenes glimpse at how the wines are made and taught us how to correctly taste wine. My father would have been so proud.

We had a beautiful, sunny bike ride to our next destination. Though I thought we would be riding on some smaller path, we drove alongside the main road, which had miles of big trees lining each side. Beyond the trees were endless fields of grapes. Our second winery was called Vistandes, a much more modern-looking set up. It almost looked like Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory at first, because when you first walk in, the lobby is a gigantic room of white and black tile with a huge wall of windows that faces out into the fields. Our tour was again informative, describing the different methods of preserving wine, whether it be in barrels, tanks, or cement chambers; it all depends on the type of grape. This winery was particularly interesting, because there was a room in the basement that seemed to be carved out of the ground. The walls were made of actual dirt, so when you walked in you not only did you feel like you were an ant living below the ground or something, but it had this very strong smell of earth. It was very bizarre. There was a large table set up where people could rent out the room for a dinner party.

Starting to sway a little on our bikes, we trucked along to the third winery. This was very much California-esque with more modern architecture and a restaurant on a beautiful terrace overlooking the vineyard. Here we were allowed to look around on our own without a guide and enjoy a large glass of rose. Because of the distance, and probably also for safety reasons at this point, our guide loaded up the bikes and we took a van to our last destination, a chocolate factory. We were all pretty content at this point, and on the ride over we spent our time singing all the American songs on the radio, which is about 95% of what’s played, and passed around wine bottles that were provided our very generous, new Argentine friends.

This chocolate factory made chocolates (obviously), a variety of liquors, marmalades, and many different kinds of dulce de leche. We were able to try some chocolate and one shot of a liquor of our choice. I chose dulce de leche with banana and it was delicious, it tasted like a banana split. They also made absinthe here. So, just for the sake of trying it, I took a sip. Besides the fact that I almost passed out, it burned the roof of my mouth. Like, as if I had been drinking a hot cup of coffee. THAT strong. It was also green. Never again. Before I left I grabbed a container of dulce de leche mixed with chocolate; I couldn’t resist. And with that we headed back to the hostel, staying up long enough to have some empanadas and chips and guacamole at the Mexican restaurant across the street.

Friday morning we had a 9am start for our trekking/repelling/mineral baths adventure. Though very pretty, the morning was cold and the trek was HARD. From the top we took a few pictures and strapped ourselves into our repelling gear. Unaware to us, we had to go down half the mountain before we started repelling. The land there is very desert-like, so cacti were abundant. You already know how this is gonna go. We all took turns sitting on a cactus, losing our balance and falling into a prickly bush, or getting a mild concussion after wiping out because of rock that had gotten loose from the dirt. I had some really pretty scratches. We finally started repelling which was very fun. We repelled 3 times, the last one being the tallest, around 150 feet.

After repelling we headed to the mineral baths. Perfectly situated in the mountains there’s a really pretty mineral baths/water park. There were probably over 20 different baths of different temperatures, along with a lazy river running along the outer edge of the cliff. We relaxed in the baths for the rest of the afternoon until we headed home. That night we went to an outstanding restaurant called Praga. Seafood was their specialty, a nice break from all the meat in Buenos Aires. After dinner we stopped at a local bar that was having a Halloween party, of sorts. Everything was very well decorated, and the staff was all in costume, however the people in the bar were kind of all over the place. Some were dressed, others were not, and others had awkwardly thrown on a pair of cat ears for the hell of it, I guess. Anyway, it was great people watching, and after an hour or so we turned in for the night.

Saturday morning we hopped in a van and headed to the mountains for paragliding! We spent a half hour going up the rockiest, most dangerous road I’ve ever been on. It didn’t have railings, naturally. We met our guides at the top of the mountain at an altitude of about 4,800 feet. My specific instructions from Hermán, my guide, were to run off the mountain when it was time. After asking him if he knew what he was doing, he answered, “I hope so, because if I die, you die.” Sidenote: I didn’t sign a waiver for this one. So when he told me to run, I ran. Once we were in the air, everything went silent, and all I had to do was sit back and enjoy the ride. I was in the air for probably 20 minutes in total. After some bonding with Hermán, he suggested to try some acrobatic exercises. I agreed, though not quite sure what that meant. I came to find that it basically meant a rollercoaster ride in the air. He started maneuvering the parachute around and making huge dips, and at one point my parachute was below me, as opposed to above me, where it should be. It was SO fun, I wish I could have been up there longer! I’ve found that the best strategy for doing extreme activities is to tell your parents about it after you get home, because they can’t get mad at you when you come home alive.

That afternoon we walked around the city, which is so beautiful and quaint, yet still very lively, especially at night. We walked around to one of the parks and took a stroll past the venders at the usual weekend street fair. In town I had Ferrero Rocher flavored ice cream. HEAVENLY. Later we went to a wine bar to do some more wine tasting before we decided on bottles to buy. For $20 USD we tried 2 Malbecs and 1 Sauvignon Blanc and got 2 big platters of bread, olives, and an assortment of cheeses. I’m personally not a big fan of olives, but they had one kind that was green olives with an almond in it that had been soaked in sugar. It was unbelievable, so I bought myself one container to bring home along with my wine. Our great waiters gave us a free bottle of champagne before leaving and wished us a safe trip home. The people of Mendoza are extremely generous and friendly, even more so than Buenos Aires. The mood was always carefree and they were always willing to help when asking for directions or recommendations. I would love to retire there someday. After the tasting we headed back to the hostel, packed up our things, and headed to the bus station happily full on wine and cheese and ready for an overnight ride home.