Hermosa Mendoza

Pretty plaza in the city of Mendoza, Argentina


Recently returned home from the province of Mendoza, where I spent 5 beautiful days with other kids from my program and half of UCLA (was the token foreigner travel-to-Mendoza weekend). I have now survived two more 16 hour+ bus rides. There exists a ladder of "bus luxury level" here in Argentina, and on the way to Mendoza, Kristin and I elected to travel via the top-rung option ("cama suite"), in which our seats reclined into full-bed position (they laid completely flat, I kid you not) and we were served food and wine of relative luxury. We foolishly opted to save money on the way back to BsAs from Mendoza, and in doing so traveled via the bottom-rung option. Let's just say that we afterward regretted not having coughed up the additional 25 US dollars it would have cost to save ourselves 16 hours of back pain and awful action/ninja combat movies that not even earplugs and eye masks would make go away. This is how we spent the much-awaited first day of spring, September 21st, in the southern hemisphere: completely imprisoned from 8am-11pm inside a bus, while the beautiful shining sun beckoned us from the other side of our scratched and blurry, single paned windows that did absolutely nothing for temperature control and made me regret having chosen to wear black fleece sweatpants. But this is the end of our trip...the beginning and middle are more exciting, I promise.


Readers Digest version:

We rode horses (I galloped! and didn't die!); went on a (bike!) wine tour; ate at a wannabe-Mediterranean food restaurant (hummus=disappointment), ate at a wannabe Mexican food restaurant (guacamole=disappointment...6 parts tomato to every 1 part avocado, really, Argentina?); met really cool friends from England; discovered 1/2 way into the trip that we shared the bathroom wall of our hostel room with the room next-door to us, and that this wall stopped about 5 inches short of the ceiling, such that the fortunate inhabitants of the room next-door had probably heard all of the goings-on in the bathroom of us 4 loud and crazy girls, including group bathing suit showers; went to a natural hot springs water park where we met a group of Argie high school students who taught us what was probably THE most complicated and impossible card game in the history of the world, and a very poor option considering translation challenges...although in hindsight perhaps it is the translation challenge that made it so impossible...but they gave us mate to drink (with sugar, of course, lest it be unbearably bitter!) and were very nice so we had fun, slash I'm pretty sure I could've gotten the Argentine novio I've been looking for in the form of a 16-year-old boy with dreadlocks and an all-too-eager, gap-toothed grin had I given him the time of day...); experienced first-hand the clash between "civility" and "barbarism" that we have been discussing in my literature class between the capital of Buenos Aires and the outlying provinces as we tried to board a bus back to our hostel from the water park and nearly died in the process, given that nearly 200 people were trying to get onto one bus and the concept of "We were standing at the front of the line so we get on first" doesn't seem to exist there...apparently since the bus backed up from where we were originally waiting, the people waiting 20 spots behind us were now the first in line, and we gringos deserved our spots at the very end of the line (Southwest Airlines' boarding system that I once considered anal-retentive and far too stringent I now look at as a miraculous work of God); enjoyed exploring the beautiful, tranquil town of Mendoza (if I could compare it to anywhere in CA, it would be Davis); and didn't even once fall into the irrigation ditches located on the sides of all the roads that are far too deep, wide, and unprotected to be legal anywhere in the US because, as Kristin suggested, someone's dog would probably fall in and break its leg and result in a huge and unnecessary lawsuit. Phew!



Reader's Digest Way-More-Fun Version (aka, Photos)


My horsie---his name currently slips my mind, and I feel super bad and guilty about it because he was so good to me and got me home alive, despite our guide's not having taught us anything about riding beforehand, nor having made us sign release waivers should we break an arm or lose a life. It's the Argentine way...



Yummy Middle Eastern food (note: hummus not worthy of occupying the foreground of the picture...eating hummus was our original motive for choosing to dine at this restaurant, and we felt let down, betrayed, and even a little bit angry that it did not taste as good as it looked on other guests' tables before we ordered. Mom: I am requesting that there be a huge container of hummus awaiting me when I return home...roasted red pepper flavor, please! And a box of Wheat Thins to go with it! Thanks.) Luckily, we very much enjoyed the tabule, pita bread, baklava, wine, etc. of our meal...



Confused faces: LA girls just wanting REAL Mexican food for once, or at least something with a little spice! Note: neither to be found anywhere in Argentina. Is it not an indication of poor Mexican-food-quality when the chicken enchiladas taste about the same as a beef burrito? Or when avocados are not the primary ingredient in guacamole? Hmmm. Mom: think you can infer the other dish I will be wanting when I get home...



Well ain't that sweet. One of the 5 main plazas in Mendoza.



Irrigation ditches that would be tooootally illegal in the US. Especially safe alongside the strip of bars and clubs in Mendoza, where drunken wanderers abound until the wee hours of morning.



Oh whatup, Andes?



Wine bike tour: No helmets, main roads, mild-heavy intoxication from wine and liqueur samples. Gooood idea.



Inside a beautiful bodega (winery). Like, as in, BODEGA BAY! get it? I never did!!!



The beautiful bottles aligning the shelves of a liqueur factory we toured. It's not pictured, but one of these bottles was absinthe, which I tried! (Did not result in me chopping off my ear, like van Gogh)



Kristin and me: glass number....3? 4? 8?



Chau for now!