Mendoza for the Weekend

 

First of all, if you plan on reading all of this post, please plan on having a lot of time and maybe even sitting down, as your legs might get a little tired :)

Second, I had a wonderful and relaxing weekend! We left Buenos Aires at 5:00 PM on a bus that was scheduled to arrive in Mendoza at 8:15 AM. However, after 18 hours on a bus we made there at 11:00 AM. The bus was pretty comfortable and the seats were big and reclined quite a bit more compared to seats on an airplane. I slept for most of the night. Everyone told me that there would be a dinner and breakfast service. That was a BIG FAT LIE! So it was a good thing I packed my orange and little snack thing I got from the bakery. The reasoning for packing this was in case the food on the bus sucked...better yet...in case there was no food at all! When we got to Mendoza we wondered our way to the information desk to get a map of the city. We then found our way to Mendoza Backpackers Hostel where we made our reservation for two nights.

We checked into our room...a room with 2 bunk beds. Two guys had already checked in before us. We actually met both of them wearing nothing but their towels. One of them was from Argentina and was there on business. This business included going around the town of Mendoza, buying all of the comic books so that he could take them and sell them in Chile. In his spare time, he sat around drawing creepy pictures of people. Our other roommate was from Eugene, Oregon...I have family there...very ironic. Although, he was not very social and the other guy was like a clinger...quite the experience for sure.

After being on the bus for 18 hours, all I wanted to do was shower. Well they were out of towels! So I sucked it up and used my t-shirt, which surprisingly worked quite well. I know remember why I hated living in the dorms so much. Not into the whole group shower thing. I also like to get dressed in a very private setting. Although, I hope that is something that is considered normal because after this weekend, I have started to wonder. So after that not-so-relaxing experience, WE WENT PARAGLIDING!!!

It was so much fun! About 7 of us piled into this little Ranger and drove to the top of the mountain. Have I ever mentioned that I don't like driving up mountains where there is nothing but steep rocks looking down? Well, I don't like it at all! Of course, I got seated on the side where the looking down is all you can do. I was doing fine until we hit a little patch of ice and the tires kind of skidded a little, then I was officially not scared to paraglide anymore but was more afraid of falling off the mountain! We met this really nice guy named Ariel that went paragliding with us and is from Buenos Aires and he was total blast. We are hoping to meet up with him in the next two weeks. I think he was more afraid than we were :) So, when we got to the top of the mountain they laid out their parachutes, strapped me in to the harness and told me to run off the mountain. They said if I stopped running we would fall off the mountain and die. So knowing this, of course, I ran just like Forrest Gump off this 5,300 foot mountain like my life depended on it (maybe because it did!). I was still running in the air when the guide repeatedly told me that I could sit down. Haha. I had a very nice glide through the mountains and it was really pretty!!! After a while he asked if he could do tricks. Of course, at first I said no! Then after the 5th time he asked, I said "Just do it before I change my mind!" We flipped around a couple of times and YES I screamed, but in the end it was fun and you only live once! For dinner we went to a BBQ that 5 of the hostels in Mendoza put on and it was pretty fun. We met a ton of people from  Canada, Argentina and Chile!

On Sunday I slept in until 8, got up to eat breakfast and then went back to bed until 11:30 because I was quite worn out. We didn't have anything to do until 3 PM, so we grabbed sandwiches from Havanna and then took them to this really big park that is bigger than the town of Mendoza and ate them by the lake. It was very peaceful. Then we walked back to our hostel so we could wait for the guide to go horseback riding. We figured we would be riding in a van with a bunch of other people, however, it was just us two in the back of this safari van thing. It had bench seats in the back, but only a 5-year-old could have sat back there, so we laid on our sides for most of the ride with the guide and all the food for the BBQ that night. It was a very good local experience actually and we got to the estancia (ranch) before everyone else in the tour. It was a very good time to look at the ranch and talk with the guides there. We drank Mate and I absolutely loved it! I could've stayed at this place for about a week. :) While talking to the guides I told them that my family had cows and horses and that I had ridden before. So after all the other people got there they were assigning horses and Daniel comes to me with a horse and says "Here. Maria says you are a pro. Good luck."  and then smiles. That was quite the initiation process I would say. The horse and I got along perfect, but by about 1/4 of the way into the ride I wanted run off into the sunset on my own to get away from everyone else. I told Maria that there would be no way I could ever have enough patience to deal with people like that everyday on horses that I owned. She pulled out a pack of cigarettes and said "This is my patience." JAJA That was the first and last time I will ever go on a trail ride and it doesn't matter how much you pay me, the answer will be, "NO!" Afterwards I drank some wine and ate a delicious meal of steak, chicken, salad and bread. It was a nice ending to such a stressful day. When we got back to our hostel, the desk clerk, Rubin took us out for a drink and after the wine at the BBQ I decided to have a soda instead. We hung out with him for quite a while until I was so tired that I couldn't hardly stand anymore.

The next day we had to be up and ready to go by 9 AM. We went on a trekking, repelling and hot spring adventure. When they say "trekking" I expected like a walking trail to the top of mountain. Well I was way wrong, it was like fresh mountain climbing with big, huge rocks and lots of gravel. We were told that we got to hike up the mountain and then would repel back down the other side. Well guess what, another BIG FAT LIE!! When when got to the top we had to hike back down a little ways before we got to the place were we could finally repel. Going back down the mountain was worse than going up and honestly it sucked! I went down most of scooting on my butt. When we got to the first repel, everyone was so scared and I was like give me the freaking rope so I can get off this mountain. Then I scooted a little more and then repelled, then scooted, then repelled. The first repel was 12 meters, the second was 5 meters and the last was 40 meters. Times those all by 3.3 and that's what it is in feet. It was not like repelling down flat walls either, they were all quite jagged and uneven. It was quite the experience. Also a first and last time for that as well :) Afterwards we got to eat lunch in a little town called Cacheuta where they have the hot springs. I didn't bring my swimming suit, so I didn't get in, but other people did and they said it felt good. I will have to go back in a couple weeks. We then had to hurry back so we could catch our bus back to Buenos Aires.

We arrived in Buenos Aires in the morning around 8:45. I was in dire need of a shower, so instead of going to class on time, I came home and took the most relaxing shower I've had in 4 days. It was much needed! After that I went to class and got my midterm back...85%!!!

Tuesday was a very quiet day and after class I came home and did a lot of travel plans for our travel after my program! I'm totally pumped and can't wait to get everything nailed down. I'm sure it will consume most of my week. It takes a long time to upload pictures, so I will let them load today and then post them tonight! I hope you all had a great weekend and are having a great week! 

P.S. We had meatloaf for dinner again...God has such a good sense of humor ;)