Mendoza!

I'm home again!
This past weekend I went with Sarah, Alex, and Liana to Mendoza--wine country in the north, close to Chile.

As always, it started with an adventure. I slept over Sarah's house since we had to catch an early morning flight. I didn't go over until late and she didn't start packing until about 2, so needless to say we had more of a nap than a good night's sleep. We both set our alarms, but we awoke instead at 5:15 am to the taxi driver buzzing our appartment to say he was waiting downstairs. We were out the door in 4 minutes. We were pretty impressed with ourselves. We made it to the airport and fortunately everything went well with the flight.

We went from the airport to the hostel, only to find that we were at the wrong hostel. For some reason it make sense to give 2 hostels in the city the same name? We found the right one, dropped off our stuff, and headed out almost immediately for a tour we had lined up: BikesandWine. So, on limited sleep the four of us biked in the sun between wineries all day. It was fun, but left a little to be desired. All costs were supposed to be included in the tour price, but we still had to pay in order to do the wine tastings at most of the bodegas (wineries). The tours weren't amazing either. We did have an awesome lunch though (which was included). We had delicious food and ate outside on a shaded patio. We visited a place that made chocolates and liquors as well--yum . There was another place that made olive oil but it was just a bit too far for us to bike that day. At the end of the day we were (of course) rushing back to return the bikes and catch the van. We told Sarah to go ahead and let them know we were on our way--she's the fastest since she's a cyclist. She was so focused on her mission that she biked right past the place. We got there and a lady asked us, "Was your friend wearing a blue shirt?" She came back eventually though, so it all worked out.


We were exhausted by the time we got back to the hostel. Alex and Liana were staying in a hotel so we waited with them for a taxi. We called 3 times and even after an hour they never showed. They ended up waiting outside and still didn't find a ride until they met a couple who called a remise-driver friend of theirs. We had decided we'd just do dinner separately instead of our original plan of a nice restaurant. Sarah and I showered but then crashed in our rooms. We woke up late and thought about dinner, but decided to just sleep instead. It was a good choice.

Saturday we woke up nice and refreshed. It was definitely the best day. Sarah and I met up with her friend Christy at a nearby cafe. Christy is studying abroad in Mendoza and she and Sarah grew up doing triathalons together. Later, Alex, Liana, Sarah and I went to lunch at a bodega called Familia Zuccardi. Amazing. It was almost a 3 hour lunch. It was a set menu and the food just kept coming! We had empanadas, bread, salad and vegetables, asado (barbecue) with 5 different kinds of meat (steak, chicken, etc.), and creme brulee for dessert. With the different courses we tried their different types of white, red, and dessert wines. It was absolutely delicious. We ate outside again and our table overlooked a rose garden. (I'm turning into my mom--about half my pictures from my trip are of flowers!). After lunch we took a tour of the winery--much better than the previous day tours.

That night we went to rent a car for the next day and then all met up with Christy again and went out for "dinner," though we weren't very hungry. We split apetizers, wine and dessert. We went to a new restaurant in town with a somewhat creepy waitor. We weren't too impressed by it, but we had fun. Went to bed pretty early that night as well.

Sunday started out a bit complicated as well. Sarah and I went to pick up the girls (finding them was a little more challenging than planned) and then on a hunt for an ATM. We had lunch at a good mexican place (a bit hard to find in Argentina--good that is) and then went for a drive through the Andes mountains. It was beautiful. Stopped at a lake that was almost unnaturally blue and at a few points up in the mountains. That night we met up with Christy again for another great meal. (We ate a lot this weekend, if you hadn't noticed). I had a steak in a malbec sauce which delicious.

This morning we got up early again and flew back to BsAs. Overall, a fun trip. Mendoza is beautiful and we had great weather. If we had more time there it would have been fun to do some more outdoorsy type things--rafting, hiking, etc.

Unfortunately, I'm sick again. Boo. My allergies had been acting up during the weekend and after the drive in the mountains my ears clogged up and just never popped, which made dinner and the rest of the trip a bit more interesting. I was excited when they finally clear on the airplane, but then it all happened again. I went home with Sarah and her host mom said I'd better go to the doctor, so 3 prescriptions later (sinus infection, ears, etc) I'm on my way to getting better. Oh goodness.

Spent most of the afternoon with Alex and Sarah and then the evening relaxing, unpacking, etc. Wasn't quite as productive as I probably should have been, but that's usually how it is, isn't it?

This week is going to be pretty busy, but my parents come on Saturday! I'm excited =)