Is it Tuesday or Wednesday? It's hard to keep track when you don't really need to know. Not complaining but it's just something to get used to. The working and living hours are very different here than in Denmark (a lot of shops have siestas between about 2pm and 5pm) so knowing the days of the week doesn't necessarily mean you know when you can buy a liter bottle of beer at the supermarket at 4pm.
We've been in Mendoza for 5 days now and I've already gone on a winery tour as well as a rafting tour. Our hostel is a little oasis at the edge of the city. The big feature is the outside patio/pool area. The Spanish tiles all over make me feel like we are in the Canary Islands. Save for the hordes of older German and Swedish couples and bad Danish bands on Saturday night...
The staff is friendly and very helpful in a very "in the shadows" kind of way. They wash the floor every chance they get and put bowls of fresh cut Gardenias all around the hostel. I commented the first day that it was one of my favorite flowers and I got a bowl of them in our room later that evening. And a fresh bowl today, 5 days later, without asking.
They ask us every other day if they can clean the rooms and promise they will do a better job every time. This is only my 3rd hostel experience but I didn't think you got cleaning and towel (and fresh cut flower) service at hostels. It is about a 20 minute walk to city center (or 30 minutes on bus if you're unfortunate to catch the G8 bus...) so that is the drawback. Luckily the city is interesting enough to walk around in all of twice.
Here are the highlights:
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| No idea what is it but without the writing in Spanish, it looks like it could be sign on the Cape |
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| We found the Danish Embassy by accident, just in case we need it |
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| A nice walk in the park |
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| I wonder if my walking would be blessed if I didn't pay 1 peso for the toilet. |
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| Bougie! |
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| Isenbeck. Probably the worst beer in Argentina. How do we supposed to know? At least it helped to pass the time while we waited for the rain to stop after lunch |
The rest of the time, we're content with our cold Chilmes beers and respectives books by the pool.
After finishing a romance novel written by a high school friend (which will grace the exchange bookshelf until some unwitting backpacker picks it up for a "good read") I'm currently reading "On the Road" cause it had been sitting on my shelf for a while and I thought it was as good a book as any to bring on the road. We're not in the states yet nor are we hitchhiking across the country (although I seriously considered it while waiting in the rain for the bus to get back to Bariloche. Hey, other people were doing it!) but, like Sal in part 1, I do feel like I have to utilize every morsel of food we acquire (f.x. not throwing out the ends of a loaf of bread but toasting them to eat with soup and throwing the lone potato in said soup to add bulk so we can eat it for lunch and dinner tomorrow. )
Rafting was fun and not as scary as I first thought it would be. My boat was "Team Holland" as there were 3 Dutch girls, Austrialian Bianca, my pal Kathryn from New York and me, "Viking" as our Norwegian guide called me. He made a level 1-2 every day "run of the mill" ride fun and engaging for us. He even told us how good our rowing was and I so wanted to believe him. Every once in a while he told us to "get down!", a command which prompted all of us to dutifully plant our asses in the bottom of the raft in anticipation of a rather large rapid. I think he did it for dramatic effect more than anything. But he showed us a good time. Well, ok Bianca did actually fall out at one point. I was a little envious...
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| Despite my bad back, I was the first to do this on request on the water, to show how balanced we were in the raft |
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| Just imagine an oar, a wetsuit, a spray jacker, life jacket, helmet and the raft rattling down the river with 5 other girls and our two guides. |
Cameras were not advised in the rafts (probably smart in my case) so you get post shots for now. Action shots when Bianca sends me them....
The wine tours were ok, the first larger winery (Vistandes) only offering two mediocre wines and the second, smaller, family owned winery offering more, and more impresive samples. We were even crooned into buying a bottle that was only sold there for 30 pesos. But as the Lonely Planet says, "it would be a crime to come to Mendoza and not visit at least one vineyard, A crime, people." And we are not known international lawbreakers. Not intentionally anyway....
On a similar note, we were told there are over 900 wineries in the Mendoza area alone and I tried hard to find a wine at the supermarket that did not boast "Mendoza" on the label. I failed.
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| The modern fermentation vats |
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| The old French Oak aging barrels that have a shelf life of 4 years. |
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| The best part of the tour. The drinking! |
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| Romping among the vines |
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| The smaller, family owned winery |
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| Parrots hanging out at the winery. |
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| Oh yeah, we also visited an olive oil factory. They had samples and I actually ate 4 olives...they were that fresh. |
On another random note, my fingernails are healthy, growing fast and are definitely manicure-worthy. Michael says that kind of behavior is against the backpacker rules 101, along with hairdryers. I have yet to find that in print. Therefore I continue to lug around my hairdryer and look for cheap mani-pedis every chance I get.....Already got a 17 dollar one (both) in Buenos Aires.
Tomorrow we cross the border to Chile on a short and breezy 7 hour bus ride. After the 20 and 18 hour overnight rides so far, this will be a piece of cake....
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