mendoza - solución

for semana santa (easter week) i traveled to Mendoza, Argentina! this trip ended up being completely different than what i expected, but it was also some of the most exciting days i've had down here in south america.

Day 1 (Thursday April 5)

- overnight bus with semi-cama ("semi-bed") seats. these are seats that lean back pretty far but are still the size of the average bus seat. and if you have trouble sleeping like i do, you'll still be up the entire night. they are much cheaper than the cama style seats though, and i'd rather spend my money on things other than comfortable transportation. the funny thing about going on an overnight trip to a different country is that you are woken up at odd hours of the morning to pass through border control. so here we are at 4:00 am waiting at immigration

- summary of what went down here: "remember that time when we waited forever, and then nothing happened?"

- a more detailed account: everyone from our bus waited in line to turn in some forms and get our passports stamped stating that we were leaving chile and entering argentina. after this, we all stood in a huge group for a significant amount of time waiting for the immigration police people to check our purses/backpacks for any foreign substances not allowed into the country. and then all the sudden everyone just got back on the bus without anything happening. i guess argentina doesn't have very strict regulations, which we were made VERY aware of on multiple occasions throughout the next 4 days ... stay tuned ...

- after getting on the bus we tipped a mystery person. i'm not sure why we tipped them or who we were tipping, but i handed over some change to our bus driver without having any idea who it was going to or why.

- we make it to our hostel 2 hours behind schedule. we were supposed to arrive at 5:30 am but ended up getting there closer to 7:30. at least our free breakfast was ready! which we hooked up our friend who actually wasn't staying at our hostel with 

rachael, andrea, yours truly

me, brian, rachael

- grab a quick lunch at el mercado central and then order and taste test every flavor of alfajores from this popular alfajor shop - "Havanna"

mercado central:

no idea what any of these are

"little filled pillows"

so many different spices!

"Havanna":

our boxes of alfajores. there were 6 different sabores, so we paired off and each got our own box to share

  

alfajor-model?

contemplating which one to try first. a big decision. best for last or best for first?

yes, i took pictures of every single one.

my favorite three

oh yeah, and alfajores are "two round, sweet biscuits joined together with mousse, dulce de leche, or jam, and coated with black or white chocolate or simply covered with powdered sugar" (do i need to correctly cite things i take from wikipedia??)

- managed to catch a bus (after not having exact change and a nice man swiped us in on his bus card and we paid him in cash) to wine country! where we chose "Mr. Hugo's" as our bike rental for our self-guided wine tour, which was highly recommended to me over and over again by previous friends who had traveled to Mendoza. our experience with Mr. Hugo's was quite different than what i had expected, despite the fact that i felt very informed before showing up

stoked to ride tandem

mr. hugo

- problem #1: Mr. Hugo told us the wrong directions. then the police find us and proceed to say: "how many of you are there?? are there any other tourists in that direction?? TURN AROUND"

clearly we were off to a great start

- after finding our way back and start heading in the CORRECT direction, we proceed to get lost for 2 hours. the map we were given portrayed each winery as being very close together, but in reality they were a mile or two, or three apart. during those 2 hours of biking along bumpy dirt roads with trucks flying by i saw probably the most disturbing thing i have ever seen in my entire life and i wanted to vomit. i will now proceed to describe in detail, because this image is already forever engrained in my scarred mind.

i'm biking on the right-hand side of the road (with the flow of traffic, like you are supposed to), and was biking close to the edge of the road to avoid getting hit by a car. this poor dog did not seem to have the same thought process. 

i see two guys standing on the edge of the road ahead of me and as i am biking toward them i see a little dog laying on the road a few feet away from them. i proceed to bike between the men and the dog. what went through my mind as i approached this dog: 

"maybe it's laying on the pavement because it's warmer"

"that dog doesn't look too good"

"this dog looks really weird and really sick"

and then i saw the huge puddle of bright red blood spewing out of the back of its head

"HOLY SHIT. OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD"

needless to say, i couldn't really think straight for awhile and felt nauseous as we continued our journey to find our first winery. which when we eventually found were extremely excited and took a picture in front of the pretty sign outside

- problem #2: the guard at the gate then told us the winery had already closed at 2:00 pm. and Mr. Hugo told us every winery was open until 6:00 pm. another fail.

to keep myself from going crazy as we continued our seemingly destination-less journey, i took pictures while riding on the back of the tandem bike

i'm not really sure how i felt in this moment

- FINALLY we make it an open winery called Tempus Alba, which we were told by a nice australian (? i thought that's what their accent sounded like) couple that it was the best one in Mendoza anyway.

me, brian, rachael, andrea! FINALLY with some wine!

- since Mendoza is known for its Malbec wine, i tasted both that were on the menu. in total, i tasted 3 wines - Tempus Rosado Malbec, Tempus Malbec, and Tempus Cabernet Sauvignon

Tempus Rosado Malbec, Tempus Malbec, Tempus Cabernet Sauvignon 

Tempus Rosado Malbec

i think my favorite was the rosé, but i don't really remember (*...)

- problem #3: i really wanted to order food, but the waitress told me the kitchen had already closed. then awhile later, we saw the exact dessert that we wanted delivered to another table. i also really wanted my chimichurri empanadas!! i guess they didn't like us very much?

- solution #1: keep drinking on an empty stomach

*we then ordered a bottle of the CabSauv and Tempus Malbec to share. keep in mind - i was already feeling tipsy before i had even finished the initial wine tasting. my friends thought it would be a good idea for me to make the first toast

- problem #4: i was still thinking about the trauma i experienced from earlier. my toast went as follows: "to the poor dead dog!". and then some tears may have occurred due to my lack of oxygen from laughing so hard after seeing everyone's appalled reactions. the wine also probably made me a tad bit emotional.

no one would let me get away without capturing this moment

- so what if we only made it to one winery on our biking wine tour?

salud!

rachael :)

i put on my classiest act when at upscale wineries

andrea and brian acting normal

- after being obnoxiously loud at Tempus Alba, we survived biking tandem through a construction zone and made it back to Mr. Hugo's an hour later than our bikes were supposed to be returned. 

tandem time

- the only good thing we experienced from Mr. Hugo's was that they have free wine! so it was a huge party with everyone who had returned from wine tasting all day drinking and listening to music. i played with the dogs, and took individual pictures with each of the Polish people i met. they thought i was really cool after Rachael told them i was shown on national television licking my elbow and each wanted a separate picture with me while i was displaying my special talent

rachael and i with mr. hugo's wife - mrs. hugo?

doggies!!!

- after being followed by a random kid from the fiesta at Mr. Hugo's, we made it back to downtown Mendoza long after dark and took advantage of the free choripan party on the upstairs patio of our hostel. we ate 4 choripanes each and pondered why there were bathtubs on the roof. 

- while we only came up with one successful solution to our various problems that day (drinking as much wine as possible at the only winery we made it to), i'm still calling the day a total success.

- goodnight.