fast times in Mendoza

Totally didn´t expect to spend so long in Mendoza, but it was a lovely week there. Arrived on Tuesday, and laid around the pool, ate a huge steak, and basically just felt content with life. On Wednesday, Marika, Emma and I were supposed to meet up with some of our guy friends to do a bike tour of some of the local wineries, but they were being boys and didn´t show (i believe they slept in). So instead, the three of us got dressed up and went to a couple of the fancier wineries for tours and tastings. The first was a pretty slick commercial one, but really nice. And the second was really cool because we had heard about this older man (Carmelo Patti)who makes all his own wine in a really small establishment and has received all sorts of international awards. So we had showed up at his place without an appointment, but it looked like the people he was giving a tour to were going to be there forever, so we waited 15 minutes and then gave up to go find somewhere else. We were about 4 blocks down the street when suddenly a truck that had been honking its horn at us pulled over and he runs out to apologize and ask if we would please consider coming back (he had some story about how the american tourists he had been entertaining ask too many questions and talk about themselves too much, hehehe). It was really cute, especially since we had just showed up without warning.

And his tour was awesome, he did it all himself, and let us taste a bunch of wines, explaining how they all get different tastes, and showed us how the same harvest begins to evolve over time by tasting a little bit of the same wine from 2007 back to 2002, his prizewinning specialty wine. His were way too expensive for us to buy, but he really didn´t seem to mind, and just wanted to chat with us for a bit, which was really nice.

The next day we mostly lazed around, read in the park, bought bus tickets, etc, and then on the Friday we met up with some friends we had made in buenos aires and the bunch of us went on Wanka Tours, which drove us to a couple more wineries (not as nice as the ones we found on our own), an olive oil factory, and a chocolate licqueur factory. Also a very nice day (although by the time we got to the olive oil place, we were all a little tipsy from lots of wine tasting and not very much food, so we thought it would be a good idea to buy a 5 kg jar of green olives, one of our shared favourite foods, somewhat ignoring the fact that the girls were flying home in the morning and i would consequently be stuck with a giant jar of pickled olives.........

Had a bit of a tearful goodbye with the ladies on Saturday, probably two of the best friends I have made here (just means I´ll have to do a visit to Melbourne sometime in the near future), followed by a bit of a lonely afternoon (tried to go shopping, but the Mendozians take their afternoon siesta VERY seriously, and absolutely nothing is open between 1 and 5). But ran into some other friends for dinner and drinks, including my friend Carolyn, another Melbourne girl who was on her way home, so it was really awesome to be able to have a last goodbye daquiri with her.

And then Sunday I was meant to be returning to Buenos Aires, intending to find a 2 week volunteer placement or something, but then in the afternoon I bumped into Steve and James, another couple friends I had made back in Bolivia and had hung out with almost everywhere I´ve stopped. They are on their way to Santiago and then to New Zealand /¨Australia, and then southeast asia, and then home to Wales via russia (ps i am sooooo jealous of their trip, but that´s another story). So they had just arrived and so I was showing them around to the best local steakeries and ice cream places. We were just talking, waiting for our steaks to arrive, when it became clear that in my singleminded meat focus, I had managed to miss my bus back to ba. Momentarily frustrating (not exactly cheap), but the steak was delicious so I couldn´t be too upset, plus it meant that I got to hang out with them for a few more days, which turned out to be so much fun.

On Monday I woke up with the epiphany that perhaps I hadn´t been too fussed to get back to Buenos Aires and that´s part of the reason why I hadn´t been watching the clock properly.....and that maybe it was a sign to do something else. So instead, I went downtown and sorted out a new bus ticket to Bariloche, the town at the beginning of the Patagonia region. Then yesterday I convinced the boys, lazy as they are, that it would still be a good idea to do the biking wine tour together. Heaps and heaps of complaining and bellyaching, but it was soooooooooo much fun, probably one of my most perfect days here. Not for any particular reason except it was beautiful weather, biking around with friends and tasting wine in the countryside, I just loved it. At the first stop we ran into Emma and Paul, more mutual friends of ours, and so there was a big group of us that were driving around together. Loads of fun, just being silly and some of us trying to do bike tricks on the back roads after a successively higher number of wine tastings, and then we ended at the chocolate licqueur factory, which I had already been to, but wasn´t complaining about revisiting :) Again, probably one of my most favourite days, and so I didn´t even care that we had to rush back to the hostel so I could quickly shower and throw my stuff together to get to my bus. Luckily made it this time, so then it was approx 18 hours on Ruta 40 (made famous by Che Guevara´s motorcycle trip) down south to Bariloche. Am here for a few days, looking into horseback riding or rafting or something for tomorrow and or friday, and definitely am doing a trek/kayak excursion on Saturday. The whole town has a pretty touristy mountain town feel, similar to Banff or something, with tons of chocolate shops EVERYWHERE, it´s amazing.

Likely planning to go further south on Sunday or Monday, spend Tuesday in El Bolson, a hippie community that has a reportedly awesome bohemian artisan fair that day (souvenir shopping perhaps??) and then further down to El Calafate. I don´t know how much trekking and stuff I´ll be up to down there, even though it´s supposed to be absolutely awesome- it´s hard given that I have limited warm clothing and no camping equipment, so maybe it is just meant to be another trip for any of the intense hikes. But the scenery is already beautiful, well worth the trip just for the views. Will likely be crossing over into chile around 8 or 10 days from now, and starting the ascent back up to Santiago-eeek. Hopefully will get to stop at a beach or two before getting on the plane home though, I doubt that Lake Huron is going to be swim worthy when I get back, and I want to make sure I still have my "tan" hehe to show you all.

Oh, and in other news, I just heard from the girls that we have booked our flights to Europe, in and out of Paris on April 21st and June 10th. Sooo exciting!!! oh, and just another short plea that if anyone knows of a short term get rich quick scheme I could attempt between March 27 and April 21, please let me know :) or just a job would be fine too........

Okay, off to find a nice hot chocolate and pastry before going to bed. Hope you´re having a good week, and Mom, hope you´re having fun in Florida- let me know when you get back and we can have a chat.

xx sarah