The next day we went on a bike tour of wineries in Maipu (yes, pronounced "my poo"). My friend Roni isn't that comfortable on a bike so she and Joey rode a tandem!! I thought it would be harder for her, but they had a great time and said it was really easy! We went to 3 wineries total, 1 industrial winery and 2 other smaller wineries. I thought the industrial winery would be lame, but it ended up being really interesting and gave me a good refresher course on the wine making process in general. They also had a cool museum of the Argentine wine process...
We also went to an artisan place where they make olive oil, chocolate, liqours and jams, etc. I sampled a delicious banana chocolate liquor and then had absinthe!
We ended up sitting at one winery for like 2 hours, just enjoying our wine and sunning ourselves.
At the end of the day we ended up back at the bike rental place, drinking yet more wine, and chatting with other travellers. Really fun day! My friends and I were the only people that wore helmets...which struck me as very strange. Wine+bike=a bit dangerous, wine+bike+no helmet=dangerous and stupid. I'm proud to say we had no problems! I was SO sore by the end of the day though! I had imagined a leisurely day, biking a really short distance between the wineries...which was NOT what happened. Good exercise though!!
That night our hostel had a party for the first day of spring, which is a holiday here. We had asado (basically a huge meat barbeque) and then they opened up the bar and there was dancing, etc. After a bit we all headed out to a club.
The next morning we hopped onto a bus and headed out for our adventure day--rafting, repelling and trekking! Rafting was so fun! There weren't any serious rapids, but we had lots of fun in our boat and it was just wonderful to be out in nature, watching the mountains go by and enjoying the open space.
After rafting we went repelling...we basically hiked up a really steep hill and then repelled down. It was cool I guess, if uneventful.
Trekking was last, and amazing! ("Trekking"=hiking) We hiked up an even steeper hill and just sat at the top for a bit, surveying the Andes and the river below and taking everything in. Then we hiked down through a canyon/dry river bed. (dad, it reminded me of 4-wheeling in Cabo do you remember??) It was really cool to see a whole other type of terrain...it's SO dry there and I loved seeing so many cacti!!
After having dinner and heading home, exhausted, we decided to stay an extra night so we could go paragliding on Monday! We had Monday off from school to celebrate the first day of spring...everyone goes and has picnics, etc and enjoys the day together which I think is really cool.
So Monday we went paragliding!!! I was surprised I wasn't scared at all...even though I didn't exactly know what paragliding even was before we got there. We got suited up (basically you wear a backpack that looks like a bee stinger hanging from your butt that turns into your seat while you're in the air and connected to the guide behind you) as my guide explained taking off and landing. Then he started filling the massive parachute behind us with air...told me to start running and we were off!! I basically took 2 or 3 steps toward the downward slope and then we were flying!!!! It was so amazing...I was suprised I felt absolutely no fear at any point. My flight was definitely the best out of my friends and mine--my guide was the first pilot to paraglide in Argentina and has been doing it for 25 years! We flew the highest and for the longest time. We saw a falcon and he showed me that when we turned, the falcon kind of turned too, almost like we were playing a game circling around each other. We also did a simulated free fall with centrifigal force which was ridiculous (and badly timed as I realized I was extremely motion sick right before) but so fun! We did a few other acrobatics things which was really cool.
We picnicked in a plaza park that afternoon and got back on a bus that night, headed home to BA.
All in all, an amazing, ridiculous, crazy, fun, beautiful, fantastic, perfect weekend trip!!! It was great to get out of the city a bit and enjoy nature and fresh air and wide open space...and non-jaded city people! AMAZZZZZZING!!! ( :
I had 2 midterms this week which were fine. My classes are so unstructured and feel so...casual. I enjoy them a lot and am glad they don't stress me out too much. It just feels like everything in South America is very laid back and relaxed, which is perfect for me! ( :
I didn't go out much this week...tried to exercise and eat healthy for once, which didn't end up working that well. I saw my first Argentine film in theaters, called "El Secreto de Sus Ojos," "the secret in your eyes," which was very, very good. An Argentine friend told me that here they make crap comedy movies but great drama films, and after Secreto I definitely believe her! All the actors were great and the story was really interesting, if intense as well. If it is released in the states on video or anything I would highly reccomend it!
I have been reading a lot latel...unfortunately I lost Atonement in Mendoza right before I finished it! It's driving me crazy...I might have to find it in a used bookshop here.
I had a great weekend! Friday night was a friend's last night here in BA so we went out to a club we like called "Asia de Cuba." Nothing crazy, just some drinks and dancing. Yesterday some friends and I went to "Tierra Santa," which means "holy land," and it's basically a Jesus theme park. No rides, but attractions with a, you guessed it, holy land theme. Last night I went to a friend's flat party and then we all headed out to an electronic music club called "Pacha." There are other Pacha clubs around the world and I guess they usually have very famous DJs playing. I didn't think I would like it but ended up having an amazing night and had to be basically dragged out at 7am! Really nice club, and lots of crazy dancing which was funny.
We stopped for "choripan" sandwiches at a stand before going home (chorizo=sausage, pan=bread, so choripan is just like a sausage sandwich that they put this delicious vinegary, oniony sauce all over) and as we were stuffing our faces, my friend Sogol all of a sudden screamed and pointed to the counter...which we saw a huge cockroach scurrying across. It didn't really bother me, because well, we were not only outside where bugs live, but dirty street food is, well, dirty. The guys hands didn't exactly look like Purell was part of his regular repetoire. Anyways she totally flipped out and started screaming "OH MY GOD!!! I'm GOING TO THROW UP, OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!" as I just kept eating my sandwich, unfazed. But then my friend Joey started getting really grossed out, and then HE almost threw up. All of this was happening in half light of early morning, but in the middle of this ridiculous wind/rainstorm that had come out of nowhere with everyone flipping out and running around. It was really funny and a great way to end the night. haha
I went shopping with some girlfriends today which was nice and tonight will probably just curl up in bed with tea and a movie (and by tea I mean chocolate, cookies and tea). Even though Spring has officially started the weather was really bad today...grey and cold out, which makes me not want to leave my building at all.
GREAT trip to Mendoza, GREAT weekend!
I have lots of old pictures to put up as well, but my internet is going sooo slowly no pictures will load so I'll add them all soon. (the first picture was the only one to work for some reason)
LOTS OF LOVE!!!
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