If you are uninterested in panoramic shots of various different landforms, please, skip my next few postings. I am in the middle of a travel extravaganza, and so I probably won't be able to refrain from posting lots of pictures with sky, clouds, trees, rocks and bits of Mother Earth. Just Monday morning I arrived back to Buenos Aires from a weekend trip to San Rafael, Mendoza and this evening I am headed out for another long bus ride to Iguazú Falls to the north in the province of Misiones which shares a border with Brazil. The following weekend I will finally get to travel somewhere in less than twelve hours, and I will be going by plane to Salta and Jujuy, also in the north of the country, but more west as well. It's gonna be a crazy few weeks, and I hope to have a few good stories and a million good pictures and memories by the end.
The province of Mendoza, where I was this past weekend, is almost directly to the west of Buenos Aires, and shares a border with Chile. It is also known as wine country of Argentina. I was on a trip through my program, CIEE, which had its pros and cons. It was definitely to have everything taken care of by other people. Our lodging, food, activities, transportation - everything. All I had to do was really show up at the bus station with enough clothes to stay warm during the weekend and the rest would be provided. What was not so nice about traveling with the program was the fact that I was traveling with about 60 other American college students. I won't even explain why this is an issue, because I'm sure you can imagine everything that goes along with such a situation. In the end it turned out to be a very fun, relaxing trip, but I don't know if I really felt like I got to know Mendoza because we were such an insular little group.
What I can say is that Mendoza is absolutely beautiful. While I can't say there were many things I liked about the twelve hour bus ride we took to get there (you can see the shadow of our enormous micro in the first photo below) it is a great way to see the land. If I had flown there I definitely wouldn't have gotten to see all the beautiful trees, plains and mountains along the way. Once we were out of the plains and into the valleys it actually reminded me a bit of Colorado. And then I saw all the tourist attractions offering horseback riding and white-water rafting and it reminded me even more of Colorado. We stayed in a very nice hotel with small cabañas on the banks of the river. We slept a lot, ate a lot, and of course got out to see the scenery around us. The first day there we took a hike through a small valley/canyon and saw the system that transports the mineral water from the mountains down to the town for bottling and then distribution. I must say that these trails didn't feel quite as safe as the trails I'm used to that are maintained by some sort of mountaineering crew. Nope, these trails were full of loose rocks, branches blocking the path, and lots of other potentially hazardous elements. Nobody got hurt though and it made me think a little bit more about the American way of doing things in comparison with life down here. Are we too cautious, too organized, too structured? These are the types of questions that you study abroad for!
So after a bit of outdoorsiness (which is definitely not a word, I know) on the first day, the next day we visited two vineyards. The first was my favorite. It was a small family operated vineyard called Rubio. We also visited a larger, also family owned, but more commercial vineyard called Bianchi. We went on a tour where they explained the fermentation process of red wine, white wine, and champage, and showed us the facilities. It was very interesting but I preferred the smaller, dirtier, homier Rubio vineyard. In addition to being a vineyard, Rubio also specialize in dried fruits, jams, olives and olive oil, and other such delicacies. I took some pictures of the fruit drying in its special wooden drying trays, jars of mermelada de zapallo freshly made that morning, and jamón hanging from the ceiling. My favorite part were the farm animals. Enormous pigs, baby pigs, chickens and roosters, dogs and llamas. And all of the animals basically had free reign of the farm. Except for the llama, he (or she) had to stay in her cage. Also, check out all of the leaves on the ground! It is finally feeling, and looking, like Autumn around here. The temperature has definitely dropped, leaves are dropping as well, and I actually don't mind, but probably only because I know that we aren't heading towards temperatures in the teens in addition to a nasty windchill. This is indeed comforting.
Our final day in Mendoza we went outdoors some more. Some kids went rappelling down rocks and others flew across rivers on zip lines . I chose to do zip line and it was pretty fun. The best part was the group of older couples that was hanging out on the bank of the river. They were very entertained by our antics, taking photos and asking us if we were having fun, which in fact, we were. Rounding out the trip was an evening bonfire, complete with the Argentine version of smores, and skits that mocked American and Argentina stereotypes. There were a few soccer games on the basketball court. And there also was a small kitten we found roaming around the grounds of the hotel. We named her Medialuna after the popular Argentine croissant because she liked to curl up just like one. She hung around with us for a while and then scampered back into the bushes.
It was a long ride back to the city, but I was glad to be back. Like any trip, while you are gone, you miss things that you never thought you would. You realize a million things in your everyday life you take for granted, and you promise to take advantage of all the wonderful opportunities in the city as soon as you get back. I'm excited to go to Iguazu and Salta in these next couple of weeks, but I also can't wait to be back in Buenos Aires for more than three days and make good on my promise to the city.
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