OMG do i have so much to catch up on! i last wrote (well, really wrote) when I had arrived into the centro in Mendoza. I actually spent another 4 days there, i was having such a good time. yes, that totalled 8 days in Mendoza when I planned for only 4 or so. Haha, thanks to Lindsay and Emil, Alison and Kate (my new friends I met in the hostel), and the mendocino boys, i couldn´t possibly leave! After walking around the city a bit and my wine tour, i had dinner that night with the most fabulous group of people at the opening of their friend´s restaurant, Karma. Indian food argentina style...food was only okay, but we drank loads of wine, therefore the pictures we took at the end were hilarious. I am now best friends with all of them of course, even though I think the youngest of the group was 37, and the oldest late 60s. Love it. came back to my hostel to run into my friend i met earlier that day and we proceeded to have a soda outside and some conversation, which led to me arguing with him about politics, being a Christian, 9-11, etc. So that ended quickly and i went to bed at 3am...with plans to get up an hour and a half later to go snowboarding. Well we all know that didn´t happen, but i did wake up at 6:30 thinking the bus that left half an hour before that i was suipposed to be on. I was kind of mad at myself though for taking the time to rent equipment, walk to the bus station and all that, when i just messed it up! Thankfully, "TIA" (this is Argentina) and i was able to do everything the next day! The onesy WOULD make its appearance! But before i go into Los Penitentes, that night me and the girls met up with our new argentinian friends, Oscar ("flaco" which means skinny) and Diego, who was a hottie. We had a couple beers then i made sure to go to bed early (soo responsible!).
Los Penitentes was a freakin bust. THe snow was absolute crap, the mountain was a piece, and the staff was kind of laqsidasical (ok no idea how to spell that one). Anyway, the one redeeming thing was that I met a very nice girl, Clare, from Australia. Funny story - so we´re sitting on the bus, trying to sleep, when more and more people keep coming on at each stop. I was already worried that i was using yesterday´s ticket, but figured i was in the clear bc i didn´t see any seat numbers on it. Oh but wait, in walks this 300 lb woman who taps me and says that i am in her seat. What? how could that be possible i ask?? SO being the stubborn gringa that i am, and fearing for Clare´s life sitting next to her, I asked to see her ticket...indeed she had seat 15 reserved! At this point (not even an hour into our 4 hour busride) i am thinking, mierda, i´m going to have to stand the rest of the time! Lucky for me, this nice military guy signalled that the seat next to him was open, so I abandoned Clare to the big Argentinian lady. And I thought I had the bad end of the stick having to move seats...hardly...even better, a guy on our bus caught on film the sight of little tiny Clare sitting next to this lady, which he showed us on our way back. We were roaring with laughter, it was hilarious.
My goal for the day on the mtn was to conquer the T-bar chair lift, which was honestly harder than any black diamond i have ever skied! For whatever reason, i could not seem to get going on that thing...and fell about 10 times before giving up. It was just not designed for a snowboarder. I did make it over the first hill only to fall on my arse and be dragged a while until i could release the thing from under my one leg (mind you this is to get to the TOP of the mtn, not the bunny slopes - why in the world would they put a t-bar there anyway?! and this was no normal t bar either...terrible). It was and is still the most UNcomfortable thing i´ve experienced...should´ve taken a picture of it...SO, to relieve my pain and angst, Clare and I had lunch, where i proceeded to gain some confidence by drinking a liter of beer, dark beer. Mmm. Oh, and it worked bc i managed to endure the horrendous flight up the mtn on T bar after that! Yessss. Not that the top was any better than the chunk, crusty bottom. But slightly. I at least took my pride back after the Argentians laughed at me for falling so many times...anyway, the day ended at 4pm and we took our bus back to Mendoza, this time much quicker bc no stops.
sooo, that night i got to experience my 2nd asado, with Flaco, cousin Seba, and other friend Leo, who was a cutie. They brought us to Seba´s house around 10, the girls starving, and then didn´t feed us til midnight! We were exhausted. Theyy don´t really know the concept of appetizers either, or even of offering to grab us something when they went to the store for more beer (or letting us know they were leaving!)...real cool guys, real cool. But again, worth the wait, it was fabulous meat. and finally a good steak from Argentina. Flaco was entertaining us with his impressions of Mick Jagger and some great dance moves, evidenced by that particular photo where he looks like a lunatic. Anyway, fun night. Are you getting tired of reading this yet? Well, if you´ve even made it this far, kudos to you. BUt fyi, this blog is probably more for ME than for YOU, since i´ve not been journaling much at all! shame on me...
so the next day, Alison and I went for a wine/bike tour, which probably wasn´t the best idea after me still being sore from riding the T bar - i mean, what could be a better idea than sitting on a hard bike seat? Ya, well, i tried my best not to think about it, which was hard for the first leg when i hadn´t had any wine yet! anyway, i was more scared about riding/falling off a mountain bike than i was about the bruises that would be added to my groin area. anyway, it turned out to be a super fun day, and we met two other clansmen (from Ireland) who joined us, Shevanne and Neil. We were chagrined to find out though that we had been duped - we thought all the wine tastings were included in the tour, but they weren´t!! so that sucked, but we still went to three bodegas and the olive oil factory (again for me, but this time i didn´t even get to hear the tour in English, we just sampled). Ended up hanging at the 3rd bodega a while, getting a bottle and soaking up the sun. then we made the last stop for some bad chocolate (how can chocolate be bad! it was - just lacked flavor. booo). We didn´t technically have lunch so we were all looking forward to a good dinner.
Alison and i met up with Kate the Aussie again, and went to a nice steak place, where they totally butchered Kate´s order. She sent it back (hesitantly) and of course was then given an even worse piece of meat. She was not a happy camper, and actually complained about it the whole time! haha Alison and i were happy with our meat (but i still wasn´t of the opinion that this was the best steak in teh world...maybe when i go to Buenos Aires? hope so). Then Flaco and another new friend (who was a TOTAL catch and whose name i forget) met us at the restaurant to share wine, then head to the boliches, the discotechs. We didn´t like the first one so ended up at some ¨rustic¨ place where there was a GREAT PInk Floyd coverband - and not in some cheesy Spanish accent coverband singing. Plain good. They later cleared out the tables and started the dance music! i was a happy camper. Danced the night away til 7am, though i probably had to force out a 3rd amd 4th wind at times. Hung out with more of Flacos friends, and Kate and hot guy got together. Darn ;). Anyway, i knew better than to try and sleep for a couple hours before my bus, so i just packed up and headed to the station, had to pay extra for an earlier bus, but i wasn´t about to hang out in the sketchy bus station! So after 8 days I finally left Mendoza, one of my fave places! Some of my pics are below, but of course, check flikr.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment