Thursday:
Ariel, Lindsey, and I got on the bus in Santiago at 8:41am (which of course in Chile means we left at 9) and began the 10 hour journey across the Andes. Luckily, I had gone out the night before to a super fun club party thrown by a student organization every Wednesday called Miercoles Po and been out until 3am. While this made waking up pretty brutal, it made sleeping on the bus through the somewhat terrifying Andean roads super easy! It took us 2 hours to get through the border controls in the middle of the Andes before we continued on for 4 more hours to Mendoza. Once we got to Mendoza after 10 hours on the bus, we caught a taxi to our hostel. Definitely not the finest hostel ever, in fact possibly one of the worst I'll ever stay in but rather than complaining about it all I'll just say it was at least a place to sleep for the 3 nights we were there and from now on I'll listen less to hostelbookers.com and more to friends who have been places before. Also, I quickly learned upon arrival that Mendoza was not quite how I had imagined it to be. I had been picturing based on stories from friends that it was just wineries and very gorgeous. In reality, Mendoza itself is a pretty big city that's actually kind of sketchy and not so pretty. You have to be really careful where you walk in the city and I didn't use a purse all weekend. However, the areas outside the city (which apparently are what I had heard about) are in fact beautiful, gorgeous, relaxing, and safe. That night, we went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant in town walking distance from our hostel (with free chips, but very mediocre food) with an Israeli man from our hostel and got some helado before returning back to the hostel where Gina and Lauren, who had taken a later bus, had arrived. We spent the night hanging out and talking at the hostel, a large topic being the 7.2 aftershock that occurred that morning and the email about possible cancellation of EAP, and then turned in for the night to our 12 person dorm with not so comfy beds.
Friday:
Friday morning we woke up and went for a short little run before getting suited up and grabbing a taxi to the Aguas Termales Las Cacheutas about 1 hour outside of town. All we really knew was that they were hot springs that we had heard great reviews of that were slightly outside of town. It turns out they were actually in the Andes and were INCREDIBLE! The beds themselves were manmade, with water slides, bubbling springs, cold springs in a circular form (like the lazy river at wild rivers), and all surrounded by towering Andean peaks. It was absolutely incredible and a beautiful day. I don't have any photos since I didn't want to leave my camera unaccompanied while I was in the pool, but my friends have some I'll steal and share later plus I found one online of the location. We spent the day hanging out in the pools, with a break for an Argentine Asado of bread, chicken, and salad (mixed together! imagine that!), before returning to Mendoza by bus to shower and head to dinner. This night we returned to our trusty Lonely Planet Guide that has never done us wrong as far as restaurants or anything for that matter, why we ever stray from it is beginning to become a wonder of mine.
We went to the "our pick" restuarant on the other side of town via taxi and had some incredible food at a very cool restaurant and then hit up a bar and ordered our first vino (wine) of Mendoza that was very good before returning to the hostel to catch some sleep.
Saturday:
Saturday, aka super cuico we got the hookups this day was ridiculously amazing day. Lauren's dad works in the wine business and had sent an email to one of the wineries he works with down here about us coming and they had set up a tour for us. Little did we know, it was a free, private tour and wine tasting (of 7 different wines) in English with an Australian guide of a winery that doesn't usually give public tours or tasting, plus transportation provided with an amazing driver who also gave us the hookups throughout all of Maipu (the wine region outside Mendoza). The day started with us being picked up by Enrique (driver) at our hostel and taken out to Andean Winery (member of Trapiche) and meeting out Aussie guide Steve who took us on a tour of all of the winery and then a tasting of 7 different wines, all very good and some top end. Then, we told Enrique we wanted to rent bikes while out in Maipu to hit up a few other wineries and the Chocolateria after eating some lunch first. He swung us by Mr. Hugo's bikes to set up a pick up and then dropped us off at his very highly recommended restaurant called Caseros del Campo which was absolutely delicious. When we finished eating, Enrique had arranged for the owner of the restuarant to call Mr. Hugo who took us back to his bike shop in his truck.
We then rented bikes (for about $5 for the whole day) and headed out through the gorgeous wine country with the Andes beside us towards winery number 2, where we tasted 3 red wines and a dessert wine before mounting our bikes again and heading back towards the Chocolateria. At the chocolateria we tasted all all sorts of olive oil, vinegar, spreads (dulce de leche, etc. yummm) and ended with liqueurs and fudge. Here is when Gina and Lindsey and I decided to try absynth, an experience I'm glad I tried but never have to repeat, ever. I took two tiny sips and then gave up, seeing as it felt like you were being torched with fire in the throat, and that was with them putting a spoonful of sugar in it to make it easier to go down! Definitely an experience I won't ever forget!
We then returned to Mendoza where Lindsey parted us for Buenos Aires with some other friends since she goes to La Chile rather than La Catolica and is still on break until next week and the rest of us ate some dinner cereal (new favorite meal: natural yogurt with banana and cereal mixed in) and hung around the hostel prepping for our return back to Santiago in the morning. I also found out this night about Band Staff for next year and that I will be Rank Leader, a position I really wanted and am so excited for! Saturday was a pretty incredible day!Sunday:
We left Mendoza at 8:30 this morning and made much better time on the return trip, getting to Santiago at 3pm. The road through the Andes was especially adventurous since we were on the top level of a double decker bus. The day has been spent figuring out some school stuff (finally moving forward on the internship teaching English having talked with the head of the English department at a French school in Vitacura, random but awesome!), uploading pictures, and writing this blog as to not be as behind as I was before. It was a great weekend get away, and although there is plenty more to do in Mendoza, I'm content with what we did!
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