mendoza, argentina

we had a couple of days off last week for the chilean labor day so a few friends and skipped over the border to argentina for the weekend. okay, so the skipping part was a lie, because it definitely took us 14 hours to get there on thursday, but that was because a brazilian fruit truck tipped across the winding two lane over the andes and blocked traffic for 4 hours solid. we built an awesome snowman during this period. then another 2 hours at the border stamping passports and such. i think about a quarter of santiago decided it would be nice to go to argentina for the holiday. but i made it back sunday in 8 hours, which is about right. the drive is truly gorgeous though - each hairpin turn opening up another thousand feet of snowcapped, achingly beautiful mountainside right out your bus window. there is nothing quite like a mountain that makes you think "majestic" and seeing nothing on the horizon but blue sky and dozens of snowy peaks is pretty much breath taking. so being stuck on that road for four hours wasn't quite tortuous. the lack of bathroom on the bus is another story. 

after crashing in our hostel by 11 thursday night, we were serenaded to sleep by the party that went on until about four in the morning in the patio outside our window. we got up bright and early for our bike tour of the local wineries and had some interesting conversations at breakfast with a few hardcore partiers who were still going strong at 7 in the morning. apparently the night life in argentina is such: the discoteques fill up around 2:30, past which it is illegal to enter (in mendoza, at least) and then you party till the club closes at 6 and hang around for a bit until the panaderias (bakeries) open at 7. needless to say, we did not indulge in this insanity during our brief stay. that bike and wine tour was wonderful - we rented bikes for the day and rode through the sunny countryside, with the andes anchoring the horizon. we had tours of family vineyards and sampled their specialties, had a leisurely and delicious meal on table made of wine barrels in the shade of a bodega and ended with a artisan chocolate and liqueur workshop. it was wonderfully laid back and relaxing after the smog and crowds of santiago - and much cheaper too! i really do like chile and santiago - but weekends like this make me realize how much more i want to travel. listening to the argentinean accents after hearing only chileans for two months was a bit like waking from a dream - they spoke at such a reasonable pace and with the exception of a few lisping accent quirks, so clearly. i didn't miss hardly a word the whole trip. the next day we wandered through the city of mendoza, which is about the size of birmingham. it has the charm of an old southern town - tall, established trees line the streets and crinkle the tiled sidewalk, hodgepodge buildings of various decades and even centuries rub shoulders. once more, we had a huge, delicious and totally affordable lunch before ambling through a few of the many parks and a large local artisan fair. after coffee and cake we headed back to the hostel to get our list together for dinner, or rather, breakfast-for-dinner.  we had all been craving american breakfast for a while, so in the hostel's community kitchen we made mounds of french toast with honey and cheese eggs. delicious. i'm so glad to have found cooking friends here. we celebrated cinco de mayo yesterday with a huge spicy feast of chicken enchiladas, fajita salad, fish tacos and several pounds of guacamole. as always, more pictures on flickr.