Mendoza, Argentina

I haven´t been doing a very good job of keeping up with the blog, everything has been so hectic. I thought it was about time to catch everyone up on what i´ve been doing in Chile! A few weeks ago I went with a friend, Devon, to Mendoza, Argentina. It was supposed to be an 8 hour bus ride that took us through the Andes Mountains and across the border into Argentina. However, the border crossing was extremely busy the day we decided to travel and we were stuck there for almost 4 hours waiting. It turned an 8 hour trip into a 12 hour one, but turned out to be well worth it! When we finall got to Mendoza, we checked into our hostel and had dinner with some friends we met there. The economy in Argentina recenly crashed so everything is super cheap there, which we were excited about. Since the country is going through such hard times, I expected it to be another adventure, like we experienced in Peru. However, the city was beautiful, and the people there as well! It reminded me of a European city, with cafè lined streets and shops. Meat is one thing that Argentina is known for, so everyone we went to dinner with ordered a huge steak, probably the biggest i´ve ever seen, for about $6. Wine is also well known, and also inexpensive. Actually, our hostel served free wine every night. The hostel was one of the best, and cheapest I have ever stayed in. It is only about 2 years old and was started, and still run by a couple not much older than me. The guy is from England and he was travelling in South America, where he met his girlfriend in Mendoza. They were so funny and kind, and helped us out so much by reserving our day trips and giving us suggestions for restaurants etc.

Our first day in Mendoza we spent wandering around town, shopping and checking out the sites. There were so many things we wanted to do, but had to choose between them. I decided to go paragliding, but Devon is afraid of hights and decided to go rafting. So, the next day we split up and did our own activity. I never thought I would have the courage or opportunity to go paragliding, and was so excited! For those that don´t know, paragliding is where you are attached to a parachute (and in my case a trained professional). You run and jump of a huge cliff and glide through the air, slowly descending. The view was amazing! You could see the entire city of Mendoza, as well as the Andes. I took plenty of pictures from the air that are posted on my picture website. The rest of the trip was pretty relaxing, spent shopping and enjoying the city. One of the big plaza´s in the city was filled booths of people selling things. One of the booths was a man drawing characatures and he was so good, we decided we had to have one done! I told him about my paragliding experience and he drew me doing just that. It´s something to keep that will alway remind me of my experience! Mendoza was wonderful and it is definitely a place I would love to visit again!