It all began on Thursday night as five (myself included) very excited gringas met at the bus station in Santiago in order to embark on their (normally 7-hour) bus ride to Mendoza, Argentina (just across the Andes border into neighboring Argentina). We had been talking about all we were going to do in Mendoza - go shopping for cuero (leather), eat fantastic amounts of meat (it is Argentina after all), tour wineries and drink rich wine (although Chilean wine is substantially better, in my opinion and I think all Chileans would agree). Needless to say, mis amigas y yo were STOKED. However, our dreams came crashing down as we approached the ticket window to inquire about our platform and the man behind the desk said two words: Está cerrado. For those of you who know little-to-no Spanish, that is code for Closed. ¿Por qué está cerrado? We inquired. Well, as it turns out, it was snowing heavily in the Andes and for safety reasons they had to close the highway through the mountains.
That would be pretty depressing if that was the end of our adventure. However, the man changed our tickets for Friday morning at 7:30AM and told us to hope for the best. Thus, a cool 6 hours later we were up and heading for the bus station once again... obviously sleep deprived and praying that the snow had begun to melt... However, before I move on, my arrival back to my house on Thursday night was a bit comical only because my host family was not at all expecting me to come through that door a mere two hours later. Of course, they were like Sarita, ¿Qué pasó? (Sarah, what happened?). Una palabra, mi familia, una palabra - NIEVE. (One word, my family, one word - SNOW!) Of course, they all busted out laughing, which is all I could do at that point as well. As upset as we (the girls) were at this little set-back, all we could do was laugh and talk about how Mendoza better be worth it. So anyways, Friday morning we all meet at the bus station, almost miss our bus (that's another side-story), but manage to make it in the nick of time.
The Bus Ride: The bus ride can only be described as a truly Latin American experience. Why? Well, the normally 7 hour bus ride easily turned into a 13 hour bus ride and one of the longest days of our lives. We traveled for about 2-3 hours out of Santiago, kinda in the mountains, when we stopped (standstill) for a little over 3 hours as we all waited for the road to open. Luckily, we all were able to get up, walk around, grab a Coca-Cola Light and enjoy the scenery (as you will see if you check out my photo album to your left). A little chilly but eventually we got moving again... Only to stop about 1.5 hours later at the border control where they searched all of our luggage and our baggage aboard. At this point in the journey we are up in the mountains and it is freezing. However, a mere 2.5 hours later we were moving again. As we twisted and curved up the steep mountains on the narrow road, we all held out breath - out of fear of falling off the edge as well as out of pure awe of the beauty of the snow-capped Andes. They were maravilloso. I'm just sorry that my pictures don't do them justice, especially since I was on a moving bus snapping photos. My apologies. Anyways, we made it to Mendoza around 9:30PM and trekked it over to our hostel, which (Thank Goodness) was nice and clean and cute. A little vino and a few games of MASH (yes, we are twelve, thank you very much) later we were a bit more relaxed and over the whole 13-hour-bus-ride-horror of the day. Buenas Noches.
The next day (Saturday) we woke up and were up and going to buy us some CUERO. Leather, leather, leather - that's all we had heard about Mendoza, other than the wine, of course. We trekked through most of the main parts of the city that day. Although we weren't too impressed with the scenery and agreed that Chile is a bit nicer than Argentina, we did end up buying some leather, which made us all pretty happy. However, what made us all ecstatic was our lunch. Mi mamá recommended that we go to this place called Las Tinajas, which is a tenedor-libre (i.e. all-you-can-eat) restaurant. We were advised to arrive early since it is a pretty popular joint, and popular it was. After standing in a line outside for a bit, we finally entered the restaurant of our dreams. The most amazing food ever and all for the low price of about US$12, not including drinks. We were all feeling pretty good about our lunch selection until we tried the meat when pretty good became an understatement... It changed our lives. As a girl from Iowa who has eaten her fair share of good steaks, my mind was blown when I tasted thee most tender and juicy piece of cow I have ever eaten in my life. I'm sorry Iowa, but Argentina has you beat hands-down on steak. (Although Iowa still wins in pork!) Whoa. Needless to say, we were all ready for a nap after that meal. And napping (in the park) is exactly what we did, before we went back to our hostel and napped some more. Haha. Obviously, that night for dinner we were in need of something a little, ahem, lighter. So after some salads we journeyed back to our hostel for some more Mendozan wine and a few games of cards.
Now if that would have been the end of our Mendoza experience, we would have been pleased, although a little perturbed at the initial bus ride, pleased nonetheless. After two of the girls headed out Saturday night / Sunday morning, Emily, Katie, and I decided to stay and see a little more of Mendoza. I mean, we did come all this way! We wanted to make it worth it and worth it it was. ¿Por qué? Well, just take a little peak at this video of mine and perhaps you'll understand...
Yes, I absolutely did go paragliding in Mendoza, Argentina and I would absolutely do it again. It was one of the best experiences of my life (so far!). The scenery was astounding. There is nothing like being 2,000 feet (if I did my calculations correctly) above the ground surrounded by the Andes mountains. I could even see some snowcapped mountains in the distance. The video footage is of the acrobatics Alejandro (my paragliding guide and best friend at that moment) had us do in the air. It was like being on a roller-coaster but not at safe. I am still in amazement that we could do all that with a parachute. It was one of the most relaxing 20+ minutes of my life. The trek in the 4x4 up the steep mountain was more frightening than paragliding itself. Wow is the only word that really does it all justice.
Needless to say, after that little adventure of ours, we were hungry and once again decided we had sufficient time to visit our favorite little all-you-can-eat Argentinean restaurant. Oh, yes, that's right, we went back to Las Tinajas. Of course, the servers remembered us, which was entertaining and a few of the Argentines we were chatting with while waiting in line wanted to take a picture with us. Kinda weird but I think it's the whole gringa thing. Although all three of us would agree that our steaks were not as good as the first time, they were still delicious along with the rest of the food. After hurrying out of the restaurant and cabbing it over to the bus station, we were on our bus bound for Santiago, praying that the journey would not take 13+ hours. It didn't, thank goodness.
However, we were a little worried about the journey when we first got on the bus because we were surrounded by Chilean or Argentinean (??) men playing their loud Latin music and just being plain obnoxious. As three females from the US, we looked at each other and asked: What planet are these people from that they think it is okay to play their music out loud on a public bus and not just any bus but a night bus where people are clearly trying to sleep?!?! Rude. As we were beginning to think that this was going to be another long ride, the hero-of-a-man sitting next to us asked one of the bus attendants to ask the "gentlemen" to turn their obnoxious and wildly inappropriately loud music down. They did. Win. However, the bus then decided it was a great idea to play a movie. Great idea in theory, but when you choose Fast & Furious with gunshots and loud cars... come on. We thought maybe this was a joke as we tried to ignore the bang! bang! and vrooom! vrooom! of Paul Walker and Vin Diesel. However, once again, we were saved by the same hero-of-a-man who, once again, complained and thus the volume was turned down substantially.
After sleeping un poquito we were once again stopped for an impromptu search of the bus, where three scary Argentinean policemen climbed aboard the bus to check two peoples' passports. (We later found out they were Israeli and figured it must have been some Homeland Security thing... as discriminatory as that sounds, it is true.) Then a mere hour later we were at the border control going through the motions, half asleep. The drug-sniffing dogs were definitely doing their jobs, although no big deals occurred. Although one of the Israelis, who couldn't have been older than 24, had to open up his bag and show the police his hackie-sacks... Perhaps they thought there were drugs or something inside. The police didn't understand his broken Spanish as he tried to explain to them what they were used for. So finally, the kid just picked up all four of them and started to juggle, which ended in a "big" smile from the policeman and a cheerful applause from the crowd.
Ugh, long night, but finally we arrived back in Santiago around 6AM. I don't know about the other girls but I definitely skipped class today, which I know won't make my parents very pleased but I hope you all can empathize with me a little after hearing about my crazy weekend, specifically the insane bus rides. After all is said and done, Mendoza was a success. And the way I look at the bus rides is this: Practice for the many more bus rides I will have to take in Latin America, specifically Peru when I bus up to Machu Picchu... I hear Peru can be a little more wild compared to the heavily European influenced countries of Argentina and Chile.
Anywho, I am still exhausted and have to get some studying done... Although I skipped class, I still have a test on Wednesday. I hope you all enjoyed my little narration of my trip to Mendoza and my photos/video. Moral of the story: If you ever get a chance to go paragliding, do it. It will make the 13+ hour bus ride entirely worth it.
¡Ciao!
