Mendoza con cesped y perros

So I went on my first travel expedition in Argentina. Santa Barbara girls, Lindsay the ballerina from Cali, and I left Thursday night. We took an overnight bus (what a lovely way to spend 14 hrs) but it was kind of awesome. The buses here are super duper nice. We got "full cama" seats which means full bed. We got on the double decker, went to our assigned seats up top and settled in. The seats are like big leather airplane first class. The bus attendant brought us some Bon Bons and drinks. And we were off. They showed some awful movie called WAR thst none of us watched. We just relaxed, ate, drank, wine and ipoded. At about 11 or so they turn off all the lights and everyone goes to sleep. The chairs lay almost all the way back and a foot rest comes forward. Muy comodo. Sleeping is still a bit tricky, but stil not so so bad. We arrived in Mendoza at about 11 am. We walked to our hostel and checked in. They prepared our room and we settled. It was a nice cute hostel and only cost like 10 dollars a night. We were feeling very ambitious so we set off to go see the vineyards.

Bikes and Wines. Does anyone else see the lawsuit coming? Well, here they don't. We rented bikes and peddled off to go on wine tours and tastings. So I know I got a bike for Christmas but the truth is I've probably only ridden it about 10 times so I am not a talented biker. The Santa Barbara girls however ride bikes 24/7 at school, even to go out at night, so drinking and biking was no prob for them. I can barely bike after drinking a gatorade - let alone anything else.

The road we set out on was basically a highway for the outskirts. Many semi trucks, whistling men, terrifyingly close to car interactions. It looked a lot like Costa Rica. Gated houses, stray dogs, a bit of poverty, the usual. Staying on the bike and not falling off or getting trampled by a hige truck are my greatest accomplishments.

We finally made it to the first vineyard. Once we turned off the main road, it was quite nice. The bodega was a small family owned and run old school winery. Loved it. We had such a nice guide who took us all through bodega. Then we got to try the wines. He set up these bean bag chairs outside for us. Heaven. It was so cool. The weather in Mendoza is so nice - blue skies, Andes mountains in the background, cool breeze. That plus great wine made right where you are sitting - ahh the perfection. Best thing I've done here so far.

But then we had to get back on the bikes.

We made it to the next vineyard which was more fancy and trendy. We just sat outside on this huge deck, drank wine, and looked at the vineyard. Amazing part 2.

Then we were starving - hadn't eaten since "breakfast" on the bus (bus food eww). We peddled our little hearts out to get to the lunch place they marked on the map. We got there and it was super fancy and expensive so we peaced out to go to the chocolate and liquor factory instead. Very cool. Very delicious.

We were biked out so we went back to Bikes and Wines and called a cab to take us to our hostel. We grabbed a late lunch at some cafe. So I still hadn't eaten any good meat since I've been here and I know this is supposed to be like steak central so I decided to start ordering the carne. I got some steak thing that was good. Not great.

We lounged for a bit and then went out to a great dinner at this trendy restaurant. Great food and drinks. And called it a night.

We slept in a bit and then went out searching for cafe. And boy did we find it. Best capucino of my life.

Mendoza has tons of great parks and plazas. Buenos Aires is great, but it's very concretey and crowded and gray. Mendoza is grassy and roomy and green. Such a nice break. We walked around all day - shopped, ate, read in the park- great great day.

That night we went to this cool brewery. We did a beer tasting and ate there. Lots of great convo. These girls are like hope for America. Politocos fo sho. Lots of Obama talk. I told them that it was cool to be in College Republicans at Ole Miss. They laughed and nearly spat out their beer.

We bar hopped for a while, ate some McDonalds, and called it a night.

Sunday morning we got up and went on a hunt for this other park. We found it after walking through Chino mas o menos. We parked it by the lake and read/layed out. But we made a friend.

The most awful, disgusting, heinous, smelly, diseased animal ever. A stray dog. So gross he made all the other stray dogs of Argentina seem like the cute 101 disney dalmations. This dog made Lulu (aka Lucifer the horrible dog we had for less than a year when she got runover bc someone left the gate open...) seem like heaven dog. This dog had a huge tumor or something hanging off it's reproductive area. It was repulsive. And it would not leave us. We left the park and it followed us all the way back to our hostel. I almost cried. I was on the edge of losing it seriously. It was so awful. Ew ew ew.

We finally hid in the hostel long enough for it to leave. We went and ate a goodlunch and tried to forget the horror of the perro. So gross so gross so gross. I hate dogs. There. I said it. I know that's a trait of serial killers but whatevs. (This was like Carrie Hill picking up stray mountain dog x 100000. Morgan picking up stray mountain dog x 60000000.) Ugh. Next. Give me a good cat.

We lounged, ate gelato, walked around til 6 when our bus left to bring us back "home". This bus was not near as nice. It was bright purple. Like barney on wheels. We got to watch 3 movies. They were so good I must share them with you.

First was Wild Hogs.

"A group of suburban biker wannabes looking for adventure hit the open road, but get more than they bargained for when they encounter a New Mexico gang called the Del Fuegos."

Starring: John Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence, and William Macy.

Oh the horror. It was maybe the worst movie of all time. I loved it. John Travolta who still looks like Edna from Hairspray, Tim the Toolman - it's just too good to be true.

Then was Cirque de Soleil - Quidam

This is the same show from Knocked Up I'm pretty sure where they do shrooms and then go and freak out. Well duh. It's the trippiest thing ever.

Then came a movie I don't know the title of and have to look on IMDB....

Ok it's Trust the Man. 2005.

David Duchovny, Maggie Gylenhal, Eva Mendes, the list goes on and on.

The weirdest Rom-Com ever. But very entertaining. And horribly awesome.

Then I slept for a few hours and woke up in BA. 7 am. Hooray. I didn't know people here got up that early, but the subte was pretty crowded. We made it back to the residencia and I blogged til class.

Frederico and I had a blast as always. Today his shoes were untied and he had a coffee mug that had his name on it and these little kid drawings of soccer balls. So cute. We played some fun numbers games. He told me about cool music. Fiesta fiesta. I found out he was born in 1985. Bout my age.

I ate lunch at Cafe Tortoni- a famous cafe bc Borges used to kick it there and write and stuff. It was delicious. I am loving the salads here. They are carrot based instead of lettuce. It works though.

Not sure what's on the agenda tonight. Low key fo sho. Everyone is sick. Carley roomie has strep, Henni norway is snifflig, it's like disease time. I plan on using lots of hand sani.

Here's some pics from the weekend. Besos.


I'm going to a Pilates class. Should be fun.