Over the Andes and through the Dunes, to Mendoza and Chile we go! (went?)

Hola a todos!!

Its been quite some time since I've updated, which always makes it difficult to say everything I want to say in one blog post. The past week I have been traveling, since we had time off of school for our Winter Break. My trip was certainly a whirlwind 8 day adventure, the details of which, I am about to share with all of you! I will try to break it down day by day for easy read-ability. Here goes....

Saturday, 17 de julio
Our overnight bus was scheduled to leave BA for Mendoza around 8:30 pm. We trekked down to the Bus station (about 50 min worth of walking/subte riding from my house) without our bags packed. The bus station was, what they say in spanish, una locura. A giant crazy mess! You aren't told your "gate" or where your bus leaves from, so you just kind of huddle with the masses until a bus pulls up that is labeled with your correct departure time and destination. Luckily, we found some locals who kind of knew what they were doing and led us to the correct bus, and an hour later than expected, we departed from BA.

Sunday, 18 de julio
I slept through the entire night, without a problem. I won't venture to say that the seat were comfortable, but for a $50 ticket, I wasn't complaining. We arrived in Mendoza around noon, taking a taxi to our hostel. I will be the first to say that traveling the backpacker style was pretty new to most of us, and we didn't really know what to do once we got to our hostel. Actually, I take that back, we knew what to do: eat. We enjoyed a delicious meal of pasta, and of course got some Malbec wine to share. Other than some eating and exploring, our first day in Mendoza was rather relaxing. We made some friends at the hostel, a British guy and an Argentine, so it was definitely entertaining to talk to them. Mostly, it was exciting to be outside of the city, enjoy some peace and quiet. After living and deciphering BA, going to ANY city while traveling feels like a piece of cake. Honestly. Also, it was FREEZING in Mendoza. It was actually freezing the entire trip, especially because hostels do not have heating. Our hostel in Mendoza did have a very questionable open flame heater that reeked of propane...but it was warm. Whether the fumes cost me several years of my life remains to be seen.

Monday, 19 de julio
In the afternoon on Monday, we went on a wine tour! We arranged for a tour guide to come pick us up outside the hostel. Ana, our tour guide, was very nice, telling us about Mendoza as an arid region that receives very little rain, and its main function as a region that produces wine, especially the Malbec grape. We went to two wineries, Weingart and Laguarde. They were both medium-sized old-fashioned wineries, so it was amazing to see the dungeon-like caves and gigantic oak casks being used in the wine production. Tasting wine is a field in which I doubt I will ever be an expert. It all tastes like wine to me, I don't get the aromas of cherry, pepper, onion, etc. Ana just told me I needed to develop my "palate." Haha. The only wine most of us liked was a very fruity fizzy wine, which was just like drinking soda. Yum!
After the tours, we drove near to the Andes Mountains, got out of our van and took some pictures. I truly love the mountains. I like living in a city, and the constant excitement and barrage of culture, but something about the majesty of nature pulls me.

Tuesday, 20 de julio
We woke up very very early to catch a 7:30 am bus from Mendoza to Santiago. We said goodbye to half of our group the night before, and then we were four, embarking on our journey across the border to Chile! The bus drive was INCREDIBLE. We drove through windy, steep roads in the Andes, watching the sun rise. We eventually made it to the border at the peak of the mountains, passed through customs without any problems (well, they did open my bag and question my jar of jam...) and drove on the Santiago. Santiago was rainy and freezing when we arrived. Not cool, Santiago, not cool. However, even through the weather you could see that Santiago was a very cool city. To me, it had more of a colonial feel than BA, and parts were definitely more run down. In Santiago, the Chilean people looked very much like Argentines, in that they were European. During the afternoon we were in Santiago, we took a city tour, and our tour guide told us that Chile, like Argentina was very much a country of immigrants. The city tour was great, we saw the main plaza, Plaza de Armas, got a (cloudy) view of Santiago from surrounding hills, and even tried some Pisco, the national drink.
I'm going to take a moment to talk about the hostel in Santiago. IT WAS FREEZING. I wore two pairs of wool socks, two pairs of long underwear, a thermal top layer, two shirts, my northface fleece and a hat and gloves to go to sleep. It was not enough. Fortunately, we only stayed one night there, but I do not think I will be going back there in the winter!

Wednesday, 21 de julio
We took a 1 hour bus to Valparaiso/ Vina del Mar, sister cities on Chile's coast. These cities were the highlight of the trip, without a doubt. As we drove from Santiago to Valpo, we could see the scenery change. It transitioned from scrubby mountains to lush green vegetation and palm trees. We took a taxi to our hostel once we arrived, and not only did we gape at the brightly colored houses the were built into the hillside, we cheered as the sun finally came out! Our hostel was adorable, reminiscent of a house, with a very welcoming staff. We wasted no time to exploring, our first quest was to find La Sebastiana, Pablo Neruda's house. Seeing his house, it was no shock that he could write such beautiful poetry. His house was brightly colored and had a panoramic window overlooking the entire coast and rainbow houses. It was breathtaking. After finding La Sebastiana, we went down to the coast, and went on an ascensor (elevator) up a hill to get another breathtaking view of the port. The sun was starting to get down, and it got cold again (unfortunately). But we appreciated the sunshine during the day!

Thursday, 22 de julio
THIS WAS THE BEST DAY OF THE ENTIRE TRIP!
We had planned earlier in the week to go horseback riding. I emailed a company about 30 km north of Valpo, and they arranged transportation to get us to their location. We mounted our horses for a full day adventure, with an asado for lunch, not really knowing what to expect. Before we knew it, our guides were leading us over gigantic sand dunes, forests, and all the way to the BEACH. One of my friends and I reached the beach and started experimenting with how fast our horses would go, until we were galloping down the beach. The coast, and riding along it on a horse was absolutely incredible, I don't even have words to express how perfect the day felt. Our asado lunch was delicious. For the non-vegetarians in the group, our guides cooked sausage, pork, AND giant steaks. For me, there were quesadillas and salads, it was amazing. After our late lunch, we returned to the beach with our hourses, and rode again on the beach as the sun set. It was unbelievable.

Friday, 23 de julio
We spent Friday exploring Vina del Mar, the more touristy sister city to Valparaiso. It was beautiful, except it started to rain. We also needed to schedule classes at 5 pm, so a large part of the day was spent figuring out those annoying real-life details.

Saturday, 24 de julio
This was our original departure date. When we woke up early to catch our bus back to Mendoza, we hear pouring rain. THis was not a good sign, because if it was raining along the coast, it was snowing in the mountains we needed to cross. We embarked on the journey anyhow, driving for two hours before our bus driver turned around. No buses could cross the Andes due to weather. We were put out for only about 30 seconds, because as soon as we got off the bus, the SUN came out! And it was the perfect day! We found this fish market where Chileans were gutting hundreds of fish, selling vegetables, and engaging in pure chaos. In a building near the market, we found several restaurants that all served very fresh fish, which was delicious! After the market, we went to beach, where we were able to watch the sunset, the perfect end to an amazing trip.

Sunday 25 de julio - Monday, 26 de julio
25 hours on buses. We smelled very bad. Nothing more needs to be said.


Okay, thats a long one! More updates of life in BA and semester classes to come...