Mendoza

Well, since I was able to change Universities I had a week off between ILP and the start of my classes at my new school, La Catolica. So last week I decided to visit Mendoza, Argentina with a few friends. Mendoza is located in the western central part of the Argentina just right over the mountains. It was only a 7 hour bus ride and also a very pretty one with all the snow in the mountains. Mendoza was a really cool small town. The people were very nice and I loved the way it was set up with the main plaza in the center with a promenade and all the houses and apartments around the center. Every night there were tons of people strolling and hanging out. There was also an arts and crafts fair where I was able to talk to some locals and buy some fun souveniers. In Mendoza we stayed in a hostel for 4 nights. There were a lot of people staying there and it was fun talking to everyone and going to the social events. The bedroom I stayed in had 8 twin beds in the walls, like cubbies, with a little "privacy" curtain. Although you don't get much sleep through all the hustle, it was still a really fun experience. The first day we walked around the town, had dinner and then ate some really good ice cream! Argentina is known for its beef, and I don't think I've eaten that much consecutively, ever. The next day we went on a horse back riding excursion for the whole day. In Mendoza there were all sorts of out door excursions to choose from which was really cool. I'm so glad we went horse back riding though because it was soooo fun! We got to ride in the middle of nowhere for the whole day and got to hear about the political and economic history of Argentina, which is really fascinating. The history is very rich and recent and it was so fascinating to hear about it from someone young who lived through it. It was an amazing day and I never wanted it to end. The next day we went for a long walk to this huge park and hiked up a small hill where we were able to see the town and the stadium where some of the Copa America games were played. After we went wine tasting, because Mendoza is known for all of its wineries. We went to two places and then a place where you try different olive oils. Now I'm back in Santiago and classes start on Monday so I'm working on trying to figure out my schedule. It was difficult enough to figure out all of the UCI systems and now trying to learn a new one in Spanish is even worse! It will be nice in a couple weeks once all of that gets settled. Other than that things are still going great and I'm having an awesome time.

The bus ride

Lots of parks and plazas!

Driving into Mendoza

Cabalgatas (Horseback Riding)