So when I arrived in Mendoza on Thursday, March 27 and my luggage didn´t, I knew that it was already off to a promising start. Fortunately, I arrived at my hostel without any problem so Mendoza was back on the map. After deciding what my Friday excursion would be, I ended up spending my Thursday evening doing -- what else? -- shmoozing with a guy from Spain (Ibiza, to be precise) and some Argentines. Ibiza is quite a character, actually -- well, more like literally. See, he´s a writer, and after he published his first book and it didn´t get the attention he wanted, for every subsequent work, he used pseudonyms and created whole characters out of them. So, when he goes in for interviews and such, he goes in dressed in character. The book photos? Also in character. A regular Borat , you might say.
My Alta Montaña (High Mountain) excursion on Friday took pretty much the whole day. The first stop was to a large dam on the Mendoza River called the ``Presa Embalse de Portrerillos´´. Basically, it was just a lot of water with some mountains in the background, and one would never know it was artificial. The next stop was to a bridge called Puente del Inca. This place was pretty cool because a) it looked neat and b) there are thermal springs around there, in addition to it being an Incan bridge. After walking around here and looking at the tourist stalls for a bit, we got back in the van and got back on the highway. We stopped at this one point along the road where we had a view of a mountain called Cerro Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Americas and the highest mountain outside Asia. Even from far away, where things are supposed to look smaller, it still looked big. (Then again, it is 6,962m tall.) And then it was back on the road. While we were on the road (and this was the majority of the day), our tourguide, Mauricio (who does not go by the alias Cecilia..or if he does, he didn´t say so), told us that the town we were passing through, called Uspallata, was where the film ``Seven Years in Tibet´´ was filmed. Surprise, surprise -- it was not actually filmed in Tibet. One funny tidbit of info we learned about the movie (that, of course, may or may not be true) was that Brad Pitt´s double is from Mendoza and now lives with him in L.A. Something doesn´t sound quite right about that, but then, that´s what makes it funny. After we passed through Uspallata, we passed a small town called Las Cuevas and then proceeded to drive up lots of hairpin turns to reach an altitude of 4,200m, at which lies (or, stands...or sits? well, none of the above, really) a statue called Cristo Redentor de los Andes, a statue that divides Argentina and Chile. On one side of the statue is Argentina, and the other side is Chile. What this means is that on Friday, I was in Chile for about 15 minutes or so! Taking it one step further, though (but not too many steps further, since it was 4,200m up and I wasn´t wearing a harness or anything), this just goes to show that in traveling, every day is a new adventure. Originally, I had decided to forego Chile during these four months because there is enough in the country to merit its own trip but, well, the opportunity presented itself... and when that happens, you just gotta greet Chile and say, ´´Christ, I´m in Chile!´´ After a slow descent down the mountain, we headed back to Mendoza (with a stop for a late lunch....mmm asado) and continued back to town.
Saturday started off as a rainy day -- not such a great day to walk around town, but when time is limited, you do it anyway. Besides, it´s only water, so you bring an umbrella, and if you really want to absorb the town, you keep the umbrella closed and just wear your (my) jacket with a hood. I spent some time checking out the main plazas in the city center that have some history behind it -- Plaza España, Plaza Italia, Plaza Chile, Plaza San Martín, and Plaza Independencia. But the history isn´t all that exciting (sorry if you are a history buff, but this is my forum and I´m not one!), and the only interesting part out of all of those plazas was the Andalusian ceramic tiles that decorated the benches in Plaza España. After my improvised tour of the city center, I picked up some lunch and headed back to the hostel, since I had an excursion scheduled for the afternoon.
Since the province of Mendoza is known as the wine region, I did a half-day bodega excursion located in a town just south of the town of Mendoza, called Maipú (hey, I don´t write the jokes -- I just tell them). At the first bodega, called Vistandes, we had a tour of the place, yada yada yada, and of course a free sample at the end. The next stop of the excursion was to an extra virgin olive oil factory called Pasrai. A quick tour, yada yada yada, and another free sample! Finally, we visited another bodega called Cavas de Don Arturo. There, we had a tour and three free samples (but don´t be fooled, as they weren´t that great). These three stops comprised the tour, so this third stop was the last stop. I feel that it´s only appropriate (well, not really, so if you want to stop reading now, feel free) to mention that on the way back from Maipú, I saw a billboard with the town´s slogan. It said, ´´Maipú: el mejor lugar para vivir.´´ (Maipú: the best place to live) Really, who comes up with these things?At night, I walked around for a bit and ended up sitting at an outdoor café for dinner, ultimately deciding on empanadas. It turned out that the couple next to me was Brazilian -- from Sao Paulo -- and I talked to them for awhile. It occurred to me that last night was my last night in South America after three months of traipsing -- two months in Brazil, three days in Uruguay, and three and a half weeks in Argentina. And there, everything came full circle again, because I was eating dinner in a Portuguese-speaking environment a month after leaving my self-imposed Portuguese immersion, and my new Brazilian friends told me that I had little to no American accent. Hooray! Misson complete (for now).
So, since it seems that my Portuguese is doing okay for now, and I´ve finished up the Argentine portion of my trip, where summer has turned to fall, I think it´s time to swap the ´´vos´´ for the ´´vosotros´´ and go continue this viaje on the other side of the Atlantic, where it´s springtime!
So, since it seems that my Portuguese is doing okay for now, and I´ve finished up the Argentine portion of my trip, where summer has turned to fall, I think it´s time to swap the ´´vos´´ for the ´´vosotros´´ and go continue this viaje on the other side of the Atlantic, where it´s springtime!
hasta la sangria,
missy
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