2nd Day in Mendoza-- the downtown...

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Since the sun doesn't rise until about 8am here, I didn't wake up until about 9am or so. This is very very late for me. I finally got started along the day and headed out into town. I was supposed to head to the High Mountain tour, but had to postpone it for a day because I had no clothes that would be appropriate for the mountain... but I still thought, this is something I must do while I am here! So my main mission was to buy clothes appropriate for going to the mountain.

As I walked around Mendoza I noticed that there were a lot of people walking around huge streets. This place must be amazing during the summertime. I mean, absolutely amazing. Sarimiento has outdoor cafes and people eat and drink coffee out until the sun goes down. It leads to the main plazas. The plazas are very easy to find. It is placed like a die in the middle of town. So I walked down to all of the parks, looking at the beautiful architecture, mosaic tiles, and more importantly-- try and find a bank! It took me forever to find a bank. There just aren't as many here as there are in Buenos Aires. But eventually I found one, and decided to head into the store that had really cheap winter clothes for sale. But what did I find? 12:30pm and it was closing. SIESTA! So I took too long to find a bank and didn't make it into the store. This totally changed my plans because I wanted to make it to the park at the end of the city by the end of the day... I ended up going into a restaurant and getting food and walked around to the shops. I bought some jewelry, and a sweater, and was too tired to spend the rest of the time in Mendoza, so I took a cab back to my hostel. The cab driver was from Italy, and we talked (in Spanish!) about the Italian immigration into Mendoza. He said his family moved here when he was young and he absolutely loves Mendoza. It's a nice town. I love the parks. I love the people. I love the quiet calm. However, I am missing the beautiful buildings! I saw some beautiful architecutre, and headed into some buildings and saw some great stain-glass windows. However, as a whole, aside from the tree-lined streets and the parks, Mendoza isn't quite remarkable. It's really a place for adventure tourism.

After my small Siesta, I decided to head back into town and find some clothes. This was by far the best part of my trip. I walked around the store and tried stuff on, since I was just buying a jacket and a fleece vest. However, this was clearly a no no as all of the ladies wanted me to go into the dressing room. the ladies jacket was only in a Medium, and it was a little too big for me. I didn't want it falling off! So what did I do? No joke, I went into the kids section. I swear, the ladies who worked there were laughing at me. Even a little girl was smiling at me as she saw me try on a kid's fleece. The benefits of buying kids clothing: The jacket I bought was 79 pesos, under 30. And the fleece was 39 pesos, a little over 10. It was pretty awesome. The downfall of buying a little boy's jacket? It fit like a glove (I should have gotten the next size up) and I couldn't actually zip it all the way up. No worries, I was still protected from the cold.

I spent most of the day by myself. It was actually the first day since I've been in Argentina that I have spent it completely by myself. I had lunch by myself and I didn't dread it. I shopped by myself, and walked through all the parks by myself. In the evening, I slept early, since I was going to head out into the tour. I spent a lot of time reflecting. Sometimes I just got lost in my own thoughts, which usually isn't normally helpful for me. But for some reason, maybe being so far away, it's provided me with a lot of clarity. I've realized a lot of things... I talked to a few of the couples who were around (I swear, seeing all these couples kinda makes me wish I was in a couple... haha), and then headed to bed.

The staff at this hostel is SOOO nice. The lady lent me a pen, and her shoes because she knew I was cold. All in all, Argentines are really nice, beautiful people. I could literally live here. Although, I won't and will be returning... at least for another year...

I keep on thinking about how I was supposed to go last summer. I still could have, but wasn't clearly at the mental state to do so. If I went last summer, I don't think I would have had the same eye-opening experience. I probably would have just been going through the motions. There's a reason why I'm here now. I'm still trying to figure it out. The reason maybe just because it's finally time to learn even more about myself than I had ever imagined.

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