The Land of Sun and Wine

Got into Mendoza this morning at 9:30. Rough sleep on the bus per usual but still nothing compares to the first ride from Ushuaia to Calafate. Scott and Charlie enjoyed the 20 hour ride with half a handle of whiskey and a box of 4 peso wine (1 dollar, and by box I mean carton). Pretty entertaining. Mendoza is nice, it's called the land of sun and wine for a reason. I can't believe we were almost in Antarctica a week ago, it was 60 or more here today and gorgeous out. The climate is drastically different too, much more dry and desert like.

Our hostel here is called Campo Base and is a crazy little place. It's like walking into a funhouse or something with bright colors, wood walls and small hidden hallways. We spent the day at the Mendoza Zoo in Parque San Martin, which was pretty fun minus one thing. The animals looked SO sad. It was literally heartbreaking! The lions and tigers were the worst, their cages were tiny and they either just slept or paced back and forth trying to get some sort of exercise. It was a great zoo though as far and the animals they had. Bears, elephants, lions, hippos, pumas, jaguars, tigers, zebras, baboons and everyyything else. After, we hiked up to this famous statue of San Martin's liberation of Argentina, which is on the 5 peso bill. Coooool.

Tomorrow we do what Mendoza is all about- a wine tour by bike with tours and wine tastings at some bodegas. Wine + bike riding = potential disaster?

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