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The Drive Back
It's amazing what a difference a weekend can make... (Written by Emi and Myself)
"Help, I need somebody. Help, not just anybody"...after nearly missing the our 8:30 am bus this text message from Edwardo helped us get rid of our crabbiness and put us in a good frame of mind for our trip to Mendoza. Jennie and I thought we knew exactly were the bus station was but ended up asking about 4 people on the streets and literally running in hopes that Emi hadn't already caught the bus. However after 8 1/2 hours, several unplanned stops and 2 1/2 hours standing in the cold at customs we realized we should have taken El Rapido (name brand of another bus). We checked into our hostel and left for our first Argentinian dinner after meeting up with Brìan, Sam and Dave. We choose the "thumbs up" buffet from our Lets Go guide. However, after eating at other restaurants throughout the weekend we came to the conclusion it should be a thumbs down. Good and all, but not as good as some others. However, it was still better than Chilean food. After dinner we had some "coffee drinks" at an outdoor bar and had high hopes for our first club night.
Before
This was a bus shot picture taken by Emi on our way to Mendoza Sadly we arrived at the dance club Geo at 4 am, and was told that it was packed and they weren't letting anyone else in. Unfortunately we had lost half of our group along the way. Eventually they caught back up with us at the Hostel. Their story about finding us was a little more interesting than our story about not being able to get into the club. What is it about people in other parts of the world thinking that when an american says club they actually mean strip club?? They had asked for directions to a club and they were directed to a strip club. Not know at first it was a strip club they had entered in hopes to find us there. Once they met us back up at the hostel we decided to make our first night in Argentina memorable with a nightly swim. The highlight was a small performance by Sam, he jumped from our second story balcony into the 4 foot deep pool, shouting "I am a golden god!" We believe this may have pissed off the other guests at the hostel. Considering the desk worker came outside to tell us to lower our
Me and the Andes
I was a little out of it when this picture was taken considering all the time we had been on the bus voices.
After going to bed at 7:30 am I decided to be the alarmclock for the group only after 4 hours of sleep. We all headed out for lunch in a pedestrian mall on Avenida Sarmiento in the middle of town. Dave accompanied us girls to go shopping and was actually amazed at our shocking display of restraint as we only purchased a massive quantity of chocolate and nothing else.
Before heading back to the hostel we stopped in at the Bonefide Expresso Cafè to enjoy a nice relaxing cup of coffee (well mine kinda sucked.) Out of nowhere a little old lade who reminded us of the witch from Hansel and Gretal appears (bent in half) at our table and first demands money (monedas). Jennie said she didn't have any, but she could have a peice of chocolate. She was a sassy little lady she instructed Jennie to hand over the chocolate (she then repetitively says "Put it in a napkin"). Jennie kindly helped her wrap some our chocolates in a few napkins and we thought that was the end of it...but no. She came up behind me and startled me to death. First she begins talking
Emi and Dave
How cute are they??? to me about Chile and Argentina before she sees the delicious peice of chocolate Jennie was about to put in her mouth. She grabbed the piece of chocolate Jennie was about to eat out of her hand, saying she has never seen that kind before. We thought she was leaving after that, but no. As a parting gift, we suppose, she took some more half eaten chocolate from our table. She was terrifying but I agree with Emi that you had to admire her.
Saturday night we had our international dinner-the six of us, 3 Irish girls and one English girl who Brian and Sam ran into in the plaza earlier and who go to their university in Santiago. Dinner, as in the food, was amazing. Dinner, as in the company-well, lets just say it had its moments. After some awkwardness while paying the check we ditched the foreign girls and headed to Geo, several hours earlier than our first attempt friday night. The club was fun, maybe a little too fun. We all stayed and danced until we could hardly stand up. We went back to the hostel and hung out in our room where Emi recorded our
The Andes
This looked so fake in person I couldn't believe it was real late night conversation on her AMAZING camera, my next investment.
Sunday we woke up again to an extreme cold front and rain and the news that we were in fact trapped in Argentina for another night. It had snowed in the mountains making travel across the border impossible. We practiced our flexibility skills and turned the day around by seeing an Argentinian movie (Whiskey, Romeo, Zulu) and going out to our best dinner yet in Argentina. We ended the night with desert and a bottle of champagne to celebrate our weekend away. Our table was filled with wine glasses despite swearing off alcohal after the previous two nights. But that pie was sooo incredible.
Monday Emi and I made a mad dash through the plazas of Mendoza looking for an ATM machine because some of us didn't have the money to pay for the rental. We payed our bill at the hostel and rushed to the bus station, only to sit for 2 more hours past our scheduled departure time. What was the point of that mad dash?? Again, we should have taken Èl Rapido instead of the O'Higgins Express. The drive through the Andes on the way
Me, Emi and Jennie
Enjoying a wonderful meal at a restaurant in Mendoza, Argentina home was worth the extra day in Mendoza. They were amazing, beautiful, to the point that they looked fake. I had never seen anything like them before in my life. Even though we didn't do anything touristy throughout our stay in Argentina, it was still one of the best times I have had during my stay here in South America so far. We ate the most amazing steak, drank incredible wine and all vowed to move from Chile to Argentina. Despite the fact that we are now going on our 5th hour sitting here in customs at the border it was worth it all. We arrived in Santiago by taking the O´Higgins Express because our originally sceduled Turbus wasn't going to be running until 11pm, wo we had changed the bus company in order to get home before Tuesday. Once arriving in Santiago we had a little McDonald´s for dinner, said bye to Dave just to get right back on another bus to Vina.
The ending of the story about the trip goes like this....We make it back to Vina and I wake up from a good sleep on the way back and the first thing i think of
is "ahhh Home sweet home" (well in Chile at least). After We leaving Mendoza at about nine in the morning and making it to customs around lunch time, then our wait to cross the border in custums, then the rest of the trip to Santiago, then the 2 hour bus ride to Vina, I couldn't have been more happy to go get in bed. The wait at customs was the longest wait of my life. However where we were couldn't have been better. It was the most beautiful scenery to have to look at for a long period of time. It was amazing what a difference just a day can make. The Andes were covered in snow and were utterly breathtaking.
Some differences between Argentina and Chile include:
Almost ALL the people are all beautiful and friendly
Everything costs so much less
Street beggars are more common in Argentina
They(Argentina) have real coffee not nescafè (but tasted a little weird, guess i'm use to the Nescafe)
The food is better (best steak I've ever had)
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Worry Mother
Mandy this whole World is so crazy now. See there you are experencing a lot of Fun In life, but also some Danger's In Life. But it is all So Beautiful. You will NEVER forget this part In your Life. I LOVE YOU MOM - MOM