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Published: January 26th 2007
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So we crossed over into Argentina and headed for Mendoza. We got in at about 4:45am and decided it would be best to sleep a little in the bus station before venturing out to find a hostel. So we ¨slept¨ on these ridiculously uncomfortable benches until the sun came up - and then we ventured out to find a hostel. Mendoza is a city known for its wine and its rapids. Both of which we definitely partook in! Our first excursion in Mendoza was a rafting trip. We drove a ways out of Mendoza into the mountains (to be honest i'm not sure they were the Andes or not) and arrived at our base camp. It was definately a little, ok..a lot unorganized! We didn´t end up on the water for a few hours. We were on the trip with this guy from Australia - Michael, and a girl from England - Katie -- among others in a big group - who were both staying at our hostel. We had hung out and partied with them a little the night before, so it was fun to go rafting with some familiar faces. The water in the river we were on, it
There are a zillion of these barrels
And look how huge they are! They hold from 2000 to 6000 Litres..each! was significantly browner than the rivers i´d been on at home. The guide called it ¨chocolate brown¨ we thought it was a little less yummy looking. There were three boats on our little excusion - 8 people in each boat. The rapids were about a class 3 .. I think that perhaps they had underestimated the classes, either that..or they overestimated the ones at home because there were some seriously decent sized waves coming over me and callie´s heads. We were put up front (yaaaa) and got absolutely soaked and washed/pushed backwards into the laps of our other boatmates. It was hilarious!! One of the other boats had this cute guide who kept bugging me and callie, and would bring his boat up beside ours and try and haul us overboard! And on one attempt i was sitting with my feet in the boat, and my head in the water, bent over backwards. It was not comfy, let me tell you!! I would have easily fallen in the water, and it was perfectly safe to do so, the only problem was that my foot was securely in the foot hold! And at that angle it wouldn´t give! So that was
rows upon rows...
it was so nice and cold down there! a big mouth and nose full of yummy chocolate water. (ps - the water was brown due to the recent rain that brought a lot of sediment down from the surrounding hills, so it wasn´t horrible) Luckily karma came back around...their boat tipped over..and everyone was scattered down the river, Santiago the guide and all! We laughed as we hauled his passengers and paddles into our own boat. He tried to say it was on purpose. Likely story! After having ¨saved¨his boat..we decided it would be fun to tip ourselves! Unfortunately, our guide wasn´t as fun. So we opted to all jump out instead. And by jump, i mean flip ourselves backwards into the rushing brown water! It was sooo much fun, the water was going suuper fast, and it wasn´t really a calm part of the river either - so we were going down rapids in nothing but our lifejackets and wetsuits! Man, what a rush. The safety kyack dude was not impressed though - our guide said it was fine. But the guy who had to ´save´ half our boat was not too happy. Someone even flipped him while he was helping them! After the safety talk and
everything! Oooops!! We eventually all got back into our own boats and continued on down the river. At the end we all piled into this van - which i swear looked like a refugee van where they like, take people away in, wooden benches all around, metal floor, dirt and water everywhere. It was quite funny all piling in there - the ride back to the base was bumpy but short - and we showered up and waited for the next bus home (except that the next TWO buses were full. So we ended up waiting a lot longer than we had wanted! Oh well..at least we were somewhat clean!) Eventually we got back to our hostel, where they have a big party-bbq every saturday night! And lucky for us...it was saturday night! So the bbq was full, and the wine certainly flowed...and before we knew it we were dancing in the yard and making plans to go out to a big club.
Now...the clubs in Argentina - and many places in South America apparently - don´t even open until 1-130. And then they close their doors to people at 230..and party the night away until 7am! After having
rafted all day we didn´t have it in us to party until that early in the morning...but we hit the dance floor with some people from our hotel and partied til 530ish. We were SOO tired. Ooh, let me tell you about the club. We got to the gate, and they were like - only people over 30 tonight. And one of the guys we were with was like, no no, they only say that to keep the real youngins out..so we were like...ok, if u say so. Well we get in there. And no joke, everyone was 50 plus. The cougars were out in full force, and there were old guys left and right! I mean, we were 5 young people..so it was still fun dancing - but it was hilarious! I´ve never seen anything like it at a club before. I mean, yes, there were SOME young people...but definately a majority were 50 and over. WIERD!!
The next day was a write off. We hung out, watched movies in the common area of the hostel, ate, and lounged around in the coolest (cold wise) areas possible. It helped that everything in South America closes on sundays. Restaurants, stores,
There might be a little dust on the bottle..
...It's one of those things that gets sweeter with time
everything. It was really difficult to find food or anything! Either way...we gave ourselves a days´break and headed to the wineries on our last day in Mendoza.
The tour we went on included two wineries - a small family run one, and a huge scale production one..and lastly, a chocolate factory to finish off the tour! We learnt how the wines are grown (i guess the wines don´t grow...but the grapes!), produced, aged, stored, bottled etc. And the differences in the processes between whites and reds. And then we got the samples! We tasted some fantastic wines at both places, and you could really smell the different flavours and aromas in them! We had ones with chocolate, strawberry, plum, and various other undertones. It was pretty cool! And yummy! And then we finished off with the chocolate factory. Which wasn´t amazing...but we got free chocolate! So that made us happy. We bought some from the store they have at the end of the tour (for the next bus ride of course!!) I realize now that the winery tours don´t sound that exciting. But they were! It was fun - the pictures make it a little more cool i´d say...
That´s it for now! Keep up the comments, i love knowing you guys are actually enjoying what i write! ps - weren´t those cowboy pics as awesome as i had promised??? Pictures of the rafting and partying will be up when i get to a computer with a CD drive and when Callie´s camera isn´t mad at us anymore...Lots of Love, Lauren
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Jenn Werk
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Hey that sounds like so much fun. I'm glad u didn't die in the poo colored water. btw we go the bridesmaid dresses and they are really nice! I think u'll like them, i'll send pics when Steph loads them up. Well I leave in 13 days and be a little closer to where you are. I can't wait. Stay safe.