Meat Me in Mendoza

We woke up at 5:15 Friday morning to get ready in time to catch the shuttle I had reserved a couple weeks before to take us to the airport.  Even though the flight wasn't supposed to leave until 9:30, the shuttle company always schedules extra time, just in case.  We were supposed to get picked up outside the apartment at 6:15, so we went downstairs a few minutes early to wait.  It was pretty cold outside, and when the shuttle hadn't arrived by 6:30, we were starting to get a bit nervous.  I called the shuttle company to confirm that they were on their way, and they couldn't find our reservation!  I was really surprised, because I've been using this company for every trip I've taken in Chile, and for when Scott and Mom came to visit, and I've never had any problems whatsoever.  I'd actually only taken a taxi once here in Santiago, and that was when I moved from the hostel to the boarding house.  The hostel had arranged that for me, but I'm not really comfortable using the taxis alone (I'm not sure how to tell which ones are legitimate), so I went inside to ask the concierge to call one for us.

www.elautoperfecto-taxis.blogspot.com

Of course, the one one duty was the one that I've had some "conflicts" with, so he wasn't all that excited to help me out.  Ever since we resolved our differences, he has pretty much ignored me (which is fine with me), but I really wanted to be sure that I got the right taxi.  When I asked for help, he kind of looked at me like I was stupid and asked me why I didn't just get one outside.  I explained that I didn't know which ones were safe (I remember the last time in Chile that some of the people in my program got into some big problems when they chose the wrong cab company).  He still gave me "that look," but came out exasperatedly and pulled over a cab for us.

www.foroaviones.com

It actually turned out better to get the cab, because it was only a few dollars extra, and we ended up getting to the airport more quickly than we had expected.  This turned out to be a definite advantage, because what I hadn't realized when looking at our tickets the day before was that even though the plane was owned by Iberia, it was operated by LAN.  We didn't have any luggage, so we'd planned just to use the self-service kiosks and go straight through security.  Apparently, however, that is not allowed on flights shared between different companies.  I tried to check-in at both the Iberia and LAN kiosks, but neither could find our reservations.  I was a bit nervous because our reservations weren't found by the website the day before, either, but I'd called the company and had been assured that they'd had the reservations. While I tried one last attempt at the automated kiosk, Mom got in line for the check-in counter, just in case.  The line was so long that it had to snake through the queue reserved for the next airline over, and then still came nearly out the door.  With no luck from the machines, Mom suggested that I try at the LAN ticket sales counter to at least confirm that they had the reservation.  The line there was much shorter than at the check-in, and I only had to wait for one person in front of me.  I handed the woman all of my reservation information, and there were a few tense moments when she couldn't find the reservation.  Eventually she managed to find it and assured me that we were confirmed.  However, our only option to get our tickets would be to stand in line.  I thanked her for her help and went back to find Mom

www.practicallyathome.blogspot.com

By this time it was about 7:45 and Mom had moved about three inches since I last saw her.  At the rate the line was moving, we were worried that we wouldn't make it to our gate on time.  But we really didn't have any other choice, so we got in line and waited.  And waited.  And then just for something different, we waited some more.  Luckily, the attendants were really good at paying attention to flight times, and were walking through the line, pulling people whose flights were leaving soon.  We waited about another hour, and were finally near the front of the line.  There were only about three more groups in front of us when the attendant starting walking through and calling our flight.  He pulled us and we got to skip ahead of those three groups--woo hoo!  Once we got to the counter, we once again faced some anxiety when they couldn't find our reservations in their system.  Of course, it worked out that we got a trainee as well.  I mean, you've got to learn sometime, but I'm not sure that putting a new person out during the busiest travel week of the year at the same time the electronic systems are being completely overhauled is the best idea.  Eventually, she and her mentor managed to find our reservation and get everything smoothed out.

www.blackdresstraveler.com

It was about 9:00 by the time we got to the security checkpoint, but luckily, that part was easy.  We didn't have to take out our electronics, we didn't have to take off our shoes or jackets, and we didn't even have to empty our pockets!  There wasn't even a line to get through, so that part only took a couple minutes.   Of course, on the other side we had to fill out some international documents to leave the country.  We were a bit frazzled because no one had given us any forms to fill out, but we found them in a basket at the end of line.  I felt very special because I got to fill out the "resident" form, and I actually didn't even need to use my passport because I had a Chilean national ID.  Mom got a little nervous when the control agent took away the form she had filled out upon entering Chile, but she promised that she would get a new one upon returning to Chile.  

We got through all the steps and finally arrived at our gate just a few minutes before the flight was due to take off.  The area was already pretty full, but we found two open seats near a mother and her toddler.  I left to buy Mom a soda, and by the time I came back, she was friends with both the mother and her child.  They played together for a bit while we waited for boarding to begin.  It was incredibly foggy outside--we couldn't even see the plane outside the window--so that delayed the boarding a little.   Eventually, they called for pre-boarding, so the mother took her baby up to start boarding.  Shortly thereafter, they called for general boarding and we got in line.  They got about half of the people through, but when I went to give my ticket to the attendant, she told me to wait.

www.ajaccioairport.com

We figured they were just waiting for the congestion on the bridge to lighten up, but Mom went over to the window and saw that they weren't using a bridge.  Our plane was actually out in the field, so they were going to put people on buses to transport them to it.  However, there was apparently something wrong with the first bus, so they sent it away while they just left everyone waiting outside.  It was really cold out, and of course most of the people out there were the pre-boarders, i.e. elderly and infants.  After about ten minutes, a woman came back up the walk and started yelling at the counter attendants.  Apparently, she was the mother of one of the very young infants and was getting concerned about the wait.  The attendants tried to calm her down, but said they really didn't know when the bus would be ready.  They told her just to wait at the top, out of the wind.  Mom was the last person whose ticket had been scanned, so she was also at the top, waiting for me.  She and the woman commiserated about the wait, even though neither spoke each other's language.  I'm always amazed at how Mom can connect with just about anyone, even through a language barrier!  

www.absoluteastronomy.com

The wait started to drag on, and people from the back of the boarding line started to come up to ask what was going on.  The counter agent started to sound like a broken record, so many people kept coming up. I'm not sure why she didn't just announce it, but it was interesting to watch as her attitude deteriorated with each new person.  I'm pretty sure she was the most relieved of everyone when she finally received the notice that the bus was ready.  We were all shuffled into the bus and shuttled over to the plane.  We found our seats and got settled in for the short flight over the mountains.  I'm disappointed that I didn't have my camera available for the flight (they'd made us put everything into the overhead bins because we were in an exit row).  The view of the Andes was amazing!  There really is no way to describe the vastness of the mountain range.  We flew over them for about 20 minutes, which is a really long time to be over mountains when you're moving that fast!  It really was breathtaking!  I don't have my own picture, but this one from an online encyclopedia is a great representation of what we saw.  The view helped relax us a bit after all the excitement of the morning.

We arrived to the Mendoza airport a bit before 11:00.  The airport is really small, and we were the only incoming flight at that time.  We were seated in the middle of the plane, but somehow we ended up near the end of the line for passport control.  Even though we were only one flight, there were only two people working the booths--one for Argentinians, and one for foreigners.  And of course there were a lot more foreigners than Argentinians.  The wait to get to the front took another half an hour or so, but we got through it without too much trouble.  Then, we had to wait in another line to get through customs, but that only took about ten minutes.  Nonetheless, we were definitely ready to be done by the time we got out of the airport.  We got a taxi to our hotel, and were surprised that it only cost 25 pesos ($5USD).

We were also quite surprised that the driver spoke English very well.  He asked us where we were from, and told us that he had lived in Florida for ten years.  He was really nice, and even drove out of his way to show us around town (without charging extra, either).  He gave us some advice on the best things to do in the area.  Even though we were tired and didn't really want to talk at first, we couldn't help it with him, he was just so friendly and happy!  It was a great way to be welcomed to this new country.

We arrived at the hotel just before noon.  Check-in didn't start until 12:00, so we sat on the nice leather couches in the lobby while we waited for the last-minute preparations on the room.  We got a room on the 8th floor with a great view of the city and the mountains in the distance.  We got settled into the room, and realized that we were really hungry!  We hadn't eaten anything except a piece of bread each, so we decided that the next step should be to find some lunch.  We headed out to find a good place.

We were so hungry that we stopped at the first place that we saw.  It was a warm, beautiful day, so we sat on the outside patio.  The waiter was very attentive, and patient with us and our questions.  Being in wine country, we of course started out with some local red wine.  And the only thing better than Argentinian wine is Argentinian meat.  We decided to go all out and order the parrillada for two.  It was a big platter with a variety of meats prepared in traditional Argentinian fashion.  When we ordered it, the waiter tried to tell us that we wouldn't like it, but we were feeling adventurous and went for it anyway.  We overestimated our stomachs, because we only ended up being able to eat about half of this "meal for two" (bodybuilders, apparently).

The meal came out in two segments--the first course included such delicacies as choricillo (spiced sausage), morcilla (blood sausage), molleja (calve's glands), riñones (kidneys), and chinchulines (pig intestines).  We must have been really hungry, because not only did we eat most of that, we actually enjoyed it!  The only thing we agreed to not really like was the molleja, because it was just very greasy.  But we were proud of ourselves for trying anyway!  And I think we surprised the waiter, too!  He's probably used to tourists ordering this dish and then complaining that it's too exotic.  After we finished off the more exotic meats, we were served the more "normal" ones--ribs, veal, and chicken.  They were all really delicious, but we were so full from our first course that we didn't manage to eat much of that course.  The waiter was nice enough to wrap it up to go for us.

www.igdigital.com

We finished up our meal and were feeling very satisfied when we realized that we didn't actually have any Argentinian cash.  That was fine, because we could pay the check with a credit card, but the waiter told us that tips had to be left in cash.  He had been so attentive and helpful to us that we wanted to make sure to leave a tip, so Mom stayed at the table while I walked to the casino a couple blocks away to use the ATM.  Of course, ATMs only give very large bills and while the waiter had been great, a 75% tip was a bit much.  So, after getting the cash I continued walking in search of a place to get some change.  I found a small convenience store and bought a 2-liter soda to keep in our room.  It didn't come out to an exact amount, and the cashier asked if I had any small change.  I didn't, and she didn't have enough in her drawer, so she ended up selling me some yogurt candy to make up for the change.

Eventually, I made my way back to restaurant with the right change to leave a tip.  The waiter was very gracious (and even went out of his way to say "hello" to us when we saw his the following days).  By the time everything was settled up, it was nearly 3:30, but we were much more satisfied and relaxed.  We were tired out from our trip, but decided to try to keep going a bit longer before heading in.  We walked towards the downtown area and shopped a bit, and just generally enjoyed the nice weather.  In the main plaza of the town, Plaza Independencia, we found some artisan stands and picked out some nice souvenirs from the vendors there.  It was really nice, too, because the artisans were really friendly and a lot of them even chatted with us.  We met another person who had lived in the U.S. for a while (New York for this one), and also quite a high proportion of Chileans who moved from Santiago to get away from all the commotion.  I can definitely understand that!  Mendoza is a fairly large city (population around 2 million), but it definitely has a much more relaxed atmosphere than Santiago.

After our shopping excursion, we headed back to the hotel to finally slow down for the day.  We got back around 7 and thought about getting dinner, but were too stuffed to do more than that.  We actually didn't end up eating anything else for the rest of the night, we were so full!  We got settled in, put on our pjs, and just relaxed for the rest of the night before going to bed early, exhausted but satisfied from our first day in Argentina.