My New Friend

After so many warm days in Mendoza, we were surprised to wake up to a cold front the next morning.    We made sure to drink extra hot coffee during breakfast.  While we dined, we discussed options for the day.  Mom's back pain had flared up a bit, so we decided it would be best to take it easy.  Not even a bit of pain can keep a woman from shopping, however, so we got ready and headed back downtown to check out some more souvenirs.

The cooler weather must have scared most of the tourists off, because the shopping area was nearly deserted.  It could have also been the fact that we were awake a bit earlier than most people, too!  We picked out a few more souvenirs from the shops, and headed off in a different direction than yesterday to see if we could discover anything new.  We had been told that we might find some good leather shops in that direction.  Although we'd already gotten quite a few leather goods, there really is no such thing as too much leather.  Especially at the great prices they had in Mendoza!  Mom actually found a really neat leather bag that has three separate compartments meant to carry a thermos, mate, and hierba.  She's not really into hierba mate, but she bought it to use as a purse and to carry water (or Diet Coke) when she travels.  The salesperson also suggested that it would be a good place to hide wine.  Hopefully she'll refrain from doing that, especially in foreign countries!  I know we're all for new adventures, but I think jail is one that we'd all like to avoid, if possible.  

On the way over, we started talking about the dress and realized that we really didn't have any good way of getting it home.  Even though it's not a traditional wedding dress, it still is pretty big!  We'd only brought our carry-on suitcases, so there was no way we'd be able to fit it in one of those.  We discussed just bringing in on in the garment bag, but were worried about having to crumple it up in the overhead bins.  We decided the best way would be to invest in a new suitcase altogether.  Of course, as soon as we decided to start looking for one, they became almost impossible to find.  We ended up stopping back at the dress store to ask the salespeople there for a suggestion.  Unfortunately, all of them were completely different than the ones that had been there on the night we bought the dress, so were a bit confused at first (they thought we wanted to buy some luggage from them).  Once we'd explained that we'd already gotten a dress from their store, they pointed us in the direction of a luggage shop.

www.suitcases.me.uk

It was just on the next block over, and we'd actually passed it numerous times in the past few times without even noticing it!  We first tried to find a large rolling garment bag, but soon realized that it wouldn't be much bigger than our carry-ons and that it's singular purpose would make it inconvenient for future trips.  Instead, we asked for a large, hard-sided suitcase.  They had some really great Samsonite sets, but we decided to forgo those upon learning that they were more expensive than the dress itself!  We were about to give up and try another store when the salesperson pulled out a huge (very ugly) black suitcase.  It was probably large enough to fit a good-sized toddler inside, and then maybe even have room for his pet puppy!  It was the display model, but still had (some of) the protective plastic covering on it.  It looked like someone had gotten bored and started to pull bits and pieces off in places, which didn't help with the aesthetic appeal.  But it was sturdy, and it was on sale!  We decided to go for it, despite it's hideousness.  Maybe we can paint it pretty colors later.

I quickly took the suitcase back to the hotel while Mom relaxed in the plaza.  Even though it was only about 11:00 a.m., we felt pretty accomplished with our day.  We definitely deserved some coffee.  Of course, we couldn't return to any of the same coffee shops, we had to try something new!  We saw some tables outside on the other end of the block, and began heading in that direction.  On the way, we passed by an old, official-looking building with a beautiful stained-glass window at the entrance.  It turned out to the be the tourism office, so we decided to take a quick detour to see if there were any other things we simply couldn't miss in Mendoza.  The building was undergoing some remodeling, so the information was actually upstairs.  Mom's back wasn't behaving very well at this point, so she stayed down in the souvenir shop while I went up to get some information.  The guide showed me some points of interest on the map, most of which we had already seen in our wanders around town.  She circled a few museums that we should visit, but told me we'd have to wait until the next day because all the museums closed on Mondays.  When I caught back up with Mom, she'd already managed to have a conversation with the salesperson in the store and had bought some beautiful hand-blown glass jewelry for some of her friends.

Armed with more information and more souvenirs, we found our way to the coffee shop at the end of the block.  This one was probably the most "traditional" Argentinian coffee shop, in that most of was actually a bar where the customers stand to drink their coffee.  We were lucky enough to snag the last indoor table left.  The place was filled with people, mostly older men discussing politics and the lottery.  Seems like a strange combination of topics, but I guess they do both involve gambling.  We ordered our regular Diet Coke and cappuccino.  Mom was feeling a bit hungry, so she also ordered a "carlito."  Yes, in most Spanish-speaking countries, this would be the name of a little boy.  In Argentina, however, it is apparently a hot sandwich.  Hers came with ham and cheese.  I didn't get a taste, but I'm assured that it was delicious.  The waitress was a bit concerned that Mom didn't want any mayonnaise on it, though.

After our brunch, it seemed to have gotten even colder out than when we started.  This wasn't helping with Mom's back, so we decided to go back to our warm hotel and take a break for a while.  We'd ventured a bit farther than we thought, so it took us over half and hour to get back.  By the time we made it up to the room, I was beginning to get hungry.  Luckily, we still had our huge bottle of Diet Coke and some leftover bread and fruit.  I snacked on that while Mom relaxed with a nice game of "Angry Birds."  Well, maybe "relax" isn't really the best word.  Let's just say that Mom can get a bit competitive with her online gaming.  I learned quite a few new words as she played!  I am happy to report, however, that she is slowly but surely defeating those pesky pigs and has now reached level 6.  I really hope I never make her as angry as those birds do, though!

With Mom settled in for her anti-pig campaign, I decided to head out on my own a bit, lest I get caught in the crossfire.  I headed out in the opposite direction from which we normally went.  The woman at the information center had told me that there was a tower in the park that way, and that it had great views of the whole city.  I arrived to the park at 2:35 p.m.  The tower closes at precisely 2:30.  I was kind of disappointed about missing it so closely, but there were still plenty of other things to see in the park.   Spring has arrived in South America, so there were all sorts of fresh-blooming flowers everywhere!  There was a very large trellis covered with beautiful, purple flowers.  They smelled amazing!  They almost looked (and smelled) like lilacs, but not quite.  Either way, they are awesome and I want some.  Maybe someone out there can help me identify them.  There was also a huge tree filled with white blossoms.  They didn't smell as good to me, but the local bees thought otherwise.  I couldn't find a hive anywhere nearby, but the entire tree was surrounded by hundreds of bees!  I spent a while trying to get some pictures of the, but bees are quick little things!  It took me about 45 minutes, but I did finally get some good pictures.  In fact, the picture set as the cover to this blog was taken at that tree!

I wandered around a bit more, just enjoying the clean air.  It was nice to get out of the big city and be able to breathe for a while!  Eventually, I decided I'd better make sure Mom wasn't getting too violent with her pigs, so I started back towards the hotel.  On the way, I passed by the courthouse, where there was a protest going on.  I'm not familiar at all with Argentinian politics, but apparently there is a law that prevents mining companies and others from dumping contaminants into the drinking water supply.  Recently, there have been talking about repealing the law and allowing the companies to let their waste run off into the rivers--specifically the one that provides potable water to the city of Mendoza.  The protest was fairly small, maybe about 30 people in total, and quite peaceful.  In fact, most of them were just sitting on the steps, holding their signs and eating sandwiches.  I paused to take a look, and one of the young men came down the steps to explain their campaign to me.  Half of the explanation was made while he still had some of his sandwich in his mouth, so I didn't quite catch the specifics.  He said they were making a petition for the local government not to repeal the law.  He asked me to sign, and said it was ok for me to do so, even though I was a foreigner.  It sounded like a good cause to me, so I signed.  Hopefully I understood his explanation enough and didn't just sign up for a free year-long trip to Antarctica or something like that!

Now that I'd signed my life away, I figured I'd better definitely hurry back home.  I made a quick stop to snap a photo of some more flowers I saw on the other side of the courthouse.  As I was packing up my camera, a dog walked out from under the bushes and just sat down right in front of me.  I said "hello" to him, to which he responded by jumping right up on me and trying to "kiss" me.  I love animals and everything, but ever since my "flea" incident the last time I was in Chile, I've become very wary of strays.  He was very friendly and not in the least threatening, but I've learned the hard way that touching unknown animals doesn't always yield good results.  I pushed him down, said "good-bye" and continued on my way.  Apparently he wasn't quite ready for "good-bye" just yet.  He started to follow me, and I checked to see if maybe I had some leftover food somewhere on me that he was trying to get to, but I found nothing and I told him so.  He continued to follow me anyway.

I tried a few more times to get rid of him, but he just kept coming.  I've had dogs follow me for a block or two, but none ever this insistent!  The hotel was a good 20 minute walk away, so I figured that if I kept going, he'd eventually get bored and go back to his home.  Guess not.  He actually ended up following me all the way back to the hotel.  On the way, people kept asking me about him, assuming he was mine.  Even when I abruptly changed directions, he stayed right on me.  I eventually gave up and just gave in to the idea that I had a new pet for the day.  When we reached the hotel, he even tried to come inside with me!  The concierges weren't too keen on that, so they made sure to keep him out and even chased him a little.  Before I went in, I tried to tell the dog to wait outside for me, but as you all know my "dog-language" is a bit rusty so I couldn't be sure that he understood.  I wanted him to wait because we still had the leftovers from the parrillada in our hotel room, and I thought he definitely deserved a reward after walking so far with me.  I ran up to the room to grab the goodies, and hurried back out to try to find him.

I didn't see him anywhere on the sidewalks or in the streets of the next few blocks, so I figured the concierges must have scared him off.  I decided to walk back a bit in the direction we'd come from, to see if maybe he'd turned off onto another street.  I didn't have to go that far, though, because I found him in the little convenience store next to the hotel, trying to beg some chocolate from the owner.  Of course, the owner told me to get "my" dog out of his store.  I didn't even have to say anything, because as soon as the dog saw me, he ran right towards me.  There was a lot of meat left over, so I started out just giving him small pieces.  He wasn't too fond on the sausage, but he really liked the pork ribs.  He devoured the pieces so quickly that I finally just gave in and dumped out the whole bag for him.  I'm pretty sure he thought he'd gone to heaven at that point.  As he enjoyed his meat, I said "good-bye" one last time and headed back to the hotel.  I knew that if I stayed until he finished, he would try to follow me again and I was already doing all I could to fight the temptation to take him home with me!  By the time I came out again an hour later, he was gone.  At least I know he was well-fed!

Back in the hotel, I found Mom in the courtyard reading and enjoying some more Mendoza wine.  I asked her how her "Angry Birds" progress was, but she didn't want to talk about it.  Instead, we discussed the wedding a bit more.  I was concerned because I had initially planned to wear a simpler, shorter dress so that we could go straight from the ceremony to hiking in the mountains.  With the change of plans in the dress department, it looked like that wasn't going to happen after all.  And now that I had such a beautiful dress, I wanted an excuse to be able to wear it more, not less!  We talked about having a more traditional reception afterwards, but that's just not really my (or Scott's) style.  In the end, I decide I'm going to go hiking in the dress anyways--all we have to do is figure out some way to rig up the skirt so that I don't fall.  Although having a higher skirt doesn't necessarily guarantee that I won't fall anyways.

www.toursinspain.com

With that important decision made, I took a look at my watch and saw that if we hurried we could still make it to the open-top bus tour of the city.  Mom was still recovering from her back pain and her violent battle with the birds, but told me to go ahead without her.  The tour was scheduled to leave from Plaza Independencia in about 10 minutes, so I rushed out and hurried to the plaza.  I shouldn't have worried; Argentinian time is even less precise than Chilean time!  I got to the pick-up point just about two minutes before the scheduled departure, and the bus was only half full.  I figured it was because of the cold, dreary weather and hopped on to find a spot by myself near the back.  There were a few more people behind me, and once they got on, it looked like we were good to go!  Apparently not.  I guess the driver was determined to fill up his bus, even if it did mean some hard selling.  He left us in the parked bus and started to wander the plaza, trying to sell people on the idea of riding in the open-top vehicle up a large hill on a cold, windy day.   Most people weren't buying it.  Finally, he convinced a family of six to sign up and fill in the remainder of the empty seats.  Now, twenty minutes after the scheduled departure, we all settled in and got on our way.

As it turned out, the tour didn't show much of the city itself, but was instead focused on Parque San Martín.  The only part of the city that was included on the tour was the street leading from the plaza to the park.  I was kind of disappointed, because I'd thought that we'd already seen most of the park, but it was too late to get off now.  Oh, well, at least I would get the history this time.  Going up the main street to the park, I learned why we hadn't seen any very old buildings during our explorations of the city.  Mendoza was originally founded in 1561 by Spanish explorers who had come from Chile.  In fact, the city's official name is "Ciudad de Mendoza del Nuevo Valle de La Rioja," after the then-governor of Chile.  The town center was strategically placed on what the Spaniards believed to be the largest river in the area, but actually turned out to be a wide irrigation canal dug by the indigenous Huarpe people.  In fact, Mendoza is naturally a pretty harsh desert, but the native people had long ago conquered it with a complex series of irrigation ditches, some which are still in use today.

www.diasdehistoria.com.ar

With all the dirty work in preparing the land for habitation out of the way, the Spanish did what they did best: moved in and took over.  Actually, an interesting fact about this city is that it was one of few (or perhaps the only) that was acquired legally according to the standards of the native peoples in the area.  The explorer Pedro del Castillo had developed a good relationship with the Huarpe people, and had even spent an entire winter living among them.  This, along with the fact that the Huarpe were an exceptionally pacific people, led them to agree to allow the Spanish ownership of the land.  And besides, it really was in the middle of nowhere without easy access to water and other villages; how advantageous could it really be to them?  The Huarpes even helped to establish and build the new Spanish colony and were, in fact, its most populous residents throughout the rest of the 16th century.  Despite efforts by Chilean authorities to send colonists to the new land, it seemed most were reluctant to cross one of the largest mountain expanses only to reach a desert surrounded by "savages."  It wasn't until the early 17th century when a group of colonists were sent to the city and them promptly denied access back to Chile that the city started to grow.  Forced by the blockade to grow their own crops and become self-sufficient, the new settlers finally resigned themselves to life in Mendoza and adapted to their new environment.

www.juggle.com/mendoza

They adapted quite well (with the help of some farming techniques learned from the Huarpe), and by 1813, Mendoza was a thriving metropolis and served as an outpost for traders moving goods across the Andes Mountains.  It was this year that it also became the center for the newly establish province of Cuyo.  Things were looking good for the city of Mendoza, and it seemed as if nothing could slow its upward progress.

www.metaforaenadobe.blogspot.com

That is, until the night of Thursday, March 20, 1861, almost exactly 300 years after its founding.  As the clock approached midnight, the 12,000 residents were awakened as the earth began to move beneath them.  The area had been prone to tremors before, but nothing of this scale.  By the next morning, the 7.2 magnitude earthquake had killed nearly 5,000 people and left the survivors homeless.  Not one building had been untouched, or one life unaffected.  To date, the 1861 earthquake is still the largest ever recorded in the area.  For the residents of the city, that year became known as "el año que Mendoza desapareció."--"the year Mendoza disappeared."

But the Mendocinos are strong people, and the survivors dusted themselves off and began to rebuild the city almost immediately.  The "old" city near the river was left exactly as it had been by the earthquake.  Instead, new construction was begun to the west of the original city, closer to the mountains.  There had been a few houses in that area prior to the earthquake, and portions of them were still standing.  Architects designing the "new" Mendoza wanted to start over, so the post-earthquake structures were build in a very modern style, as opposed to the very traditional architecture of the original buildings.  In fact, the people held such reverence for their old city that it was over half a century before anything was rebuilt in the "old" section of the city.  In the newer parts, however, some interesting architecture sprung up.  Instead of completely demolishing the old houses, new structures were built right into them !  There are quite a few such houses that can be seen on the road leading to the park, but the bus was moving so quickly that I only managed to get a shot of one of them.  This building is now used as apartments, but the land was originally owned by a wealth Mendocino who built his estate there.  The entire building was destroyed in the earthquake, save for the magnificent turret that was incorporated into the apartments and now serves as a grand entrance for its residents.

By the time our quick history lesson was complete, we had arrived at the gates to Parque San Martín.  The park is part of the "new" city built after the earthquake.  In fact, it was built as part of a reforestation program that began in an effort to combat the epidemics of diphtheria, measles, and cholera that had plagued the city since the earthquake.  Originally named "Parque del Oeste" (Western Park), construction on this European-inspired garden began in 1896.  It was an ambitious project at a time when the city's resources were already spread much too thinly, and it was the cause of quite a bit of controversy among the city's leaders.  Some argued that the money would be better spent improving the sewers and waterways of the city.  Eventually, it was agreed that the park would do the most good in improving city health by enhancing the air quality in the area.  They also argued for the benefits of a "trickle-down" economy, contending that the beautification of the land would lead to higher property values encouraging a wealthier class of citizens to make their way to Mendoza, bringing their money with them. This money could then, in turn, be used to make other improvements that the city required.

I'm not sure if it was a direct result of the construction of the park, but Mendoza's economy sure seemed to be booming when we were there!  And I sure appreciate the efforts to construct the park--it's a great place to escape and relax.  It's also home to some of Mendoza's most famous landmarks, such as the Estadio Malvinas Argentina and the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo.  The university's medical school is located right in the heart of the park.  What a great place to study!  Another not so famous yet equally important landmark that can be found inside the park is the Club Mendoza de Regata--the city's rowing club.  We were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the team out for their afternoon jog as we passed by the club.  Most of the people on the bus were middle-aged women, and I'm pretty sure the collective sigh that this sight released from them could be heard throughout the park.  It did, of course, catch the attention of the team, who were all kind enough to look over and wave at us.  I'm surprised none of the women fainted at this point.

As we all settled down from that excitement, the driver drove us to a roundabout with a huge fountain in the center.  This, he told us, was the "fuente de los continentes."  As stated before, the creators of the park were very inspired by European examples and wanted to emulate their idols as much as possible.  It'd be great to have a grand story about the origin of the fountain, but it was actually purchased from a catalog. Yes, that is correct--apparently such catalogs were fairly common at this time (was this the same era in which you could buy your house from a Sears catalog?).  It was purchased in 1910 from a French foundation for the equivalent of about $2000USD.  Despite its somewhat boring origins, it is a very beautiful work of art.  Modeled after 18th century European fountains, its four sides represent the four world continents--America, Asia, Europe, and Africa (at the time, Oceania was considered part of Asia and Antarctica wasn't really considered at all).  Each continent is held up by figures modeled after Greek statues, and at the base of the fountain mermaids can be seen frolicking in the water.  It's an interesting juxtaposition of many different cultures.  We drove around three times just to get a complete view!

Now it was time to head to the main attraction--Cerro La Gloria.  It is the biggest hill in the city (the Andes aren't in the city, so they don't count), but that's not what makes it so famous.  The hill is famous because it is home to the Monumento al Ejército de los Andes.  The "Ejército de los Andes" was the military unit from Mendoza that fought to restore independent governance to Chile and to free Peru from Spanish dominance.  Led by general José de San Martín, it was comprised mostly of freed mulatto slaves and former Chilean soldiers that had emigrated to Mendoza after the Chilean revolutionary war.  They are most famous for their successful crossing of the Andes, which took nearly a month.  Once across, they joined with other Chilean forces in Santiago and were instrumental in the defeat of royalist forces in various battles, including the Battles of Chacabuco and Cancha Rayada.  The Mendocinos are very proud of their contribution in these historic events, and this monument commemorates the brave men who fought so valiantly.

The monument was commissioned by law in 1888, but its creation did not begin until 1909.  It was designed and created by Uruguayan sculptor Juan Manuel Ferrari.  The work took many years to complete, but finally, in January of 1912, the final stone was laid on the statue on the anniversary of the army's departure across the Andes.  The monument was officially inaugurated on February 12, 1912, the 97th anniversary of the Battle of Chacabuco, and the day was declared a regional holiday.  Today, the monument is the most visited attraction in the city of Mendoza.  It's interesting to see the great detail in the monument, and I can easily understand why it took so many years to create.  In fact, I'm surprised it didn't take more!  I also learned (by eavesdropping on a different tour group) that there are  international rules regulating the creation of monuments.  According to the regulations, if a soldier is to be depicted on a horse in a monument, the horse must be positioned differently depending on how the solider died.  If the soldier died in battle, both of the horse's front legs must be reared up.  If he died as a result of wounds received in battle, one of the horse's legs must remain on the ground.  Finally, if he died of natural causes, all four of the horses legs must be firmly planted on the ground.  Not all sculptors follow these regulations, but Ferrari was a stickler for details.  His depiction of general José de San Martín shows the horse with all four legs on the ground.  After a successful career, the general retired to France, where he died of old age in 1850.

We stopped to enjoy the the monument and the view from the top of the hill for about 20 minutes.  Most of the people used the time as an opportunity to take a bathroom break and to grab snacks from the vendor at the other end of the parking lot.  Not many were too interested in the monument (which might explain why all the information I gathered came from reading the plaques and listening in on other tour groups instead of from our own guide).  I tried to get as much information as I could, because I know how much all of you love to read the extended history lessons on my blog!  I also took way too many pictures of all the detail on the monument.  I can't post them here, but check out my Facebook page to see all the pictures I took!  I also took a moment to enjoy the view of the city of Mendoza.  It's a lot bigger than I imagined, and it kind of reminds me of San Antonio.  The population is just under 2 million people, but even in the downtown area you always feel as if you're in a small town.  I guess that's just what you get from spread-out desert cities!

By the time we got back on the bus, the temperature had dropped and the wind had picked up.  As we headed down the hill at full speed, we all started to wish that the bus weren't open-topped.  We tried to enjoy the views on the way down, but I think most of us were just hoping to get to the tree cover as soon as possible and hopefully get out of the wind.  On the way down, we passed by the stadium, and everyone got really excited about that.  Most of the other people on the tour were Chilean, and apparently there had just been a big Chile v. Argentina match at that stadium, so of course this called for extensive heckling of our Argentinian guide.  He took it all in stride, though, and invited them to come back into town for the next match, when the tables would surely turn.  The rest of the way back to the plaza was fairly quiet, with the guide focusing on avoiding the rush hour traffic and the guests huddling together to keep warm.  I've never seen a group in such a hurry to get out of a vehicle, not even after the 10 hour flight from the U.S. to Chile!

After thanking the driver, I hurried back to the warmth of the hotel, where I once again found Mom cursing the birds for their inability to destroy the pigs.  By this time we were both pretty hungry, but neither really wanted to venture into the cold to find something to eat.  Instead, we opted for the hotel restaurant where we could avoid the wind and still get some great wine.  I opted for a salad, but Mom went for the stuffed chicken.  When we got our meal, we were disappointed that we'd left the camera in the room (but too hungry to make the effort to go back to get it).  My salad was very colorful, with fresh seared salmon.  Mom's dish looked almost too good to eat!  Her four large pieces of chicken were stuffed with a blend of ham and cheese, and were all arranged atop a saffron-spiced bed of rice.  To top it all off, there was a beautiful latticed potato slice sticking right out of the middle of it all.  We were pleasantly surprised to learn that not only was the presentation beautiful, the food was exquisite!  And reasonably priced, too!  We got our two meals and two glasses of wine for under $35!  All in all, it was a great way to end a long day.  

Bees? Bees!? Bees!!

The previous day had been such a whirlwind that we just needed to relax a bit the next day.  We actually woke up fairly early, considering how tired we were the night before.  At breakfast, we discussed our options for the day.  We decided not to try to venture anywhere too exotic, and stick mostly to the shopping area downtown.  Mendoza is know for it's wine and leather.  We'd already had some wine the night before to celebrate, so we headed out to check out all the hype about the leather.  If it was anywhere as good as the wine, we were in for a treat!

We walked through Plaza Independencia to get to Calle Sarmiento, the main pedestrian street in Mendoza.  It is full of all sorts of great shops and restaurants.  We were going to try just window-shopping at first, but that really only worked at the first store (and only because it wasn't open yet).  There were so many unique things to see that we couldn't help going inside!  We had some requests for souvenirs from family and friends, so we were also trying to keep our eyes open for the perfect gifts.  Jaimee had asked for a mate, which you'd think would be an easy task in Argentina.  What we didn't realize is that there are about twenty million (give or take) different types, sizes, and designs, and then once you figure that out, you have to decide on the bombilla (straw) to go with it!  She'd also requested one that was already cured (most are made from wood or gourds, so you have to seal them so they don't leak), so we asked everyone about that.  I think that might be the only phrase in Spanish that Mom knows, we asked so much!  Apparently, pre-cured mates are not very common.  We eventually found a really great one from an artisan in Plaza Independencia, but she'll still have to cure it.  Sorry, Jaimee!

Hannah had asked for a mask (since Mom had brought her some from Costa Rica, she'd kind of started a collection), but of course once we started looking for those, they also became quite elusive.  Masks are typically an indigenous art, but nearly all of the natives of Argentina were wiped out when the Spaniards began to settle in the sixteenth century, so not much of their cultural heritage is left.  Eventually we found a great hanging with a Mapuche mask on it.  The artisan told us that it represented the sun, and it was supposed to help the owner find peace and harmony.  Hopefully it'll work out for Hannah!  We had some trouble getting it through customs on the way back into Chile, because it also has a wind-chime component that is made out of large seeds!

We also found a really neat chocolate shop, with the factory right in the same building!  Sometimes, they give tours of the factory, but it was closed at the moment.  We had to be satisfied with a peek through the glass windows.  We also got to sample some freshly-made alfajores, so it was definitely worth the visit.  The store was filled with every type of chocolate you can imagine, and we were very proud to be able to muster the self-restraint to only buy three packages of it.  We bought a box of typical chocolates from around Argentina, along with some "ramitas," which are very fine pieces of chocolate curled on top of each other to create a delicious, flaky treat!  They're popular in other parts of the world, as well, but Mom had never had one so I convinced her to give it a try.  We also got a super-secret gift for Dad that I cannot disclose but can assure you is awesome, and delicious.

www.buenosaires-argentina.com

Our shopping had tired us out, so we decided to take a coffee break.  We stopped at a cafe called Havana, which is a popular chain in Argentina (it exists in Chile, too, but Chileans aren't as into coffee as Argentinians).  Mom ordered her daily Diet Coke and I ordered my cappuccino.  This one was beautiful as well, but I was too caffeine-deprived at this point to take out my camera and snap a picture.  Even the pastries were more complete--we got two little chocolate-covered cookies (as opposed to just one sugar cookie the day before).  While the presentation was a bit fancier, I'm still sticking by my declaration that my first cappuccino was better.  The service at this place was the best, though!  The waitress was very attentive and even helped us out with suggestions.  She came to check on us and cleaned off the table before we sat down.  I know it might seem I'm getting overly excited about little things, but those gestures are extremely rare among waitstaff in Chile (at least in my experience)!

We sat at the coffeeshop for a while, just enjoying the cool breeze and watching people walk by.  Afterwards, we checked out some more leather shops.  I am notorious for hating shoes, and the ones I'd brought on this trip were about to fall about (that's what happens when you buy them for $6 at Lider/Walmart). I'd been keeping my eyes out for new ones, but I'm extremely picky and hadn't seen anything that I liked.  Then, we came upon a very small store that we nearly missed altogether.  In the window, they had some beautiful leather shoes that looked similar in style to Toms.  I know leather is pretty expensive, so I didn't seriously consider them, but we stopped inside the store anyway.  Turns out they were 150 Argentine pesos, which comes out to less than $35USD.  I tried some on that had a painted floral pattern, and surprisingly enough, they fit well and were actually comfortable.   I was really excited (I don't think anyone can truly appreciate how much until they've tried shoe-shopping with me.  It's usually quite an ordeal).  Now I've got my casual shoes, so hopefully I won't have to shop for them again for a while!  Mom also tried on a pair and ended up liking them so much that she bought two pairs!  She even bought a matching belt to go with.

All the excitement from the shoes made us hungry again, so we headed over to the Mercado Central to see what we could find for lunch.  Unfortunately, since it was Sunday, the meat and vegetable vendors closed up early and we didn't get to explore that part of the market.  But the prepared food stands were still open, so we went in to check it out anyway.  We ended up deciding on pizza, but didn't know what size to get.  I asked the waiter to just bring the best one for two people, but I should have learned on the first day that what Argentinians consider food for two would be considered enough for four elsewhere!  We ended up getting a delicious, yet very large pizza.  The fresh-made pizza and two bottled drinks came out to around $12USD, so the price was very good.  We filled up after the second slice each, but forced ourselves to eat a bit more.  That way, we wouldn't have to waste much (and maybe wouldn't have to eat dinner, either)!

Satisfied from our late lunch, we decided we'd had enough shopping for the day and headed back towards the hotel for an afternoon nap.  We were almost back to the hotel when we noticed a couple girls staring up into a tree.  We were a bit confused at first, but as we neared the tree, we saw what they were looking at--a huge nest of bees!  I'd forgotten my camera that morning, but Mom pulled hers out and snapped some photos.  The tree was really tall, so the nest was fairly high up, but even still it looked huge!  It's good to see that the bee population is thriving somewhere, at least!  We watched the bees for a while, mesmerized by the intricacy of their nest and the coordination of the hive.  Then we went back to the hotel to enjoy a nice, quiet evening with a nap and some reruns of CSI on TV.   I will leave you with a commercial that we saw.  This commercial actually plays everywhere in Latin America, so I'd seen it before in Chile.  What I didn't realize until now was that they use the same actors for each country, but change up the accent to fit the target region!  It was a bit shocking to see the same actors I'd been watching for the past few months with completely different voices.  I'm now left wondering what accent they actually have, and which ones were dubbed!  Or maybe they're just such good actors that they can do any accent.  Hmm... the mystery...

Here's the commercial they show in Chile:

And the one they show in Argentina:

Dancing and Dresses

Despite going to bed early the day before, Mom and I managed to sleep until almost 10:00 a.m. the next day. Luckily, it was Saturday, which meant that the complimentary breakfast would be open until 11:00.  We were now well-rested, but very hungry (remember, we'd only eaten one meal the day before), so we threw on some clothes and headed down to breakfast.  When we'd arrived the day before, we'd see the breakfast area, and it looked just big enough to have coffee and maybe some toast.  To our surprise, what we'd thought was a wall was actually a giant door that opened into a large dining room with a breakfast buffet on an entire wall.  Of course, we went straight for the coffee.  Chile isn't known for having the best coffee, so we (especially me) had been feeling a bit deprived.  Argentina, on the other hand, was settled by a large population of Italians, so they can do coffee right.

Chilean Alfajores

Argentinian Alfajores

The breakfast was mostly a cold spread, with pastries, cakes, meats, and cheeses.  There were also some scrambled eggs and toast, and even a fresh fruit bar.  They had cereal available, but the bowls they provided were so tiny you would have needed about 5 of them to equal a "normal"-sized cereal bowl.  Most of the selection was a bit on the sweet side (they even had something that looked like pecan pie with chocolate and caramel), but we were still feeling adventurous (and very hungry) so we tried a little bit of everything.  We even got to try Argentinian alfajores--sugar cookies filled with dulce de leche and bathed in chocolate.  Alfajores exist in Chile, as well, but are a bit different.  The Chilean cookies are thinner and not as sweet, and are filled with manjar, which is thicker than dulce de leche.  Chilean alfajores also do not usually have chocolate, but are instead coated with coconut flakes.  The two types of cookies are so different, I can't really say I have a favorite.  Although the chocolate did go quite nicely with fresh coffee!

After getting our fill at breakfast, we headed back up to the room to shower and plan the rest of the day.  We decided to check out Parque San Martín, the oldest and largest park in Mendoza.  We figured it might be a good idea to get a map this time, though, so we stopped at the front desk on our way out to ask for one.  The map showed the whole city, but also seemed to have a pretty decent layout of the park, so we took it and made our way in that direction.

We passed by Plaza Independencia on the way over and heard some loud hip-hop music and saw a large crowd gathered in the center of the park.  We took a slight detour to see what was going on.  Turns out there was a youth dance competition, so we stuck around to watch for a while.  There was a new act starting just as we got there--a large group of middle-school aged girls doing a hip-hip routine.  We were a bit shocked by the vulgarity of the lyrics, but no one else seemed to be too concerned with it. I guess that's the beauty of not understanding English--you can play all the popular songs without worrying about offending anyone!  The girls were of varying skill levels, and there were a ton of them--about 30 all dancing together!  And the entire routine lasted over 15 minutes and through at least 4 different songs.  It was just as entertaining to watch the spectators cheer the girls on as it was to watch them dance.  We took a seat and thought we might stay for a while to watch the other acts, but when the first routine was done, a large camera crew came out onto the stage and started interviewing the dancers.  It would've been interesting to hear the interviews, but they weren't broadcast to the crowd, so everyone there just had to sit and wait until it was done.  It was a short interview--less than 10 minutes--and then the group left the stage.  It looked as if another group of older girls would go next, as they started arranging themselves on the stage.  They were just about set up when the camera crew once again came over and ushered them off to do some interviews off-stage.  This time, they started interviewing each girl individually.  We got bored after about 10 more minutes of waiting, and decided just to continue our trek to the park.

Along the way we passed through one of the more upscale neighborhoods of the city where high-profile people, such as politicians, live.  The houses were very large and gorgeous, although none of them seemed that old, which confused us a bit.  Mendoza was founded in 1561, and this was supposed to be the main part of the city, so we thought we'd have seen some older architecture.  We found out the reason we didn't during our trip to the history museum a few days later.  I'll explain that part in a while, but for now it must remain a mystery.

It took us a while to reach the park, but that was mostly because we had to stop fairly often to admire the mansions and also to say "hello" to some of the dogs that resided in their yards.  Eventually we arrived at the gates to the park, and immediately felt as if we had been transported back to 19th century Europe.  Apparently, that is exactly what the designers of the park wanted.  There are actually three gates--a large one in the middle with two smaller ones on each side.  The structure was actually designed in Scotland in the late 19th century for the Moorish Sultan Abdul Hamid II.  Unfortunately, his kingdom fell upon hard times, and the doors were left unfinished at the factory in Scotland.  That is, until the governor of Mendoza heard about them and decided to buy them from the fabricator and modify them with definite Mendocino flair.  They are made mostly of iron, and stands 22 feet at the highest point.  On each door, the coat of arms for the city is carved and painted gold.  On the top center is a statue of a condor, another symbol of the city of Mendoza.  They were installed in the park in the year 1907, just over a decade after the inauguration of the park in 1896.  It really is a splendor to see, especially with the beautiful green trees outlining the park and the snow-covered mountains in the distance.

We admired the gates for a few minutes before entering the park.  As we walked in, we saw a visitors' center off to the left and realized that we were actually quite thirsty.  We'd already walked a bit farther than expected, and it was about 85 degrees out.  We stopped over at the center to grab some water and see if we could find more information about the park.  We tried to get a more detailed map of just the park area, but couldn't find any.  We glanced at the large map on display and figured that we could just explore a bit and use our small map if we got lost.  The park was grand, but it didn't look unmanageable based on the map.  On the map we'd seen an icon for a zoo and thought it might be fun to check that out, so we began walking in approximately the correct direction.  We followed the main street within the park for a while, but began to get tired of the fumes let off by all the cars and buses.  There were some trails leading into the forest, so we though we'd try for a shortcut through one of them.  There were only about five streets marked on our map, and none of the pedestrian trails were marked, but we figured it wouldn't be too hard to make it as long as we continued towards the direction of the zoo.

We walked for another 45 minutes or so and passed through a couple playgrounds full of children, some exercise areas, a large parking lot, and even through a row of families barbecuing in preparation for the lunch crowd, but still didn't come upon the zoo.  We sat down to take a look at the map, thinking that we must have been nearly at the other end of the park by now.  We sat next to a large building surrounded by barbed-wire fences, but couldn't manage to find it on the map.  Eventually we found some street signs and saw that we had made it about a third of the way to the zoo, and had made even less progress towards the end of the park.  Of course, we only realized much later that the entire park covers nearly 400 hectares, and that a large portion of that is a very steep hill with a tense tree cover.  We probably made the right decision when we decided to forgo the zoo and head back into town.

By this time it was early afternoon and we were getting thirsty again.  We remembered seeing a coffeeshop on the street leading to the park, so we went back the same way to stop there for a break after our two hour adventure in Parque San Martín.  We found a nice spot in the shade on the patio and sat down to relax.  Mom ordered a Diet Coke, and I ordered a cappuccino.  We didn't realize it at the time, but we had just started our Mendoza tradition--a mid-afternoon break every day for soda and coffee.  I tried to get a photo of every coffee I ordered throughout the week to compare them, but there were a few times when my need for caffeine outweighed my desire to find a camera.  I did manage to get a photo of this one, though, and I must say that I believe it was the best one of the trip.

www.damen.nl

While enjoying our drinks, we chatted about the day and plans for the rest of the week.  A young man about my age sitting across the patio overheard us speaking English and asked us where we were from.  He was relieved to meet some other English-speakers, because he was from Holland and was only in South America for a short time to visit a friend.  His friend was ill that day, so he was on his own.  He heard us talking about the park, and asked us for some advice because that's where he was headed next.  We started out talking between the tables, but eventually we just invited him to come over and sit with us.  His name is Kun, and turns out he graduated from university last year and has been working for an international ship-building company called Damen ever since.  It was really interesting talking to him and learning about how ship-building works!  He even got to spend two weeks at the factory in Romania just to see how everything goes together.  We talked with him for a while and gave him some advice for South America, and he gave us some for Europe.  We talked for quite a while, but eventually said our good-byes (and warned him about conserving his energy if he wandered in the park), and went our separate ways.

Kun headed off for his adventure in the park, and we went back for some more tranquil shopping downtown.  We browsed some of the shops for a bit and bought some odds and ends souvenirs for friends and family (well, mostly Mom did.  I'm not that nice).  We were still pretty tired out from our excursion to the park, so we started heading back to the hotel around 5:00.  Before we'd left for Argentina, I'd shown Mom some of the ideas I had for wedding dresses, so (unbeknownst to me), she'd been keeping her eye out for some dress shops.  Right as we turned off from the main shopping street, she saw exactly what she was looking for.  There was a small boutique shop with a beautiful blue dress displayed in the window.  It was more of a fancy beach dress, with a large floral print and beading on the bust and straps.  It wasn't exactly what I'd been thinking of for a dress, but I did know that I didn't want a simple white one.

I'm not really into clothing, especially not formal outfits, but Mom convinced me to go inside and look at some of the dresses.  The shop was more of a formal/quince shop rather than a wedding shop; in fact, I don't recall seeing any white dresses at all!  It was also quite small--there were only two racks of dresses on display, and apparently they had a small storage closet in the back where they kept a few other ones.  I only hate trying on clothing a little less than I hate trying on shoes, so I agreed to go in and take a look but nothing more.  Of course, try saying that to a mother who's excited about her daughter's wedding.  And this might actually be the last time we see each other before the actual wedding, so Mom really wanted to at least see me in some dresses.  After much coercing, I agreed to try on a few, just so she could see them.

We asked about the one in the window, but apparently all the pieces are one-of-a-kind and that one was already sold.  Instead, Mom pulled out a purple gown with one beaded strap.  I'd never imagined myself in a dress of that style, but I tried it on anyways.  I did really enjoy the color!  It was a size 10, so the saleswoman really had to pull it in an put clips on it so that it didn't fall off.  I liked it a lot more than I thought I would, although felt a bit nervous when they had me come out to step on the podium in front of the windows.  Not only was it way too wide for me, it was also quite long and I nearly killed myself taking the four steps out of the dressing room and onto the podium.  It looked pretty good, but I really wasn't thinking about buying dresses; I was mostly just trying them on to humor Mom.  I thought I could get one on and that would be enough, but by the time I came out, she already had three more picked out for me to try!  The next one was similar to the one in the window, but the straps crossed over each other in the front and were made entirely out of large (heavy) beads.  It was very colorful, but it seemed more appropriate for a beach setting.  I liked it as well, but once again it was about 8 sizes too large, and the crossing straps at the front bunched up.  This only served to make me look like a 6-year-old trying on mother's clothing.  I reluctantly came out onto the podium, and everyone agreed that this wasn't the dress for me.  "Good," I thought, "we can be done now."  Not quite; now Mom handed me a light pink strapless dress with silver and pink flowered beading on the bust.  The skirt can only be described as "fairy-like"--it was straight when I stood still, but whenever I moved a little it flowered out in all different directions.  It was still much too big, but when I walked out of the dressing room with that one on, everyone (including the other customers) gasped and agreed that this was "the dress."

I wasn't really sure, and I definitely didn't want to make such a quick decision, so I asked the owner, Monica, if we could come back in a day or two.  She said we could, but that if I wanted to have the dress ready before we left town on Wednesday, they'd have to start altering it soon.  I was really reluctant to decide at that point, especially since the dress was so different from what I'd been picturing in my mind.  As I was about to just say "no," the seamstress came in and saw me in the dress.  Monica asked her about alterations, and they both agreed to take my measurements for the dress, just in case I did decide I wanted to buy it.  By now it was around 6:30, and the store was going to close at 9:00.  They said they'd pin up the dress for alteration, and that if I let them know before closing they'd get started on it right away.  If not, I had no obligation at all.  Mom was really excited about the dress, and took some pictures so that we could show Jaimee and get some fashion advice before making the final decision.  As you can see by my expressions, I was a bit overwhelmed by how fast everything seemed to be moving.

The seamstress had me stand back up at the podium to pin up the dress, and as she did she asked me about the occasion.  I told her and Monica that the dress was for a wedding, and they inquired whose.  When I told them that it would be for my own, they both gasped and squealed, shocked that a bride would wear such a thing.  I thought they might try to convince me not to do it at first, but then Monica's eyes lit up and she ran off towards the storage closet, yelling "don't move!"  I thought, "uh oh, here she comes with a 'real' wedding dress and I'm probably going to have to put it on just to please everyone."  Instead, she'd pulled out the most stunning princess gown.  "Now this," she said, "would be perfect for a bride."  It did look more like a "traditional" wedding dress, but that was kind of what I'd been trying to avoid.  Everyone just looked so excited, though, so I agreed to try it on before we rushed home to ask Jaimee about the other dress.

When I put the dress on, it fit perfectly right away, no clips needed.  That was a definite plus, not having to worry about it falling off as I stood on the podium to show it off.  Even before I came out of the dressing room, I felt like a princess.  And despite being strapless, it was actually quite comfortable (except for the bag of extra beads that they had stuffed inside of it to hide as I showed it off to everyone).  This one was pink, which wasn't really the color I'd originally had in mind, but it looked beautiful anyway.  The top part was a shaped corset that hugged my body just perfectly and was adorned with hundreds of small beads.  Beneath the beading was the silk corset with a beaded flower accent.  The skirt was very princess-like, and poofed out just enough to give me the "perfect" figure.  It gave way at the bottom, giving the look of a small train.  Everyone fell silent as I stepped up to the podium, and even I had to agree that it took my breath away (and just not because it was tight-fitting).  It was completely, 100% opposite of everything that I'd had in mind, but it was gorgeous.  The seamstress took a look at it and said that it really didn't have to be altered at all--maybe just shortening the skirt if I wanted to wear flat shoes.  She could definitely have it done by Wednesday, no sweat.

Of course by now it was 7:30 and we still wanted to get back to the hotel to quickly ask Jaimee's opinion on the fashion and Dad's opinion on the price.  And I was so overwhelmed, I felt like I wasn't even in my own body anymore.  The Brittany I know doesn't wear poofy, pink princess dresses, even if it is her wedding.  But she had also never felt so beautiful.  This was quite a dilemma.  I was very flustered, and Mom was so excited, so we rushed back to the hotel to get the opinions quickly.  We couldn't get a hold of Dad, but Jaimee gave us the go-ahead, and Mom also agreed that it was perfect.  I don't think I can even make a decision about lunch this quickly, but I decided to go for it.  We hurried back towards the shop, only to realize that we'd left in such a flurry that we didn't remember the street it was on!  We only got slightly lost, and managed to get back to the store just before closing.  We told Monica the good news, and she sent me next door with her saleswoman to run the credit card.

While we were gone, Mom somehow managed to tell the whole story to Monica (even though she doesn't speak Spanish and Monica doesn't speak English--I have no idea how she keeps doing that!).  It really is a great story, and I'm sure we'll have lots more to add onto it as the years go by.  So far, we've gotten engaged in Chile, bought a wedding dress from Argentina, will be married in the U.S., and then live in the U.K.  The rest of the story is a mystery, and I can't wait to find out how it unfolds.

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.

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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.