No llores por mi, Argentina

When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable.
-Clifton Fadiman

Firstly, and most importantly, Chile just beat Ecuador!! (sorry Matthew...). So I can hear lots of yelling and sirens and happy clapping and chanting from my window... pretty exciting!


Yesterday morning, I got back from another four-day adventure, this time to Argentina. It still seems crazy to me that I could just buy a bus ticket for about $27 USD and hop the border into anther country. Insanity.

We left Valpo last Thursday at about 7:45, and got to Santiago a few hours before we had to leave for Mendoza. Finally were REALLY on our way at about 10:30. (Sidenote: Had a super sweet bus. It reclined WICKED far, and had this thing for your feet, too. Fantastic. If only I could sleep on buses....). Bus trip wasn't horrible. What WAS horrible, however, was waiting at the border for about four hours. No joke. But I got another stamp on my passport, so I really shouldn't complain.


FRIDAY

We finally got to Mendoza at about 7:30 on Friday morning. Marathon travel sessions are the only way to get it done. The first thing we needed to do was find tickets back, which was suprisingly difficult. It was a holiday weekend (apparently Christopher Columbus is a big deal here, too), so a lot of the better bus companies had Mendoza - Santiago booked out for a while. But then we stumbled upon this hole in the wall company that had space. It should have been a sign. But the price and the time were right, so tickets were bought. More on O'Higgins later...

Navigated ourselves to the hostel. Meaning we took a taxi. Got there, checked in. I was with a group of five, and we were in a room for six. With one other stranger. Super bizarre, but she ended up being the sweetest lady in the world. She had been two over 100 countries, speaks French and Italian, is learning Spanish, and wants to go to Antarctica. If she were a male about 20 years younger, I'd say we were soulmates. Well, not that we have anything in common; this was my second country, I'm learning Spanish, and I want to go to Antarctica, too.

Moving on.

Friday was our day for wandering, exploring, eating, and napping. Nothing too exciting.

I LIED!!! You guys. I tried meat. For the first time in five-ish or whatever years. Argentina is known for its cattle/beef, and I had been thinking about trying it anyways, so I decided... why not? But probably won't be doing that again anytime soon.




SATURDAY

Saturday was maybe one of the best days I've had since I've been in South America. We went to this place a little outside of Mendoza Center, where you can rent bikes for dirt cheap. And all up and down this one road, and off the little side roads, are vineyards and chocolate shops and olive oil factories and other cool things like that. So we rented bikes, and rode for hours, just stopping to taste wine or buy chocolate or picnic in the grass. And the entire time, we had a fantastic view of the Andes, which just added to the experience. It was nothing less than surreal.



SUNDAY

Actually, Sunday was really sweet, too. We booked a rafting trip in Rio Mendoza. Plus side: Super fantastic suits and helmets. Down side: Our guides thought it would be fun to get our boat stuck under a waterfall/rapid-y thing and "play" while the water rushed over our bodies and into the boat. Super down side: I fell out halfway, with the entire upper half of my body in the water, and just my legs in the boat. Plus side: I am now 100% positive that my heart beats, because it almost jumped out of my chest that day.



Also, my group's boat definitely won "Most Festive." It was just the five of us and our guide, who didn't mind that we sang songs at the top of our lungs while going down the river. Our group favorite for the weekend was definitely the theme song to Arthur. For memories, click below :)



Once we got back to the city, we showed, made lunch, and then went to the AQUARIUM!

Coming from a girl who grew up with the New England Aquarium at her disposal, I was expecting big things. Sharks. Turtles. Jellyfish.

Not at all. It was super tiny. But they had some cool stuff, including a decent sized sea turtle. But it was like, three rooms total. Still, I'd say it was worth the 79 cents admission fee. And true to form, I spent too much time looking at the rather grande sea turtle tank, moving closer and further away, and started to feel sick. So I had to skip the serpent museum. Sad story.

We also, on our walk back into the center, found a pretty fantastic playground/sculpture park! I think the theme for this day was "Re-live Your Childhood," with extra emphasis on the life part.




MONDAY

Monday was the day we went PARAGLIDING. My gosh, absolute craziness. Firstly, we were supposed to go at 9 am, but got a phone call saying we'd leave at 11 instead. That's okay; losing two hours was no big. We'd get back at 3 instead of 1, and still have time to shop in the town center and take advantage of Argentina's insanely low prices on EVERYTHING.

Get picked up at 11. Drive a bit away to a piece of the Andes, and wait. And wait. And then an instructor comes up to us, and tells us that since the wind is so fierce, he's going to have to take some of the heavier people first before he can take us, since we were, according to him, small girls.

No big deal, my friend. Let them do their thing. Come find us later.

These people land. He waits a bit. It's now 1/1:30. He comes up and says the wind is still too strong. He needs to take another group of heavier people. So he takes four other girls. Really, my friend? Are they actually bigger than we are? Or are you just playin' us?

Whatever, dude. Take them. As long as I get my go.

(Mind you, I'm pouting a little bit by now, thinking "WHY CAN'T I GO?!", even though my feet didn't touch the ground when I was sitting on this chair....)

Blondie comes back. (Oh, by the way--- Argentines are super European-looking. It was actually striking. I think I found a South American country where I could seriously blend in...) Tells us it's our turn. We cheer a bit, get in the van, and start the ascent up the mountain. Actually, this was kind of the scariest part. We were literally inches from falling off a cliff. Oh, and we were singing Arthur again. You know, just to prove to them that we weren't little kids.

Get to the mountain where we'll "take off" or whatever you do when you paraglide. And we wait. Because of the wind. It's about 5 pm by now. And I'm hungry.

FINALLY! We strap on suits! And we unravel our parachutes! And we buckle our helmets!

And we wait.

And suddenly... the wind dies down a little bit. Could it be... could we be so lucky as to actually get to go?

But then we waited.

FINALLY FINALLY. After 6 1/2 hours of waiting, the first of our group is able to go. Within the next couple of minutes, the other three go. And I'm sitting on the mountain, fully strapped in, watching them fly around the cordillera with the city in the backgound.

And I wait.

My guide explains to me that we need to wait for the next round of tail winds, because if we take off in a tail wind, it will just drag us up the rocks and gravel, instead of pulling us off the mountain. Then the windsockets on the poles change ever so slightly, and he yells at me "THIS IS IT!" The parachute opens up... I begin to go up... and then the wind suddenyl slaps me in the face, grabs my parachute, which is now moving behind me instead of over me. I fall to the ground, get pulled along the gravel up the mountain (this sounds familiar.....isn't this what we were preventing by waiting for six hours?), and finally get up in the air somehow. Not necessarily a smooth takeoff.

But the ride was absolutely beautiful. Entirely serene and peaceful, very calm. Did a few flips, no big deal. Felt a bit sick once I landed on the ground. But Mission: Flight was accomplished.

I flew.


Below, are some videos and pictures of what the world looked like from up there!




Oh, this is a video of a man who was hangliding off the top of the same mountain that we departed from







Following two are videos that I took in flight. The wind kind of makes them sound awkward, and they're not the most stable videos in the world, but it captures what it looked and felt like a little more









Bus ride home was QUITE the adventure. We only had to wait an hour at the border this time, which was sweet. But. Remember that cheap bus I mentioned at the beginning? It was because it was essentially a city bus. Seats did not recline. There was no bathroom. I'd like to remind you this was an eight hour ride..

But. We got back okay. Maybe things didn't 100% the way we imagined, but it's not like that ever happens anyway.

Now I have a weekend with no travel, and then I think I'm off again next weekend!

Lots and lots of love,
Colleen