To Mendoza... and beyond

After a couple of weeks of rest, a small group of us decided to do a little border hopping, and took an 8 hour bus ride through the mountains to Mendoza, one of the larger cities in Argentina.  The bus ride through the Andes Mountains was incredible, just a beautiful ride, though a little long, and after 8 hours, one of which being the process of customs between Chile and Argentina, we were in Mendoza.

Mendoza is really a beautiful town right at the feet of the Andes, with a semi-arid climate, it really reminded me of the parts of New Mexico I have seen.  We had a pretty nice hostel a couple of streets off of one of the main roads, so we were able to walk to just about everywhere we wanted to go.  The city of Mendoza is very nice, calm for its size (because all of the clubs are located a 20 minute cab ride from the city) which was fine with me, because Mendoza is one of the adventure capitols of Argentina!  Through our hostel we were able to do mountain biking, white water rafting, zip-lining, and a biking tour of a couple of vineyards.  

The town of Mendoza is also famous for "Las Tinajas" which is an all you can eat buffet with EVERYTHING you could imagine, especially the grill (about 10 feet wide by 2 deep) filled with delicious Argentinean meat (which is not corn-fed, and definitely tastier).  

The first full day in Mendoza was spent on the "Bikes and Wine" tour, which was a biking tour of a few of the vineyards in Mendoza.

We were able to see the grapes growing, the wine machines (none was being made because the grapes aren't ready), and even take a tour of a wine museum, cataloguing one of the oldest vineyards in the area.  These are some of the old barrels they used to ferment the wine.

The second day we started with white water rafting, which was amazing!  We even got to take a class 3 rapids.

They were so awesome we fell out!

We then moved on to Zip Lining through the foot hills of the Andes.  This was a little more laid-back, but definitely exciting and very fun.  

(there was a photographer who took lots of pictures, but I haven't gotten the CD yet... as soon as I do, expect some awesome pictures)

The third day we went mountain biking, which was also amazing!  It is really a different sport all together when you are actually mountain biking in the MOUNTAINS as opposed to Minnesota.  There were a few times I thought I was going to die, but it turned out alright!

the time flew in Mendoza, and before we knew it, it was time to get back on the bus and come home.  The night ride through the mountains was awesome, and I stayed up for a long time just watching the stars and mountains through the window of the bus, which I paid for at 6 am when the bus pulled into the station in Viña...