Hello everyone! Again, we are still behind on our blogs. This one is tagged Mendoza, but we are currently in Bariloche, and leaving today for a 30 hour bus ride south to Rio Gallegos (in the far south of Argentina). From there, we hope to explore some of the biggest glaciers in the world and see the penguin colonies.

We arrived in Mendoza in the early hours of the morning after taking the overnight bus from Valparaiso. The journey took 8 hours (with a painfully cold border crossing in the Andes at about 3am). We waited in the Mendoza bus terminal for the sun to rise so we could go find a campsite. (Quick note about the time zone in Argentina: it maintains the same time zone as Greenland, Newfoundland, and Brazil - all of which are east of Argentina. Therefore, when we are on the west side of the country, the sun doesn´t rise until 8:30 or 9 in the morning. This is quite hard for us Canadians to get adjusted to. We eat our meals at all the wrong times, go shopping when everything is closed, go to bed sometimes when the sun is still up, and get up before it has risen).

So we waited two hours in the bus terminal for the sun to rise, and then walked a few blocks to a bus stop. We waited about a hour for a bus to come (it was a Sunday), took the advice of a well meaning Argentinian, and caught a different bus to where he said there were many good campsites. Upon arrival at the road with the campsites, the first thing we encountered was another traveling couple leaving the area and complaining about the horrible and expensive campsites. (Turns out that many campgrounds here have organized their sites into tightly packed concrete slabs covered with bamboo roofs - not the type of camping we are accustomed to). Heeding to their advice, we turned around and began to walk back towards town. By this time it was 11 o´clock and the sun was really beating down on us. After 15 minutes or so of walking, we collapsed on the curb, deciding to wait for a taxi to come by and take us to another campsite we had heard of in the central park in Mendoza. (This was our original plan until we had met the helpful Argentinian at the bus stop). Thankfully, a taxi drove past after waiting for only a half hour.

Arriving at our intended campsite, we were happy to find it organized like those in British Columbia. Big sites, many trees, picnic table, electrical outlet, running water... (and of course many dogs). We spent the next couple of hours setting up camp and then headed into town to explore. Big mistake. In Argentina most shops are closed on Sunday. Luckily, what remains open are restaurants, the occasional corner store, and large grocery stores. Like Chile though, all of these stores (except restaurants) close from about 1 o´clock to 4 or 5 for siesta (a really long lunch). Therefore, the working schedule here is from 9-1, and then again from about 4 or 5 until 9 or 10 at night. (Again, this is something that we have had difficulty adjusting to. Here, it is common to get off work at 10, go home and clean up, then go out for dinner with your family at 11 or midnight, stay up until 2 or 3 (6 or 7 if you are at the bar) and then go to work again at 9.)

We should step back at this point and give our first impressions of (and a brief history of) Mendoza. Mendoza has existed for hundreds of years as the largest city in the midwest of Argentina. However, in the 1850´s, the entire town of Mendoza was destroyed by an earthquake. When rebuilding, city planners at the time chose to make all of the streets wide (in case of falling rubble in the next earthquake) and to plant trees along every street. What has resulted is beautiful tree lined streets (every street - no exceptions) that look much like the streets on the West End of Vancouver, or some of the streets in Victoria. Seeing this, we were both obviously impressed. The second thing that stood out to us was the amount of older cars on the road. It is common to see vehicles (including government ones) from the 50´s, 60´s and 70´s. Common vehicles are late 50´s Mercedes trucks, 60´s Ford Falcons (many with the tail fins), and 60´s Peaugots and Renaults. We think the Argentinians must be the best mechanics in the world. A third noticable difference in Mendoza was the lack of advertising, big box stores, chain stores, car alarms, cell phones, ipods, and other such devices. Because of this void, it appears that everyone seems to move a little slower, taking the time to chat with friends on the street. A fourth noticable difference was the kindness of people from the city. In our first day alone, we had many people approach us asking if we needed a hand or directions, and in one instance (after we had gotten lost on the wrong bus) an Argentinian couple stopped, asked if we were okay, and then drove us back to our campsite. All of the above gave us the impression that Mendoza has existed apart from the rest of the world for the last 20 years. Of course, this is not the case, but we were very charmed by the city.

That afternoon, after having a nice pasta lunch, we waited until 5 o´clock for the grocery store to open, bought some food for dinner, and headed back to the campsite to cook our first meal on our little one burner stove. Tired from the previous nights bus ride and full from the food, we were grateful for sleep before the sun had set.

It was about 3am when we first heard the rain. Not long after, thunder, and then lightning. Lots of thunder and lightning.... and lots of rain. At first we enjoyed this as we were warm and dry in our little tent. Then Braden felt a rain drop. Wierd. Then Maya felt one. All of a sudden, drops were pouring in through the fly! A brand new tent! The first night! Braden scrambled out of the tent, braved the storm in his pajamas, and draped the tarp that Roy had given us over the tent. (Not really a tarp, actually just part of a roll of poly used for building houses.) Regardless, the tarp worked great and we were able to sleep through the rest of the night.

The next day, we headed out of Medoza to Maipu, the nearby winery district, to tour some of the wineries. There are plenty of wineries in the area to visit, most offering free tours and tastings. It is common for tourists to rent bikes to make it quickly and easily to many wineries in one day. This we thought to be a bit absurd, because after sampling 5 or 6 varieties of wine, one would be in no condition to ride a bike. We really enjoyed our first winery tour. The biggest winery in the region, they had an English speaking guide that taught us the basics of wine making. In the tasting room, they gave us a sample of one of their wines. (The picture used for this blog is from that winery). After finishing this tour, we walked back to the main road, and tried for about a hour to flag a bus to take us to the next winery. (This is very hard to do because buses only pick up at designated stops which are not labelled - only the locals seem to know where these stops are.) Eventually we did catch a bus, only to find that after a couple of turns, it took us in totally the wrong direction, and thus we ended up back in the city of Maipu, a 15 minute drive away from where we wanted to be. This worked out though, because 5 blocks away from the city center, we found a second winery to tour. While the tour operator only spoke spanish, the wine tasting was much better, as they gave us both a red and a white, and explained in laymans terms how to tell a good wine from a bad one. From this winery, we caught a taxi back to our intended desination where we briefly toured an olive plantation, and then a micro winery across the street.

This micro winery was the treat of the day. We had a private tour in English from a girl our age. She showed us the vineyards, where we were able to sample grapes off the vines, and told us about harvest. Because there are so many wineries in the region, the wages for workers at harvest are all pre-set to avoid competition between the wineries. Unfortunately this means that the wages are very low (about $8/day, working 12-14 hours a day). As a result, Argentinians refuse to work the harvest so the work falls to Bolivians and Peruvians who come down to Mendoza for a couple of weeks each year. We saw the small sorting machine used in the winery, as well as the concrete storage vats for the wine, and the cooling room full of oak barrels. After sampling some wines we managed to find a bus and make it back into Mendoza.

Back to Santiago the next day (Wednesday) to buy a painting and watch some field hockey. Miss you all lots, thinking of you often.

xoxoxoxo

Maya and Braden