Hey All!

Hope things are well in the states. Momo and I are in Mendoza, the
wine capitol of Argentina, the place of eternal sun. Which is funny,
because Ica where I lived for 2 years of my life is also named the
exact same thing, but never rained once like it did today. Thus, NOT
the place of eternal sun. Ica still claims king in that department.
Though the wine is ten-fold better than in Peru. We agreed to not
drink any beer here, which has been a hard feat for me, and only the
finest of cheap wines. The wine tasting day was off to a bad start.
First off, the hostel we are staying at was NOT made for warm
temperatures. I woke up last night, multiple times, tossing and
turning, to finally taking a cold shower at 3 am just to go back to
sleep. A technique I learned from living in the desert for 2 years.
We woke up early, only to find that the coffee machine not working (best coffee I have ever had in a hostel, by the way). Also a bad sign. Two American engineers without coffee to start a long day of dehydration. DISASTER. Next, we spend an hour looking for the bus stop/change to ride the bus, only to discover that we got on the wrong bus, and were 12 kilometers away from where we really needed to be. So in total, we spent 2 hours trying to get to the right place. Good thing the only thing we had on our agenda was to ride bikes to vineyards and drink all day, in which we had 6 more hours to complete these tasks for the day (more than enough time).

When we finally found the right place, the first thing we did in the
bike rental place (awesome, family owned business named Mr. Hugos bike rentals) was wine consumption. Claro! Of course thats the first step.
Not to talk about renting bikes, the cost, and for how long. Of
course it would be to drink wine! We visited the wine museum (kind of
lame, if you have already been involved in the wine making process.)
as well as an olive yard (also lame if you have seen olive trees
before. Which is not saying much. They just really wanted to sell us
olive trees). The bike ride was the best part, riding down beautiful
roads lined with large trees and fields on either side. The cars were
annoying, and the road could have benefited from a bike lane for the
number of bike on that road a day. The clouds were large and ominous
around the snow covered peaks of the Andes, but locals assured us that
it would never get to the valley. Sure enough, after our fill of wine
and touring, on the ride back to Señor Hugo's place, the clouds
darkened and unfolded sheets of rain, and thunder before us in the
distance. We raced back just in time before the rain hit Maipu valley.
It was no jungle rainforest downpour, don't get me wrong, but still
more rain than I have seen in 2 years.

The city of Mendoza itself is larger than I was expecting, but still
has a calm, chill feel to it. All the streets are lined with trees,
some doing sizable damage to the sidewalks, and great parks and
plazas around the city. Apparently there is a big market for shopping:
not really my forte, and not really important for someone who is broke
or who is trying to cut weight from their backpack. The stay here has
been short, but sweet. I am looking forward to crossing the Andes
during the day, back to Santiago, in which we will see (only from the
window of the bus) the highest peak in the Andes, at a 22,800 ft.
Wish me luck with the altitude sickness!

Happy travels,
Teigan