I'll start off with my weekend trip to Mendoza (the Napa Valley of Argentina, right along the Chilean border at the base of the Andes)!! We had a Monday off for Columbus day at the beginning of October so we decided to take the extra time to do a 4-day trip. Side Note: For the longest time we couldn't figure out what our holiday Monday was for, until someone's professor pointed out to them that Columbus discovered all of the Americas - sometimes you don't realize how US centered you are until you leave...
After another lovely 14 hour overnight bus ride (although with worse movies this time!) we arrived in the city of Mendoza, the capital of the province of Mendoza. Our first full day in the city was overcast and rainy, which my host mom tells me never happens in Mendoza (such seems to be our luck on trips) so we spent it in the Termas (hot springs) nestled a little ways up into the Andes. The series of pools ranged from 65 degrees up to 110 degrees (we spent as much time as possible in the 110 pool). The springs were also complete with 2 waterslides, only one of which was warm enough to go on that day.
We kicked off the second day with paragliding!!! I had never even thought about going paragliding before coming to Argentina, but then I was talking to an Argentine friend who said that paragliding was on his bucket list and I realized it might be kind of fun. Turns out Mendoza is a really popular spot to go paragliding because of the Andes, so we decided to give it a shot! I have to say, it was one of the most incredible experiences - everyone should go!!!
It was a tandem paraglide, so I had an instructor sitting right behind me who did all the steering - I just sat back and relaxed in my comfy chair. Leading up to the flight I was terrified at the prospect of running off of a cliff, but you'd be surprised, it wasn't too bad! Once the instructor pulls your parachute up above you, he tells you to slowly start walking towards the edge of the cliff and then begin to run until before you know it you're just kicking the air.
It was a 30 minute flight circling above the mountains, looking at the snow-caps on the Chilean side and seeing an aerial view of the city of Mendoza on the other side. Since I didn't have any air-sickness (which apparently is very common) we even did some acrobatic figure 8's at the end of the flight! My instructor took a video of our flight too.
Then we spent the afternoon horseback riding at the base of the Andes along a river. Now, I realize that I've already mentioned my fear of horses once in this blog, so it doesn't need to be restated, but I'll just say that I think I might be done with horses forever after this experience...
I agreed to go because a friend of mine really really wanted to do it, and its a very common activity in Mendoza. After the first hour or so I was finally feeling comfortable on a horse again! Trotting through waist high rivers, weaving alongside vineyards, and looking up at the snow-capped mountains - I was glad I had agreed to go. We stopped for a brief photo-op and I was so content that I was finally enjoying horseback riding again!
Our guide put my friend and I's horses next to each other to take a picture of the two of us. I don't really remember what happened, but the next thing I know her horse snapped at mine and they started to fight. My horse bolted forward while hers bucked up, throwing her off the end. Then her horse proceeded to chase mine into a barbed wire fence of the vineyard. I grabbed on to a wooden post to make sure not to fall off either. I couldn't look behind me to see what was going on, but all I could hear was the 10 year old girl in our group screaming and everyone asking if my friend as alright.
After a few minutes of our guide calming down my friend's horse, she got back on it (!!! - later she told me that she really did it because she didn't want the little girl with us to be scared). At this point I was really shaken as well and dying to get off of my horse, but everything went smoothly for another hour or so. Then before a river crossing my friend's horse goes down onto its knees and as soon as she jumped off he began to roll around on his back. At this point the guide switched horses with my friend and I counted down the minutes until we got back to the camp...Fortunately, no one was hurt at all and I managed to stay on my horse for all 3 hours. It turned out that my friend's horse had a parasite in its stomach and thats why it was acting up. I'm not thoroughly convinced that I'm just not meant to ride horses...
The next day was our typical wine country day - a biking tour of the vineyards! We had heard of Mr. Hugo from some Georgetown students who studied abroad in BA last year so we headed out. Mr. Hugo himself greets you at his home with a glass of wine, a map with recommendations of good wineries, and a bike. Trust me, there is no better way to do winery tours than biking (I know some of you had concerns about the safety - but no one was hurt in the process)!
Our first winery was only a few years old - very large and very modern. We had a brief tour and then a personal tasting in a very shwanky underground tasting room. Then we biked on over to the oldest vineyard in the area that is run by an Italian family. There we had a delicious lunch, another tour of the winery, and yet another tasting (and I picked up a bottle of dessert wine to bring home for Christmas). To take a break from the wine, we biked up to an olive oil and liquor tasting where we all picked up a few more gifts. Then we had one last wine tasting and a tour of a wine-making museum before biking back to Mr. Hugos, where we were of course greeted with more wine...
It was a perfectly balanced weekend of relaxation and adventure, with just a "little" bit of wine thrown in. All of the photos are in an album on facebook!
like i told you before, one excellently planned tripped filled with just the adventures i would love to have (except the minor parasite mishap)!
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