Mendoza, Argentina

(dad, you need to help me with your favorite poem. i tried, but i fear that i have failed miserably...)

En el cielo hay las estrellas,

en el campo las espinas,

en el medio de mi pecho el lago argentina

I think that Argentina might have cried upon the return of my father. Especially since it was HIS BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! Argentina is a lovely place - clean, well kept, green, European, relaxed, full of BEEF. Our bus ride there left at 9:15 am and we arrived in mendoza at 5pm. What a lovely ride through the Andes! we were sitting in the 2 front seats in the second floor of a double decker bus while we were winding through the Andes. what a ride - the only bad part is that we had no airconditioning so it got burning hot at points and i thought i was going to die. nevertheless, we arrived.

Here is a picture of dad with our hostal:

The hostal was so nice! and we had 4 beds in our room and a private bathroom (which was perfect because i got sick on sunday!) and it was in the middle of downtown, which was perfect for shopping. After getting settled in we headed out to dinner at Las Tinajes at 9 where we were meeting up with my 5 amigas in order to celebrate dad’s birthday. Dad was in heaven because this place was an all you can eat buffet and they had a grill FULL of meat – parts of the cow I had never seen before like ribs. For dessert we had crepes specially made for us filled with bananas and manzanas (like bananas foster with a caramel glaze). BUT, even after dessert, Dad wanted another beef rib, so I stealthily got one and then we sang happy birthday to him! How fantastic.

Day 2– Dad and I woke up, had our breakfast that was included, and headed off to buy tours and see the city. We bought 3 tours – a tour of the Bodegas/ wineries, a tour of Mendoza, and a tour to Cañon del Atuel (their grand canyon where we could go rafting and do such adventurous stuff). So, after shopping and having lunch, we headed off with our tour to bodega Baudron and Don Arturo and then to place where they grow olives and make olive oil. Everything was very interesting, but I just don’t like wine that much, so Dad and I bought grape juice at Baudron. We drank it on Saturday and Sunday, and it was the tastiest grape juice we had ever had.

Here we are at Baudron, taste tasting vino!

I think this is funny because 'Entre Dos' means inbetween 2 and we indulged in these lovely Alfajores together - entre padre y hija. they were soooo good too.

Here we are at Don Arturo:

Day 3, 10/10 – This morning Dad and I were once again frantically shopping before our 3pm tour because we decided to buy leather jackets for the whole family – me, Dad, Mom, Hannah, and Rebekah – and there were like 10 million stores that sold leather jackets. We at lunch at this food court place and got the parillada para dos – a mini grill full of meat (1 piece of chicken and the rest cow parts), French fries, salad, 2 drinks and bread. I ate the piece of chicken, and dad ate the rest. Why am I telling you this??? Because this lunch was the cause of my illness later today…after our nice city tour (on which dad kept falling asleep whenever we were sitting in the bus (there are pictures)). We went all over Mendoza in our tour – old Mendoza, new Mendoza, the monument on top of the cerro, the huge park right outside of the city and La Cabaña, a chocolate factory. Dad and I were very antsy though to get back and purchase the jackets that we had picked out, so we rushed to the stores as soon as we got back. And what do you know….we successfully bought 5 jackets J

We then went to the grocery store in order to buy stuff for dinner and food to pack for lunch the next day. When we were checking out, I began to feel very ill – like pass out kind of sick which turned into feel like going to throw up kind of sick. So, we made it back to the hostel, I laid down, and dad cooked our eggs and made our fruit salad for dinner. But, I couldn’t eat anything, so dad ate all 6 eggs and the fruit salad. This wasn’t good because we had already bought our tour for cañon del atuel the next day which left at 7am!!!

Here we are at the lovely food court. the wall was painting like a winery:

Here is the greasy grill of meat and french fries:

During our city tour in the huge city park:

10/11 – At 7am when we were supposed to be leaving for our tour, I was sick in the bathroom. So, dad and I went back to bed – he wasn’t feeling well either due to all the dinner he ate, my fault – and we had a very laid back day. We were able to walk all around the city, relaxed. Dad got a killer ice cream cone with pistachio and strawberry ice cream. And we found a weird car that desperately needed a Sy-Klone pre-cleaner on it. There are pictures of Dad with both – the ice cream and the car.

Our conclusions about Mendoza – GORGEOUS city, and I would recommend it to everyone. Clean, green, lots of trees. People mopped there sidewalks and took great pride in their things. Also, there were no stray dogs unlike Chile. Very European and I felt like I blended in a lot better. I would go back.

10/12 – Today we headed back to the bus terminal for a very long trip home…it took 12hours to get home. 12! We were on a single story bus, which was better and not as hot. But getting back into Chile took forever! We were in line/going through customs for 3 hours. I was able to get the rough draft done for my teatro ensayo due on Thursday, so that was good. When we got home, we got Dad packed up and ready to head home.

10/13 – Dad and I had a nice lunch at Americas – the very first restaurant that we ate at and enjoyed so much. I then delivered him to the bus station for his 4:30 departure.

Overall, Dad and I were really blessed by our time together. We got to do some good talking. AND, most importantly, I got some good daddy hugs which I had been severely lacking.