I have seen the north of Chile, the middle, and some of the south. It seemed only right that I should actually venture outside of Chile. That's why this last weekend a group of 5 friends and I decided to take advantage of the long weekend(Thursday-Sunday) we had and take a bus ride through the Andes to Mendoza, Argentina.
Our adventure started on Thursday morning with an early departure that turned into a 9 hour bus ride. What really made it long was the border crossing. Everyone at the bus had to get off to get their passport stamped. But the beautiful views of the Andes we saw along the way were worth it.
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| My friend Andrea and I at the border |
Argentine dialect: My host sister's husband is actually from Mendoza, so I've been exposed to the differences a bit. For starters, the informal pronoun tú(you), is replaced by "vos." The verbs are also conjugated differently. The last letter "r" of the infinitive is dropped, replaced with an "s," and an accent is added to the last syllable. So a sentence like "Tú vives en Argentina"(You live in Argentina) becomes "Vos vivís en Argentina." The only irregular verb conjugation used with vos is the verb "ser"(to be), which is conjugated as "sos." An example of this irregularity would be "Vos sos mi amigo" instead of "Tú eres mi amigo." Another difference is how they pronounce the "ll." A simple example is "Me llamo," which would be pronounced Me YA-mo. In Argentina it is more of a soft sh sound, so it turns out sounding like Me shamo. I just think it's interesting that just one country over,the Spanish dialect can change so much! But let's just stay I'll be sticking to Chilean Spanish.
Meal time: After a whole weekend, my friends and I still couldn't exactly pin down the mealtime system here. Our first night it took some serious hunting to find a place open for dinner at 7:30 p.m. Another night we had no problem finding a restaurant at 10 p.m. The next day we were madly hunting again for a place to have a late lunch. After several of these trials this is what I've figured out...
Restaurants close early afternoon and stay closed for a few hours. Late afternoon/early evening is tea time for Argentines, similar to Chilean "once", except they eat a lot of media lunas(croissants). You may see cafes open with people outside enjoying the springtime warmth, eating their croissants and having a cup of coffee. Then, at around 10p.m. all the restaurants go into full swing for dinnertime and are open till incredibly late.So basically if you're hungry between 2p.m. to 8 p.m., Mendoza is not the place to be. However, there are a plethora of tasty heladerías(ice cream shops) open all day to satisfy any misinformed traveler's hunger :)
Now onto the fun activities...
Wine and Bike Tour
It wasn't a tour per se. We rented bikes all day from a company called Mr. Hugo's, where Mr. Hugo himself came out and greeted us. He then gave us a map with all the wineries, chocolaterías(chocolate factories), and olive oil factories around the 12 kilometer span. We started with a winery, where I tried Argentine's famous Malbec wine. Then, we stopped for lunch at another winery, because wine tasting, bike riding, and an empty stomach does not make a good combination! After lunch we headed to an olive oil factory, where we had a sampling and a tour of the factory.I even got a little olive oil tasting certificate. We took a mid-day power nap under the shade of the trees outside the factory, then went onto another winery. Half of our group, including myself, decided to skip out on this one, because I was feeling pretty tired from biking in the springtime heat.We rested outside by the vinery, and my friends who decided to do the tasting brought us out some of the wine they got to sip on. I tried dessert wine for the first time, which I personally thought was too sweet. Finally, we made our way to a chocolate factory, only to find it had just closed. The rest of the day had been so fun though, so I didn't feel so bummed about this. I enjoyed everything about this "tour", even the parts where we had to bike past busy roads and put up with constant honks and shouts of "lola!lola!"(a catcall that translates "young lady! young lady!"). Plus I personally thought it was a great deal. Everything, the 7 hour bike rental, lunch, tastings, and tours ended up being about $25!
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| In route! |
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| The whole group on the olive oil tour |
On the other side of town, there is a huge park in Mendoza where we took an afternoon stroll on Saturday. Along the way, we window shopped in the many artesian shops in Mendoza. We finally got to the park itself, which was beautiful. There were plazas with fountains, a giant water canal, and acres of green grass and flowers. By the end of the day we had probably walked around for 6 hours, which was unexpected exercise after biking a lot the day before, but equally enjoyable.
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| Outside the gates of the park |
Yes food does deserve a separate section here, because it definitely was a big part of the trip. Meat is to Argentina what seafood is to Chile...really amazing! Plus Argentina has an Italian influence, so I got my pizza and pasta fix I've been missing the past few months. Mendoza also has a bunch of pastry shops, where they sell the infamous alfajor(yes it is pronounced like alpha-whore, which made for some great jokes during the trip). An alfajor is basically a soft, crumbly cookie filled with dulce de leche, often coated with chocolate. I'm not one to chow down on tons of sweets, but I could definitely have more than one of these in one sitting!
All and all the weekend was better than I imagined, and our group got along well. There was only a bit of an issue when I got a bit of altitude sickness waiting over two hours at the Argentine-Chile border on the way back, but luckily we had the nicest bus driver on the planet. He helped guide me to the front of the line to get my paperwork stamped, helped find me medicine to deal with my stomach ache, and made jokes to lighten the mood through it all. Chilean hospitality can make any situation better!
And finally, I have to say this trip made me antsy to get some more passport stamps. Seeing the word "Argentina" in the clear blue ink made me feel accomplished and ready for more adventures outside of Chile. This country has a lot to offer in itself, but so does South America...and the world. Here's to crossing borders! Chao for now amigos!
What a great trip. Reminds me a bit of the bike rides I used to take past wineries in the Santa Ynez area. What sort of medicine did you take for altitude sickness and how high were you? I mean in elevation, not that YOU were high! I think the highest elevation on the Patagonia trip is about 4,000 feet.
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