Sunday, August 24, 2003
Mendoza. My GOODness. Though in Argentina, its actually faster to get to than most of the big cities in Chile, and so off we went. Besides, people said the food was really good.
I nearly backed out Friday morning- we didn´t have bus or hostel reservations, and it was early and cold...met up with Dan at the station, drove over the snowy Andes (with delightfully unpolluted-tasting air), and landed ourselves in this pretty and manageable feeling city, the capital of the province. We settled in at Sosahaus (my first hostel ever! assuming the Hotel Iguana in the DR doesn´t count itself), and then went hunting for food. Cafe Paisaje: 4 ham and cheese sandwiches and hot chocolate, for about $1.50. Browsed in a book/music store, and I got a Sodastereo cd. Then we headed for Las Tinajas, a"tenedor libre" that the hostel recepcionist recommended, describing it as all you can eat buffet. It was HUGE. One of the Boston Dim Sum places (the proprieters were Chinese) crossed with a Las Vegas buffet dinner (it was $5 US!) with more variety than the Boston College cafeteria (200 plus plates!). There were stations where chefs prepared meat/seafood/pasta dishes, and also lines of trays of prepared things plus two tables of salad-y stuff, plus dessert. And a karaoke singer doing U.S. hits from the 80s. I thought I´d have to be airlifted home, I ate so much.
Saturday: What do you get when you mix 6 horses, an obstinate 8-ball, and a crazy Dutchman?
A 23 and half hour day.
The hostel signed us up for a full day horseback ride (Dan´s first time), so we found ourselves in a van with a couple from Israel and a couple from Belgium wayyyy early in the morning. They drove the 6 of us to out into the foothills, where we shivered (it had snowed there the day before) and petted the kitten until it was time to mount. I was on Relampagos, who kept trying to bite the horse in front of him (and later got kicked for his ways by another horse). We passed a frozen waterfall, and got in some nice moutain views- we were were mostly in scrub grass parts, though 3000 (somethings, I guess kilometers) up, I think. Back at the house, they had an asado for us, which we chowed down while Dan and I ogled the son of the ranch´s owner (dark, tan, with a casually knotted panuelo- so an Argentine gaucho) .
Back in Mendoza, we met up for onces with the Israelis, then headed over to a pool hall. Despite dispatching most of the balls (I even got this sweet diagonal shot- if you´ve seen me play pool before, I´m not so hot), the three of us, with Dan cheering along, could NOT get the 8 ball in. It was ridiculous, and took like half an hour.
After eating (again;-), Dan and I headed to the hostel around midnight. Though he went to bed, I got waylaid by empanadas and conversation in the dining room. Next thing I knew, more or less, I was headed toward a bar with Cathy (canadian receptionist who actually worked in the Galapagos with a former RCS-er), Rob (Britain), Peter (Holland, who sold his house and car and is trotting around the world), and a guy from France. I was totally the baby of the group, which was a good excuse when I couldn´t even remotely finish the ginormous bottle of beer in front of me (don´t blame me! blame the US drinking age!). Then we headed over to Disco Geo, where Cathy and I spun around with Rob and tried to keep pace with Peter (who very nearly reminded me of Austin Powers (PG version): "Loosen it up, Baby!")
So there I was, 6 in the AM, attempting to dance:-) Bed at 7, up at 9:30...
And a sufficiently calm bus ride back (reading about the sublevacion de la escuadra in 1891), through a different and really gorgeous route through the mountains.
I nearly backed out Friday morning- we didn´t have bus or hostel reservations, and it was early and cold...met up with Dan at the station, drove over the snowy Andes (with delightfully unpolluted-tasting air), and landed ourselves in this pretty and manageable feeling city, the capital of the province. We settled in at Sosahaus (my first hostel ever! assuming the Hotel Iguana in the DR doesn´t count itself), and then went hunting for food. Cafe Paisaje: 4 ham and cheese sandwiches and hot chocolate, for about $1.50. Browsed in a book/music store, and I got a Sodastereo cd. Then we headed for Las Tinajas, a"tenedor libre" that the hostel recepcionist recommended, describing it as all you can eat buffet. It was HUGE. One of the Boston Dim Sum places (the proprieters were Chinese) crossed with a Las Vegas buffet dinner (it was $5 US!) with more variety than the Boston College cafeteria (200 plus plates!). There were stations where chefs prepared meat/seafood/pasta dishes, and also lines of trays of prepared things plus two tables of salad-y stuff, plus dessert. And a karaoke singer doing U.S. hits from the 80s. I thought I´d have to be airlifted home, I ate so much.
Saturday: What do you get when you mix 6 horses, an obstinate 8-ball, and a crazy Dutchman?
A 23 and half hour day.
The hostel signed us up for a full day horseback ride (Dan´s first time), so we found ourselves in a van with a couple from Israel and a couple from Belgium wayyyy early in the morning. They drove the 6 of us to out into the foothills, where we shivered (it had snowed there the day before) and petted the kitten until it was time to mount. I was on Relampagos, who kept trying to bite the horse in front of him (and later got kicked for his ways by another horse). We passed a frozen waterfall, and got in some nice moutain views- we were were mostly in scrub grass parts, though 3000 (somethings, I guess kilometers) up, I think. Back at the house, they had an asado for us, which we chowed down while Dan and I ogled the son of the ranch´s owner (dark, tan, with a casually knotted panuelo- so an Argentine gaucho) .
Back in Mendoza, we met up for onces with the Israelis, then headed over to a pool hall. Despite dispatching most of the balls (I even got this sweet diagonal shot- if you´ve seen me play pool before, I´m not so hot), the three of us, with Dan cheering along, could NOT get the 8 ball in. It was ridiculous, and took like half an hour.
After eating (again;-), Dan and I headed to the hostel around midnight. Though he went to bed, I got waylaid by empanadas and conversation in the dining room. Next thing I knew, more or less, I was headed toward a bar with Cathy (canadian receptionist who actually worked in the Galapagos with a former RCS-er), Rob (Britain), Peter (Holland, who sold his house and car and is trotting around the world), and a guy from France. I was totally the baby of the group, which was a good excuse when I couldn´t even remotely finish the ginormous bottle of beer in front of me (don´t blame me! blame the US drinking age!). Then we headed over to Disco Geo, where Cathy and I spun around with Rob and tried to keep pace with Peter (who very nearly reminded me of Austin Powers (PG version): "Loosen it up, Baby!")
So there I was, 6 in the AM, attempting to dance:-) Bed at 7, up at 9:30...
And a sufficiently calm bus ride back (reading about the sublevacion de la escuadra in 1891), through a different and really gorgeous route through the mountains.
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