The Wednesday before Easter, I was of course running late as usual. Matias was bringing me to the bus terminal, and the bus from his house was taking FOREVER so we ended up jumping in a cab to get downtown so I wouldn’t miss my bus. I had to shove my way through the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen at the bus terminal, only to find that my bus hadn’t even arrived to the terminal yet. Nati, Emily and I waited a least another 1 1/2 hours for our bus to arrive at 1am. The bus was more uncomfortable then the others that I’ve ridden but it was alright. It took about 11 hours so we arrived in the morning.
The bus terminal in Cordoba, at midnight before Holy Thursday. CRAZY.
We walked to our hostel (should have taken a cab, it took forever with our bags) and met up for lunch with a bunch of the other kids studying in Cordoba. It’s funny how when I’m at home, I never crave pasta, but here I can’t get enough of it. Probably because Argentina is so well known for it’s Italian influence. After lunch, we strolled through Plaza Independencia and enjoyed the beautiful “fall” day (seasons are opposite in South America). We shopped around at the stands in the plaza, and made some new friends with vendors, as always. We also had gelato and talked to the nicest 5 old ladies I’ve ever met in my life!
Nati, Me, Jessica, Emily & Marina in Plaza Independencia
Around 8pm we went back to the hostal, and I met up with Emily Williams, my friend from home! She is studying in Santiago, Chile for the semester and I was so happy that our plans came together to meet up in Mendoza! Around 11:30pm we set out to find a place to eat for dinner with a group of about 12 people. In Mendoza, there are these huge gutters in the street that are literally about 4 feet deep and 1 ½ feet wide. Probably the most dangerous things ever, especially when the streets are lit very well. Anyways, on our way to finding a restaurant, Emily went to cross the street and fell right into a gutter and slashed open her elbow. She claimed she was fine, but the cuts were deep so the 12 of us sought out a clinic. It was the fastest doctors consultation/stitching up process I’ve ever seen (especially considering we were downtown in a relatively big city). They had her in and out of the office, complete with 4 stitches in less than 40 minutes. They even let me take pictures of the process hahah… so funny. The doctors thought we were cute so they gave us a 50% discount… I didn’t know that that was possible but hey, I’m not complaining! We finally got dinner afterwards, then went out to some bar with some locals our friend had met. We stayed out till about 6am as usual and made our way back to the hostel.
The doctor, Em & me :)
Us with our local friends :)
The next day we were supposed to go rafting, but because of Emily’s new stitches we decided to cancel. We ended up spending the day with Veronika, Marcella and their friend from Mendoza, Ariel. Ariel works in tourism, and grew up in Mendoza so he drove us around to see a winery and some scenery. It was nice to not have to take public transportation for once. We had churros with dulce de leche (to die for), sampled wine, and even went down this crazy slide haha… compliments of Marcella. That night we had an amaaaazing asado at a nice restaurant, and Ariel even got me to try intestines. I didn’t like it but oh well. We went to a club called VooDoo after. The club was mostly outside which was nice because it wasn’t as hot as the clubs normally are. We only stayed until 4am because we all had tours to go on the next day at 8:30am.
Emily & I sampling the grapes at a Bodega (winery)
Saturday – Emily and I went horseback riding in the Andes mountains. It was a lot of fun, but freezing because the sun wasn’t out. The scenery was gorgeous, but would have been even better if the sun was out. I had such a lazy horse, so most of the time the gaucho guide had to whip my horse to get it to stop eating/drinking. Kind of annoying but oh well haha. Afterwards Emily and I napped for hours before dinner and going to another club that night. The club that we went to didn’t have any foreigners and was all locals. The entire night people were asking us why we were there because foreigners never hear about this place (it’s out in the outskirts, our local friends had recommended it). The music was good, and it was a lot of fun. The club looked like a house party because it had a huge outdoor patio, and the club itself was shaped like a house.
Sunday- I went to the Thermas (Hot Springs) with Marcella and Veronika. The morning was kind of a disaster because our tourist people accidently booked our horse tour and hot spring tour on the same day without us realizing. We took the problem to the office, and the guy closed his office and drove us to the hot springs himself (because our bus had already left and hadn’t picked us up). I can’t imagine this ever happening in the US and having them be that accommodating. He also picked us up after we were done relaxing there too. The springs were in the middle of the mountains, and it was such a gorgeous day. We spent the day relaxing in the different pools and catching some sun. Veronika even read us some passages in Spanish from her Spanish bible for Easter. Later in the day I also recognized Dave, a BC student, who I met in Salta briefly. Small world… Sunday night I was pooped and slept for about 15 hours…
Relaxing in Las Thermas
Monday – we checked out of our hostel and spent the day wandering around the city looking for something to do. We ended up going to the zoo, which was the most dangerous zoo I’ve ever experienced in my life. There was no one working in the zoo besides the person selling tickets at the front which was a little bizarre. It was also the off season, so not many tourists were in the zoo either. All the animals looked miserable, and all the vicious animals, such as lions, etc, were pacing in their small cages. There weren’t even behind glass…you could literally reach out and pet it if you dared. We fed the monkeys, and I thought this one baboon was going to break his door down. Then when we got to the elephant exhibit, Emily started feeding it and it was wrapping its trunk around her arm. I couldn’t believe there wasn’t anyone to tell us to stop petting the animals…they must not have many lawsuits here in Argentina…
Feeding the elephant...
After the zoo, we trekked up to the top of this monument and watched the sun set over the Andes. Of course by this point my camera was dead which was beyond depressing, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. We talked to this tour bus driver who had a tour of about 6 old ladies from Argentina, and he offered to drive us back to Plaza Independencia for free if we wanted to take the rest of the tour. Of course we agreed…it’s nice to get free stuff for being young and female in Argentina haha. There were a bunch of older ladies on this tour also, who loved talking to us in Spanish and thought we spoke the language well :) it's always really encouraging to hear that every once in awhile. That night we took our bus back to Cordoba around 10pm and got back just in time to head to work on Tuesday…got to love sleeping on the bus.
Oh, and after all that, I forgot to bring wine home from WINE country. Fail…
I'm leaving on Saturday for Peru, I can't believe that my time has gone by so fast...it's going to be hard to say goodbye...my heart is already aching to say goodbye to my second family here and all the friends I have made... :( life goes on I guess but I'm going to end this post before I get too corny... chau, hasta luego chicos <3>
sounds like so much fun!!! :) it even seems like its gone by fast to me, lol i can remember talking to u about it in unos like it was yesterday... i can imagine how sad it must be but your adventure will continue in peru and you will have many more fun stories to tell im sure!!! ttys, keep writing n stay safe! ;)
ReplyDeletelove, liz