Sunday, August 16, 2009

Brother, Mendoza, AND MORE!

Many updates. I almost abandoned this blog but decided to at least give some highlights, since I think at least two people might occasionally check my blog. As a side note, I`m actually getting back to the states the 19th of August. I decided to come back early because my grandma broke her ankle and moved in with us while I was gone. This was too much excitement for me to miss so I decided to come back while she was still recooperating at our house. So if you`re anywhere nearby Orange County, let me know!

Alex (my little brother) ended up coming to visit! There was a significant period where I thought it wouldn´t happen--Shai and Jonathan both left the country thinking I`d be roughing it on my lonesome out here--but last Friday my parents told me Alex was going to come to Buenos Aires the following Monday, so I left Cordoba and took a 10-ish hour night bus (semi-cama, or half bed, which is like economy class on an airplane) to meet him in the big city. Stayed at a great hostel there called Pax.

After spending three days in BA, we took a 13-hour bus to Mendoza, a region that produces a significant amount of Argentina´s Malbec (a type of red) wines. We rode in style, on their first class cama (full bed) bus. Meals came with free wine and champagne, and they sponsored a game of bingo that had a bottle of champagne as the grand prize. (We didn´t win.) I hadn´t had a bus company offer bingo since taking Cruz del Sur in Peru, and I loved Cruz del Sur, so it was a nice moment.

We`ve enjoyed Mendoza. It´s a cute town with a happening downtown area, although the majority of people come here to spend time outside the city at the surrounding wineries. In MaipĂș (pronounced my-poo. i still find this a little funny.), around 10 wineries exist along a 12 km stretch of road so most people tour the region by bike. Two days ago we rented bikes and stopped by about 5 wineries, which was actually kind of fun despite the fact that neither Alex nor I like wine. By about 5pm though, a hot dry wind picked up. We were taking a tour of the oldest winery open for tourism when our guide found out the tourist police were coming to pick us up and take us back to our bike rental office since it was too dangerous to bicycle back.

These winds apparently only happen once or twice a year, but they cause so many problems that they caused the bus pass between Chile and Argentina to close. Alex and I are now stuck in Mendoza as a result. We were going to take a 10 hour bus ride on Saturday that went through the Andes to reach Santiago, our departure city for the States, but the road shut down and nobody knows when it will reopen. Luckily, we changed our flight so we now fly out of Mendoza instead of Santiago; it´s just too bad neither of us appreciate wine or else we could spend the next three days visiting more wineries.

That´s what´s going on right now. Before my brother and I met up, I traveled to Bariloche, a skiing town that doubles as a mountain mecca for ice cream and chocolate makers. After just two days, I had to get the heck out of there. I headed to Cordoba and spent about three days there. It was a nice enough city, although I had the best time when I left with another Californian on a daytrip to a desert ravine. It was gorgeous. Unfortunately, I lost my camera so there aren´t any pictures for it, though.

I come home in a few days, ending my 3 month Latin America adventure. I`m excited to see what will happen next. Thanks for reading my blog!

No comments: