The drive to Mendoza, through the Andes Mountains, was absolutely beautiful! I took a TON of pictures
We also drove up a ridiculous road that ended up having 29 turns/curves.
Towards the end of the journey, we passed a beautiful lake.
The hostel we stayed at was pretty great. Because there were four of us, we ended up being able to have our room to ourselves, with our own patio too. We planned out our weekend that night and ate an asado at the hostel. I don’t know what it is about asados in hostels, but they are always the best! This asado was the first one for Ben, Eric, and Tom. We had grilled veggies, chicken, steak, and chorizos (my favorite!).
After dinner we all went back to the room, drank some wine on the patio, and stayed up for a bit and talked. One of us went to bed earlier than the rest (me of course).
On Saturday we walked around the city for a bit in the morning. There was a really pretty park near our hostel that had beautiful tiling and a fountain.
All the roads were lined with trees that hovered over the streets. Even though we don’t have these trees back home, it still reminded me of Atlanta. So pretty!
That afternoon we went on a wine tour. We saw two wineries and a factory where they make olive oil. The first winery was a family owned winery, so it was pretty small. It was very quaint though, and I enjoyed the wines.
This winery had the biggest barrels that I have ever seen.
The second winery we visited was a lot bigger than the first one. I also enjoyed the wine tasting there.
The olive oil factory was a quick trip, but I really enjoyed it. The name of the company combined the first three letters of raisins in Spanish and English.
After seeing how they make their olive oil, we got to try different kinds. This was my favorite part! The olive oil was sooo yummy! My favorite was the olive oil that had basil in it. How genius is that?!? It never occurred to me that there could be different flavors of olive oil. I had always assumed it was just either regular olive oil or extra virgin olive oil. But adding basil or garlic makes a big difference. So that was just neat to try all the different kinds of olive oil that the company makes.
That night we just relaxed. We went out to dinner, and then I made everyone try the vanilla, dulce de leche swirl ice cream cone from McDonalds. Everyone loved it! I have really been missing that since I have left Argentina, so it was a nice treat to have it again.
Our bus back to Chile left around 2:00 on Sunday, so we just explored the city some more before we headed back to Santiago.
Only spending the weekend in Mendoza was definitely not enough time. I hope I'll be able to go back one day and be able to experience more of Mendoza. I didn’t realize how much I had missed Argentina since I had left in January. It had sort of felt like I was going back home when we arrived in Mendoza (even though I had never been to that part of Argentina before). It was so great being back! I missed the delicious food and the beautiful accent. I will always have a special place in my heart for Argentina, and will definitely have to go back to explore other parts of it.
Until Next Time,
Liz
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