More Bariloche!!!

The food in Bariloche is great. Food is essential to the well-being of all. But Bariloche goes above and beyond the nutrition factor and makes it almost necessary to have all the adventure activities in order to work off the tons of kilos you gain while in the city. The food here is Swiss inspired, since Bariloche used to be a Swiss settlement. The best food is the fondue. This comes in cheese, meat, and chocolate with a variety of food choices to dip in the sauces. Fondue is so popular here because of the cold climate! La Alpina is the restaurant suggested in Lonely Planet that we tried. It was out of this world. And for three fondues for two people it was only 139 pesos. The venison and lamb are also eaten here because of the availability of the animals in Patagonia. Though none the less, it was time to go home away from this great city.

As some say, here today, gone tomorrow, but at least I was able to experience the adventure Patagonia has to offer. All I have to say is ANDES 1 and ASHLEY 0!!! Hopefully I can change that score board one day, but at the moment the sore muscles, bruises thighs, and exhausted everything else confirms the final score! I did however look out at the lake Nual Hupai (not quite sure that is the correct spelling). I saw snow capped mountains, and met a whole new breed of people.

Bariloche Dangers!!!

Horseback riding is supposedly a great outdoor adventure. Well, this writer would like to confirm these assumptions.

I had always been too scared to go riding. There is just something about having a huge animal that you have very little control over underneath you. Well, I braved my fears and gave in to the pressure of going riding. For 100 pesos or about $37USD I got to enjoy horseback riding. But, of course, given my nature of needing everything to be more of a chanllenge than it really should be, I took an intermediate trail UP a mountain by myself on a horse. The view was breathtaking, and I did enjoy the horse. But… DISASTER STRIKES!!!

I was at a halt on my horse, minding my own business, when someone else’s horse lost control kicked my horse, as well as me, and I fell off the horse hanging by one foot for dear life. TERRIFYING!!!

My leg is black and blue. I cannot move left or right, and I definitely cannot tie my own shoes. I am living off of five hours of sleep, and I am rather irritable. But for some reason, this genius decides that trekking through the Andes to the top of Cerro Cathedral is the most brilliant way to spend my last day in Bariloche.
Chelsea and I catch the 40 minute bus up to the foothill of the mountain. I get off the bus with the best of intentions. We start the hike, all is well. We are flooded out most of the ‘path’ so we wade through freezing waters to keep on trekking. We then see that we must essentially go rock climbing to keep going. Chelsea continues. I make my way through the forest in and attempt to not have to experience the cold waters again. I made my way down, and back into town to try to salvage what little bit of muscle movement I had left!

Dangers in Bariloche

I am having computer issues, will post as soon as I can access internet at a reliable point.

Bariloche Part 2

Ok, so on Saturday, the onmly excursion for the whole day happened to be a two hour horse back riding session. Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into. Forst off, it was disgustingly muddy and wet, still raining, and Ashley had never ridden a horse successfully. Second off, our guide was a *beep*. Yes, he was so bad, that he had to be censored out. I wanted to punch him in the face about five minutes into the day. He was angry in nboth english and spanish. He was harassing me and yelling at others. I thought that maybe he was just having a bad day, but I fouond out later, not that's just the way h e is. The recesptionist at our hostel explained that he had a bit of an attitude, and I talked to someone else who had recently visited Bariloche and done the same horsebacking trek, and he was awful then too. He's got some serious issues. Anyhow, I've vented for the past week, so I'm trying to put it behind me. However, on a side note, one of the Israeli guys on our trip made his horse freak out, and it ended up kincking Ashley's horse/her leg too, and she then proceeded to scream like bloody murder and fall off of her horse. She had quite the impressive bruise, and the whole episode REALLY ticked off the guide. After that, I just wanted to leave.

Bariloche Part 1

So, I left last Wednesday ngith after my last class on a late bus by myself headed to Bariloche. I enjoyed the peace an quiet, and I got a pretty good nights rest. I read Kite Runner, looked at the scenery, and listened to my ipod for 22 hours. When I finally arrived, it was very cold, and raining. I jumped in a taxi and arrived at my hostel on a hill in the cold rain. I showered and then headed to my free dinner provided by my hostel every night. I met a couple from DC that were moving to Berkeley in the fall to start law school. I wanted to plan a trip or excursion of some type for the next day, Thursday, but everything was closed. And I didn't understand why until later. I awoke, and while I was having breakfast with a nice guy from University of Oregon, Ashley showed up. We collectively agreed that after looking outside, the weather was indeed to bad to head out all day. Instead, we went to a mexican restaurant!! Afterwards, we went shopping in the rain, ALL DAY! I bought this fabulous mother of pearl ring, along with some cool gifts, and a box of chocolates. We headed back to the hostel for dinner, and drinks at the bar. Ashley, I thought, headed to bed, and so after some coercing, a grad student who was working on his masters at Columbia, convinced me to go out with him for the night. I am happy that he was rich, which made for an inexpensive night for me, and I am also happy that living in Buenos Aires has taught me how to deal with men... that said. It was a fun night, and he actually went home pouting... it was sort of pathetic. Anyhow, I went to bed and slept for a couple of hours before waking up to catch lunch with Ashley. I'll continue in my next post. Btw, I tried to add a video, but this thing has taken hours, I accept defeat!

What you should really know when traveling...

Many people would argue with me in the statements I am about to make, but they are facts that one may want to consider before traveling to Buenos Aires, and should think about before traveling anywhere else in the world.

Buenos Aires is not this party hard, no cares in the world type of town. It is a town plagued with a bad economy on top of sad social implications. To start with, as an American, you cannot refer to yourself as American. The people here get touchy about that, because they view themselves as American as well. People view people from the United States as rich, and they attempt to rip you off on every corner. I bought 40 pesos for my phone on my credit card. They ended up charging me 40 USD and ran it through 3 times. When here, you are bound to come in contact with cab drivers who will rip you off by not turning on the clock because they know you are from the United States. The economy is so bad, people see this as justified.

There are families living on the street on each corner. It is impossible to walk anywhere without being asked for money at least once. There is a family that lives 2 blocks from my house. Every morning they are there, the mother cuddling with her children in hopes that they will not freeze that night. I stop and give them 2 pesos every day, but people pass by them as if they are not people. They are looked at as vermen, and that is exactly how the Argetnine government treats them. Unlike the shelters and places to recieve help in the United States, the people here have very little resources to keep themselves off of the streets, and the fact that the government looks the other way at the large populations of homeless people speaks even less for the Argentine government. Hopefully June 28th, will bring some hope to a country in extreme turmiol.

I am a genius!!

Ok, I am so proud of myself. In an earlier post, about a month ago, I was angry because my camera's SD disk stopped working. Well, let me just update you... I fixed it all by myself. I may not know how to do it again if I had to, because it could have just been luck or divine guidance, but for now until I have to fix it again, I'll be calling it pure genius! Yes! Anyhow, I've included the old pictures that have been rediscovered from the SD disk. In addition, I would like to add that it was super fun hanging out with Ashley in my neighborhood's china town, and Angels and Demons was FABULOUS!! Also, I went to a Budhist gathering with my house mom on Friday night. I got to watch an "interesting" movie, and eat lots of good food. Has anyone seen Peaceful Warrior?? I'd like some feedback! Anyhow, I'm headed out Wednesday night for Bariloche, and Ashley will follow the day after, and we're going to attempt to go snowshoing... I'll let ou know how it all plays out when I get back! Needless to say, the posting might be slim for the next week! I promise I'll have a lot to say soon when I get back!

A Night Out on The Town

So, I was going to just stay in for another lazy Saturday, but I knew I had a ton of things to do. First I woke up and walked all the way down to Retiro to get my bus ticket to Bariloche. I guess I should not be going on yet another trip, considering money is beginning to run rather low, but I was talked into it by a quick "hey do you want to go." I cannot wait. Its rather rare for me to see snow, you know, being from the south and all! I walked to Retiro, then came home. Right as I was about to go see a movie, Chelsea called and asked what I was doing for the night. So, I decided to go out with her to Belgrano and have a night out. I walked up to her music school, and then we took the bus out to her place. May I say, I feel so bad for her having to live out that far. The bus ride out there was about 30 minutes, but we had a ton to catch up on. Then we went to her apartment, which again.. I felt bad she can not turn around in the kitchen. Then we headed out to China Town and ate some chinese food. It was not the greatest in the world, in fact it was rather congeled, but we had a good time anyways. Then it was time for ice cream, and a movie. We saw "Angels and Demons." This movie was spectacular, and the acting was not half bad either. We of course had to have popcorn after the ice cream. Oh and gummie sharks were not half bad either. Then it was a walk back to Chelsea's place and a cab home for me. It was about 25 pesos to get home, and 20 minutes. It was a fun night thou, and nice to get out with a fellow terrier!

Cultural Divides

Progressively, I have learned more and more about South American culture. Some things being rather minute, while others are large differences. Examples:

• People love to invade your space. They insist on hugging and kissing you when you arrive and leave from a location.




• You do not turn right on a red light here.




• Men are comfortable carrying sling bags or "man purses."




• Dinner takes a minimum one and half hours. People sit and talk for hours, and the check or 'cuenta' is only brought when asked for.




• People pay for dinner in groups. No matter if one person had a cheaper meal, the check is still evenly divided amongst the group.




• Beer or 'cerveza' comes in liter bottles in hopes of having people share a beer and talk over it.




• Taking the bus is not a rich or poor thing. CEOs to garbage collectors use the bus system.

Doctor

So, i'm sick, but really, this is nothing abnormal. However, when one gets sick here in Argentina, it's a whole different world. It's better. No offense to everyone's parents who are doctors or to those who want to be doctors, but medicine here is better in many respects than that in the Unites States. To start, with my insurance, I can call a number, and a doctor arrives at my door in under 3 hours. They come to visit you and see how you are. Without all the expensive tests, they have been trained to look at you and figure out what's wrong. They are like the old school doctors in teh US that worked before all the lawsuits that made them the way they are now. So, a doctor came to visit, and she looked down my throat, I explained my symptoms, my preocupations, and how long everything's been going on, and after deciding which medicines I'm allergic to and which I can still take, she decided on the perfect medicine, and she put a back up down in case the first didn't work. It was as simple as that. Then, I walked tot he closest phanmacy, and within seconds, they handed over the medicine, and it only cost about $8USD. Basically, I've always hated the way our medical system works, and I think it's important for us to see how it works in other countries. It's important for us to learn that there are alternatives to our expensive money making industry. Watch and number of medical documentaries, and you will see how bad off we are in th US, yet we think we know everything. I'm thankful to get this outside view. Ok, I'm off my soapbox now. I hope everyone has a good day! Good luck with exams!

The end of spring break...

This last couple of days of spring break that I stayed home in Buenos Aires has been interesting. Thursday night I went with a friend to our favorite neighborhood wine bar, where it was comedy night. We go frequently, always searching for Alamo's Malbec, but it's so popular, that's it's ALWAYS out! Instead, we branched out and got heri Cabernet Sauvignon. It was a very good choice. The Malbec is an Argentinian specialty, but it really isn't very flavorful, whereas the Cabernet Sauvignon was intense!! Anyhow, after the wine bar, we had planned on heading over the our local movie theatre to see "La Tierra" or Earth, but my friend Josh intentionally waited just long enough to leave that we would have no choice but to go see his favorite... Star Trek. Take note that earlier this Spring Break, I've already suffered through both Fast and the Furious AND X-Men. It's been tough. Anyhow, Star Trek was pretty tame. I liked some of the effects, I just wasn't overall too interested, but that's ok. Anyhow, Friday I walked with my housemom AGAIN to the concentration camp to go to the museum, but we learned, finally, that it's not even open to the public yet, without a private tour. I'm not sure how I feel about this. Ln my way home, I met up with Josh and we went to this local museum in a family mansion in Belgrano. After touring the mansion and the gardens, we headed over to our favorite ice cream spot, persicco. It was fantastic, as always! Then we went shopping! I didn't buy anything. I was very proud of myself. It was really difficult. Anyhow, I went home and had dinner, and then I met back up with Josh, and we went in search again for Alamo's Malbec. We failed, but we did find some ok wine, and some nice fried "rabas" or calamari, and fried mozzarella sticks! Oh, how I love to eat! On Saturday, I woke up and headed over to meet Josh in Chinatown, located in our very own neighborhood. They are currently in the process of making it foot only traffic. There were tons of protesters, and the traffic was horrible. Anyhow, we had lunch at this new thai place. We sat on the floor eating cocunut and pumpkin soup, chicken satay, a green curry, and some beek studd with oyster sauce and broccoli. We drank cold red tea, and had frozen cream ice cream with honey on top. It's a great place with decent food and a wonderful atmosphere. We then caught a bus to recoleta where we walked to MALBA, a private art museum. There was an exhibition of Diego Rivera, along with some other things. Afterwards I headed home to go see "The Reader" with my house mom and her friend Susana. I loved the movie! My house mom had been super nice for a little bit longer streak than normal, so I was sort of preparing myself for something, and of course, it happened. I decided to wash my hair for the second time in one day. Evidently that's very abnormal, she explained to me. I honestly left the apartment last night laughing when I met up with my friends. My friend Isabel said that she was telling her house mom the horror stories from my living arrangements, and she thought she must know her. One time, my house mom told me she thought I was stealing toilet paper. I am obviously not stealing toilet paper. I informed her that maybe I just go to the ladies room more frequently than others. It was an awkward conversation. Needless to say, Isabel's host mom knows of a lady that counts the toilet paper squares. The funniest thing is that my housemom's never had a student stay with her before, so these two people cannot possibly be the same person. And it's very frightening that there are two different people in the same city that both host people from the same program that are funny about toilet paper usage. I'm sort of at a loss for words. Anyhow, other that these minor complaints, everything's going well. Happy Mother's Day in teh USA to everyone who's a mother!! I'll write again soon!

Chilean Quirks

There are some odd things and interesting things to be observed in Chile:

Point 1- Toilet Paper- This does not get flushed here. Instead it is thrown away in the normal trashcans.

Point 2- Restrooms- In order to use public restrooms, one must pay about $.50.

Point 3- The peso conversion means serious math here. Every $10 USD is about $5000 chilean pesos. And, when you look at number the (.) are (,) and the (,) are (.). It gets rather confusing to tourist.

Point 4- Avocado- They love their avacado here. It is offered on sandwhiches in slices or guacomole. It is also offered on hot dogs. Interesting huh?

Point 5- American Influence- There are some many American eating joints here. This includes: Dunkin Donuts, McDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut, KFC, and Taco Bell.

Point 6- Copper- This metal is everywhere here. It became the export of Chile when Chile switched to a war economy in World War II.

Point 7- Taxis- They start at a base rate of $200 pesos, and go up $90 every 60 seconds or 1/4 of a mile. The drivers round up to the nearest $100 peso. They actually stay in the lines here, and the traffic is not nearly as crazy. I just hope I do not get killed by the subway here!

Point 8- Gems- There are now two beautiful stones found in Chile. One is lapiz azuli, which is a dark blue stone with gold flakes in it. The other is the cross stone which was just found about four years ago in the south of Chile. It is composed of seven different nautral elements including magnesium.

Study Break

So last weekend I was studying for my exams (that finished yesterday!) and on Sunday there was a soccer game at 2. It was the best kind of study break! I love soccer and so do Italians and on a really nice day, watching semi-pro soccer, you are really able to let all the stress and worries go away.
SPAL is the soccer team here and as of last Sunday, they were in the running to be in the playoffs. They played a really good game, but unfortunately the other team scored during the second half and we just weren't able to catch up. They played a really good game and we learned lots of new cheers with new bad words...Afterwards, I went home and studied, fully refreshed.
The pictures are of my new SPAL shirt and the soccer field...

The Earthquake in L'Aquila

I'm sure everyone in the States heard about the massive earthquake that occurred in central Italy about a month ago, that cause a lot of damage. I'm also sure that everyone there has also probably forgotten about it. It's weird being here and actually witnessing a national tragedy in a place you don't consider home. A lot of the Italians I know discussed making trips down there to help in the relief and some are still contemplating it, because L'Aquila is nowhere near being cleaned up yet. One of my American friends was telling me about how his host parents got into an argument because the wife wants to go down and help, but she has health issues and her husband was concerned for her. It's really affected everyone.
I read some articles from Italian journalists and from American journalists and noticed big differences in the description. In the Italian newspaper, the journalist described the tragedy in full detail with a lot of examples of human suffering. You really got a good idea of what people were feeling and thinking during the earthquake. In the American article, all I read about was what a tragedy it was to lose all the wonderful art that was in the area. The difference in the tone of the articles was a little disquieting..
I don't have any pictures for this post because I don't have any idea what kind of picture someone would want to see..the earthquake? no...

Mid-terms

I'm finally finished with my midterms. Everyone else is far far away traveling for sprink break, while I pulled an allnighter last night after a week long of studying, all for one class... PHILOSOPHY! I remember when I went to the Registrar's office at Wofford and had them sign off that it was ok for me to take philosophy abroad. The funny thing is that Lucy Quinn looked me straight in the eye and said "DON'T DO IT!" I did it anyway... I should have listened. But, it's too late, so too bad! Because of this decision, I am the only foreign exchange student in this "Problems of Philosophy" or "Problemas Filosoficas" class. Everyday, the students ask me why I did this to myself. They say, "This is hard even for us, and we SPEAK spanish." I agree. It's ridiculously hard. But, I have a tutor, and I go get his help ALL the time. My philosophy midterm covered Plato's Republic (the alegories of the line, the sun, and the cave), Laques, Teeton, The Apology of Socrates, Fedon, and probably something else that I'm forgetting (btw, excuse the spelling... I only know the names in Spanish sometimes, because it's not like I've ever learned this stuff in english either!!) It also included Aristoteles' Metaphysics, and then Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas. I thought I might die. Last night, in a last attempt to learn this stuff, I pulled ALMOST an allnighter. In order to stay awake... I had amo... a pot of mate, freshly made! I read, and read, and thought, and thought, and translated, and then thought and read some more. This stuff is difficult no matter the language! Have you ever tried to read Saint Augustine in english??? How about Spanish? Yea, DON'T! Anyhow, I slept for a couple of hours, and then at 4am I got back up again to continue studying! I walked to class for my 8am exam. I didn't know that in order to take the exam you needed to hand over your passport, so luckily for me they accepted my driver's license. I started writing, and writing... I was impressed with the fact that I had studied everything that was on the test. It's not that I KNEW everything on the test, but I remember studying everything, which for me, to even know what the questions were asking, was a mini victory. I had brought along my dictionary, but I basically didn't even need it (the kids in my class were making fun of me, and they said I probably had all the answers written in the dictionary... this of course was not the case). Anyhow, after 5 pages front and back, I think I ran out of things to say. And although my grade will probably be terrible, I know that I gave it a good effort. I do worry about how taking this class will impact my GPA at Wofford, but I guess it's not all that important. If I don't get into grad school, I guess it's for a reason. I wouldn't want to go somewhere that wouldn't allow me to do weird things and take risks anyhow! I'm prooud of myself. After the test I was talking with the other Argentines in my class, and one of them didn't even know all four of Aristoteles' causes: efficient, final, formal, and material. See, I know them! Whatever happens... happens. It's done. "Ya esta, basta. Ahora a divertirme!" Ciao.

Springtime in Ferrara

Spring has finally arrived in Ferrara!
It's absolutely beautiful here and everything has turned green. There aren't a lot of things in bloom, but the green is a welcome change to the constant gray tones.
The wall of the city is completely lined with huge trees that hang over the path. It's a really wonderful bike ride.
At night, everyone comes out to the center of the city and hangs out in front of the Duomo.
It's really funny, because they're all drinking and it feels like we're doing something "bad" ha ha
The picture is of the fascist monument we have in Ferrara that looks way less scary now than it did in the winter...

Olive Oil Factories, Wineries, and Fun in Mendoza

Olive Oil?-- Who Knew olives could be strikingly interesting? Definately not this writer. We arrive at PasRai, with the expectation that this is the most random tour ever. But really olive oil is pretty 'cool.' The factory uses a large granit stone to mash the olives and the pit into a paste. Then the paste is put on a metal wheel and put under a hydrolic compressor that squeezes all the juice and water out of the paste. The dry past is sold to 2nd rate companies that makea poorer quality olive oil. Then the water and the ail are seperated and the oil is filtered. This company even makes hand lotion out of the olive oils because of the high concentration of vitamin E. Though I may still pick the olives off of my muzzarella pizza in Buenos Aires, I have a new respect for what they can make!

We spent a day shopping and exploring the city of Mendoza. Of course shopping time, meant calling home to mommy time. The thing that dumbfounded me the most was the at 2:30 in the afternoon the streets were closed, and no stores were opened. I later found out that stores do not open until 4:30 to 6:00 because of their lunch break. It was definately a change to stores in the states on Saturdays. In an attempt to save a few pesos, I ate a cheap lunch, AMERICAN STYLE. Of course it was Subway! But here the slogan is not eat fresh, it is eat rich, and eat healthy!

Once I left Mendoza, I was headed for Santiago Chile, but first I had to do one thing, cross the Andes. Never in my life did I expect to get to see the Andes mountains. I always thought it was a mountain range beyond my means of ability to travel. But yet again, I have proven new and exciting things to myself. As we drove into the Mendoza, we saw the snow-capped mountains in the distance, but now we were driving right through them. We ventured off from Mendoza to Santiago at 7:30am. We started in a typical semi-cama bus with two hippies in front of us. One, in which, who had dreds that overlapped onto our seats. We made our climb up into the Adnes. They stretched out as far as the eye could see from North to South. We went through tunnel after tunnel and hill after hill. Slowly we made our way to Chile. Then.... POP!!!! Our tire decided to blow out as soon as we crossed the Chile border! There we were a group of foreigners stuck in the middle of the Andes with no cell phone service or transportation! It was like a scene straight from the Hills Have Eyes. We arrive at immigrations, only to be harassed because we are traveling on an American passport. The immigrations officers wanted to take my temperature to make sure I did not have Swine Flu. I told them NO, I had been living in Argentina for two months now. They kept insisting. Finally, with very poor Spanish, I got out of getting my temperature taken! Then because our bus was broken we had to bored a 'school bus' for another 3 hours. It was hot, and dusty on the bus, and there wasn't even enough room to sneeze properly! We headed down the steepest, most winding and dangerous moutain roads!

My Spring Break

So, IES mid-terms are over and everyone is traveling... except me. Someone should warn the overachievers that when they sign up for the Advanced honors program, they will not have fun. I'm not allowed to travel, because I have a mid-term at UTDT on Thursday. So, I've decided to explore Buenos Aires/occasionally study... ALONE! Since ther's almost noone here. Where to start. I tried to go to a museum here in Belgrano, but it was aholiday, and it was closed. So, I stayed in my neighborhood laying around, vegging, for two days, while there were lots of protest going on downtown. Since it seemed to have cleared up over the weekend, I was able to go out and abotu on Saturday. And thank goodness. Me housemom was driving me batty. That's as much of an explanation as I can write without beginning to use explicitives. So, I left the apartment and went to Recoleta. I called a friend who lives in Recoleta, and we grabbed a bite to eat. Then, she talked me into facing my cemetery fears again. We ended up spending over 2 hours walking around exploring. I still have to say that I'm not a huge fan, but it's not as bad as it was the first time. The shock factor is over, I guess. Anyhow, after the cemetery, we walked around the pseo Recoleta Feria again. I got some really cute wooden painted arrings with pink flowers on them!! Then, we got icecream. After the icecream, we decided to go to a movie. The thing playing next happened to be Fast and Furious 3... so we went. It was horrible, but atleast we got a good laugh at how bad the acting was. Afterwards we went to a restaurant and had pizza. We decided to hang out at her apartment for the night, so we went to a grocery store and stocked up on wine, fruit, and of course delicious cookies! We watched movies and youtube until we were both exhausted. I called a cab and headed home. This morning (Sunday) I woke up and headed to San Telmo for the day. I walked around Plaza Dorrego, had lunch, and then bought some cool stuff along the way from Plaza Dorrego all through the Feria de Independencia on Defensa Street headed toward the Plaza de Mayo. I now have a cute pink ring and cute multicolored scarf that matched my outfit and the earrings that I bought yesterday! How perfect! I also found a gift for my mom!! After being on my feet for hours, I found the Plaza de Mayo... sort of on accident. And since I was already there, I decided to explore, of course. I went to the Museo de Cabildo (the old townhall and prison from the 1500's), I went to the Casa Rosada (the argentine version of the white house), and then I saw San martin's tomb inside the national Cathedral. I finally caught a bus and headed hoe, making it just beofre dark! What a day. I'm exhausted, but I must pull some energy from somewhere, because although it's my spring break, I do have a really tough mid term... well, I guess I'll go start that!!

Mendoza!

I am alive. I have arrived in Mendoza. Lil ole me forgot to post this week for a second time. Mendoza is gorgeous. And well worth the 18 hours on a bus! The Andes are in the background creating a beautiful landscape! I have fought through a huge crowd in order to get to a computer, but I doubt this will happen again! I will update everyone when I return from Mendoza and Santiago. I am off to a wine tour now! Pictures are to come! Hasta luego!