Tuesday Mendoza was experiencing some aftereffects of Zonda wind, so it was rainy and gloomy. The Zonda must have been bad while I was gone this weekend, because I found a layer of dust coating my floor when I stopped by my host family's house. I'm not sure if a window was left open, or the dust just got through the cracks, but either way there must have been some strong wind. My suitcase on the floor was mysteriously wet too, but I guess some houses experienced flooding this weekend. That is super rare in Mendoza.
We hiked Cerro Arco despite the weather, but it made the hike really neat because we were hiking into the clouds, and once we got up high enough, 5 feet to each side of the trail was just pure white clouds. It was the perfect temperature for hiking, with a little mist to keep us cool. One of the dogs, which I believe lives at the restaurant/home at the bottom of the trail, followed us up the entire mountain. He didn't want food or water, just company. Whenever we passed someone else hiking, he would start following them, but we persuaded him to stick with us each time.
After hiking I took Blake to Club de Milanesa, an all milanesa restaurant that looks pretty fancy, but is actually pretty casual, and they serve plates of milanesa where the meat is as big as a normal sized plate. The milanesa for 2 was probably a foot wide. Surprisingly, we finished the whole plate.
Wednesday we went biking and wine-ing, the classic Mendoza tourist attraction, but since Blake doesn't like wine, we went to the olivaria instead, where they make olive oil, tapenade, jams, vodka and chocolate. Blake was so impressed with the samples of jams and olives, we had a shopping spree in the gift shop after. We went to the beer garden too, to try their craft beers, and to two wineries where I had to drink the majority of the samples myself since Blake wouldn't partake. But he was impressed with one of the white wines, saying it was the best wine he's had (out of maybe 5 times he's tried wine ). One of the wineries had a self guided tour around the vineyard, which was beautiful to walk through fully in boom with all the green leaves and olive tees too.
Mr. Hugo, from whom we rented the bikes, was the most enthusiastic and passionate Argentinian we've encountered. He gave us cheek kisses probably 5 times, had someone check on us on the bikes to make sure they didn't break down on us, offered us bus cards to get back to the city, and even rode with all the tourists to the bus to make sure they got on (even though I've done this three times). Blake was very impressed.
I took Blake to Antares, my favorite beer spot in Mendoza, and had to say more goodbyes afterwards and Thursday morning. The goodbyes don't seem real, since I'll still be here for 3 weeks, and it seems like we will all just see each other back in Mendoza after traveling, but that's not quite the case.
Thursday we went to the hot springs. Blake loved the setting of the hot springs in Cacheuta, right along the river and in between mountains. It was so relaxing after walking around big cities for a week. Our feet needed a break. Blake couldn't believe how many cacti were surrounding the hot springs. There are a bunch of cactus right next to the pools that you could easily fall in. It was a busy day there too because a school field trip of 9 year olds was in the water park, and the 9 year old girls loved trying to talk to Blake. We could understand a group of girls daring each other to say something in English to Blake, but they were never daring enough, but loved when he said hi at the end of the whole ordeal. Another young kid followed us around, shouting to his friends that there were "ingleses" by him, not thinking we could understand him. The kids were so interested hearing that we were from the US, they wanted to ask if we had Facebook and twitter and if we liked One Direction. Everyone here loves One Direction.
It's been a little stressful traveling around Mendoza and living outside of my host family's house, because normally I eat most meals in the house, and now I'm having to find food on my own for me and Blake, and he needs to eat every two hours because he's 200 pounds. We've ran into a lot of issues with me leaving things at my host family's house that I needed, or no stores being open during siesta right when we want food. We've been eating on a US food schedule, which means dinner at 6 instead of 11, which is a nice change, but also weird because I've adjusted to the meal times here. It's odd living in my home city as a tourist this week. The hostel we are staying at gave us maps and tried telling us all about what we can do here, even though I already know because I live here!
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