Mendoza!

It has been two weeks since I've blogged which doesn't seem like a long time, but I have been busy and wanting to update the blog! I am going to post two blogs today to separate out my time over the past two weeks just because I think that is better for my mental organization haha. SOO starting out with the end of my time in Valparaiso, traveling to Santiago, then to Mendoza in Argentina. 

The rest of my time in Valparaiso was really chill and nice. I was there until Thursday, and I really just worked and hung out. I walked around my neighborhood a bit which was nice but honestly kept it simple because I wanted to. Oh, the freedom of solo traveling! I left on a bus from Valparaiso on Thursday and went to Santiago for the night. I spent the night in the same hostel that I did before I went to Valparaiso, and it was very standard. I got there before it was dark, so I went to a park right behind my hostel and just hung out. One thing that I have loved about Central and South America is park/ plaza culture. So many people just sitting outside in parks and green spaces together. I feel like this is not as common in the United States. Like if you want to catch up with friends, you go to a restaurant or something and have to spend money. Here, sooo many people are hanging out in parks, and I love it so much. I cooked myself some pasta in the hostel kitchen and went to bed early because I had to wake up at 6am the next day to make it to my bus to Mendoza. This is a picture of the kitchen in the hostel!

I got on my bus around 7:30am and it was still dark and very foggy. Eventually the sky cleared up and the drive was so insanely beautiful. I have crossed the Andes mountains several times to cross between Chile and Argentina, but this was the furthest north that I had done it so far. Compared to the Southern Lakes District, this was a lot more desert like. It honestly reminded me of home because we drove along a river for a lot of the drive, and it reminded me of Glenwood Canyon. There also were some snowcapped mountains in the background which were the icing on top of the cake for beauty. The drive took about 8 hours, and I made it to my hostel around 4pm. 

At the hostel there was a French girl with the bunk underneath mine and we decided to go for a little walk around Mendoza together. We walked to the main street and to some nice parks. We ended up getting some juice and settling at a park to chit chat and relax. It was fun to have someone to walk around with and explore. Sometimes when I am by myself, I really have to pay attention to directions but with someone else, they either pay attention or we get lost together which is not so bad. She was really nice and interesting to talk to! I stopped at the store to get some materials to make myself quesadillas for dinner and then headed back to the hostel. I headed upstairs to sit on this rooftop terrace situation and read but before I could start reading this English guy started talking to me. He was also really nice and so we talked for about 2 hours about our travels and work. He does a little bit of online work too while traveling so that was interesting to hear about. Then I made myself dinner and went to lay down. In my room was another woman from France so my roommates all had a nice conversation. By this point I was so tired from my day of travel and from all the socializing! 

On Saturday I woke up and ate breakfast at the hostel then went for a walk and ended up journaling at a coffee shop for a while. I had a wine tour at 2pm so I just hung out for the morning. Eventually I got picked up at my hostel for the tour and we ended up going to three different wineries and one olive oil factory. Everyone in my group spoke English which was nice and there was a group of 7 girls from the United States who were all studying abroad in Buenos Aires and spending the weekend in Mendoza. They all went to school in California, and they were so annoying! I think even if I were still in college, I would have been annoyed by them. They just were a bit rude and would not stop talking and checking their phones. There were two other girls from England that I met, and I liked them much better. The wine tours were really interesting, and I actually enjoyed them quite a bit. These are the fun facts that I wrote down during the tour: 

- At the organic winery they use no chemicals rather they use a variety of fruits. The main pests are parakeets so at the winery they have peach trees so the parakeets will eat the bigger fruit to leave the grapes alone. They use roses as a natural indicator, if the roses get sick then there are problems.  They can use Sulphur as a way to help the plants that are sick. They also use the grape stems and the leftover after they have been smooshed as a compost for their fields! This small organic operation produces 200,000 bottles per year. The biggest wineries produce 3 million per month. 

- We tried four wines at the organic winery, and this was my ranking of them: 1) Sparkling Moscato 2) Malbec 3) Orange Moscato 4) Cabaret franc

- The next place we went was Pasrai Olive Oil. They did not grow the actual olives; they get them from local farms and then they produce olive oil. I learned that unfiltered and filtered olive oil are the same quality just a different taste. They use several different machines to process the oil, and they add different essences to change flavors. They had a lemon olive oil that I really liked!

- Reserve wines are usually fermented in oak barrels and can be left in there for up to 3 years. They are typically more expensive because of the time that it takes to age them. 

- I was taught that you are supposed to hold the wine glass by the stem and then swirl the wine around for 10 seconds in order to get the best smell. And then when you take a drink you are supposed to swallow and then exhale out of your nose for the most accurate flavor. 

- When they are making wine and you get different flavors, that is based on your experiences with the different aspects of the wine. There isn't necessarily a right or wrong where it comes to the different notes in wine. I'm not sure if this is totally true or they were just telling us this because we were bad at guessing the notes. 

- Harvest time for grapes is March and April 

- Mendoza is the birthplace of Malbec

- There are 1000 wineries in Mendoza region 

- And personally, I learned that I don't hate all wine! I just prefer a sweet wine, and I am not really a huge fan of red wine. 

I am glad that I splurged on the tour because it was really cool to learn about everything and to get the opportunity to try so many different types of good wine! After the wine tour I got dropped off back at my hostel and then went out to get pizza and French Fries with this girl from my room who was from Germany. She also had done a wine tour, but it was different from the one that I did. We walked to a close place that served pizza and when it came out it had whole green olives on it! That is normal here and a bit bizarre to me. The German girl is a teacher and currently on a sabbatical. It was so cool to talk to her about education in Germany and in general. When I got back to the hostel, I hung out with the English guy that I met the night before and the two English girls that had been on my wine tour. They taught me classic English slang and it was interesting to learn. 

On Sunday I woke up and ate breakfast with the English folks then we decided to walk to Parque San Martin which is a really large park in Mendoza. We walked there and hung out in the grass and talked. It was really nice and simple. We got back around 3:30pm so I could get an Uber to go to the airport for my flight at 6pm. It all worked out perfectly. When I got to the airport, I learned that there was a lounge, so I hung out in there until my flight! I felt very fancy. Then I took my flight to Buenos Aires and everything went really smooth. I will put everything about Buenos Aires and Iguazu Falls into my next blog post because it is kind of a lot. Mendoza was great and I had such wonderful time! I felt so social, and it was probably good for me after spending time alone in Valparaiso for so long. I would love to visit Mendoza again someday and maybe even ski!