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We arrived in Mendoza, Argentina on the Saturday of Easter weekend. We were unable to find any hostels with availability ahead of time, so we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best upon arrival. The six hour trip from Santiago took us through the barren and rocky Andes mountain range. The road was steep and narrow with a very small or nonexistent guard rail. Our double decker bus wound around the curves and struggled up the pass and we were glad it was not our driver first time attempting this route. The border crossing between Chile and Argentina was easy and we passed though in under fifteen minutes. We met a Canadian couple in their sixties on our bus who have been traveling for two years with no end in sight. They gave us some great tips, wished us luck, and said they admired us for taking on the world at such a young age. Meeting them made us realize that we never want to stop traveling and we can only hope that by the time we are their age we have added significant others to our globalizing adventures! If not, our future website will be “Two old hags around the world… 2059-2060”

Just as we had hoped, a woman was recruiting backpackers for her hostel and we took two of the last three beds available. After talking with other travelers during our stay in Mendoza, we realized just how lucky we were to have found room. On Friday and Saturday night, people we knew were forced to sleep on couches, floors, under stairs, and/or share twin bunk beds… and they still had to pay full price. Around 9:00 pm, we went in search of dinner and successfully ordered take away pizzas from a nearby restaurant. Many businesses are closed on Sundays and being that this Sunday was Easter Sunday, we didn’t know if anything would be open, so we bought two large pizzas to hold us over until Monday. Apparently all pizzas, including plain cheese, are topped with whole-pitted-green olives. We ate part of one pizza while enjoying free wine from the hostels wine barrel and stashed the rest inside the common refrigerator for our future meals.

At breakfast the next morning we met a group of people from the states who are teaching English at Universities around Santiago. We joined Laura, from Virginia, and Angela, from Texas, on their planned bike around the winery tour. This is a popular way to see the many local wineries. They both speak fluent Spanish, which helped our day run incredibly smoothly and we had a fantastic time together. There are over forty-five wineries, which produce over 70% of the countries wine, but lucky for us only a small handful were open on Easter Sunday, because you would get stuck for weeks if you tried to visit them all. The first winery we visited gave us a free vineyard tour and we sampled four of their best wines. We are definitely not wine connoisseurs, but we pretended we knew what we were doing. Our second stop was at a beer garden where we tasted three different beers and their fresh homemade empanadas. Our final stop was at a very small winery, which served free Malbec with their delicious dinners. We took identical photos after each stop, trying to gage our progress and lack of balance as they day wore on. We created an interesting pose that we all struggled with during each picture and laughed because our final photo was the best of the series. We rode our bikes back to Maipu bike rental and enjoyed yet another free glass of wine. The whole day including bike rental, beer, wine, and food cost a little less than $25.00, but the memories we made were priceless.

We have stayed in some dodgy hostels, but our belongings have always remained untouched, so we were shocked when two items went missing from this decent hostel. We were going to share our pizza with the girls for dinner before they went back to Chile, but someone got to the pizza before we did. Nearly the whole pizza was gone and the only remaining pieces had bite marks missing. After talking with other guests, we figured out that the owners son was known for digging in the fridge and eating anything and everything. The owner felt bad, so he reimbursed us, which was very generous of him. As we were getting ready for bed, Jayme realized that her towel had been stolen from the back side of our bunk bed where it had been laid out to dry. We can’t understand why other travelers steal from one another, don’t they realize how awful it is to try and replace lost possessions while traveling? Jayme is now using her sarong as her towel, which works surprisingly well. We checked out of that hostel the following morning, to stay at a different one in the center of town.

An earthquake in the late 1800’s completely leveled the city and it was rebuilt in an appealing way. The streets are very wide with the idea that should another earthquake take place, there will be room for the rubble to fall. Like most South American cities, Mendoza comes to life at night and our hostel was located on one of the busiest streets. We walked across town to meet up with Steve (our friend from Valparaiso and Pucon) for some tacos, cervezas, and a night full of laughs. He was there with two girls from Canada and the five of us spent the evening giving ourselves an ab workout… the giggles never stopped! Plaza Independencia is in the center of town and was a great place to hang out during both the night and day. At night, street vendors line the sidewalks selling their one of a kind creations. We bought jewelry from a really sweet woman, with items that stood out to us due to their immaculate quality and unique style. Chelsea bought a silver ring and Jayme purchased silver hoop earrings with the national gemstone (a pink stone – Rhodochrosite). During the day, we lounged around the benches surrounding the fountain as we read and studied Spanish. The plaza was filled with locals and it was a prime location for people watching. The busses in South America have been great so far and we have been spoiled with blankets, pillows, food, drinks, and movies and we were looking forward to our overnight trip to Cordoba.

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