...and I'm off

 

Got straight A's in school...here's the travel plan.

Mendoza...the Providence of Adventure

This last weekend my South American adventures brought me to a place called Mendoza, located on the border of Argentina and Chile in the Andes mountains about 14 hours from Buenos Aires and I think it is my favorite providence in Argentina yet. The first thing I heard about Mendoza before coming to Argentina was that they have some of the best wine in the world. Although wine tasting while biking through the vineyards of Mendoza was an AMAZING experience, I found that Mendoza has A LOT more to offer (I went paragliding, trekking in the Andes, galloping on horses and hitchhiking for my first time in South America). And so I begin...

The first 2 days me and my friend Monika from the Czech Republic decided to stay up in the mountains outside a city called Uspallata before meeting up with 15 other people from Spain, Mexico, France and Portugal in the main city, Mendoza. Experiencing the mountains with Monika was like experiencing a 5 year old kid getting ready to sit on Santa's lap in the mall at Christmas time. Because she had NEVER seen mountains before as there are none in the Czech Republic and definitely nothing like the Andes in Europe in general, she was SO exited and was snapping photos the entire 3 hr bus ride long from Mendoza to Uspallata.

Window Photos

The bus dropped us off at what looked like the middle of nowhere at our hostile in Uspallata at 3:30 and we immediately decided to go horseback riding through the mountains (another thing Monika had never experienced) to make use of all our time.

Our gaucho showed us some mines on the way up to the top of the mountain, which once we reached we drank some Mate and ate some medialunas while enjoying the beauty we were seeing.

The next day we went to Aconcagua to climb Alta Montana, the highest summit in the America's. Now being a California girl, I've been hiking up mountains before such as Mount Baldy or Mount Tallac and have been to Lake Tahoe a fair amount of times, so I assumed that the Andes mountains would be warm just like good old Cali. But when I got out of the bus in shorts and a tee-shirt, I quickly found out I was wrong as it was 0 degrees Celsius outside with strong winds. Luckily, since we were headed off to the city afterwards, I had my duffle bag with all my stuff in it and was able to change into the 5 layers of thin clothes I brought with me in the bathroom in the national park. Upon entering we found a sign that said "PELIGRO AVALANCHAS! NO PASAR" (Danger, Avanlanches, DO NOT Pass) but it didn't look like much snow to us, so we figured it'd be fine.

Lago de Espejo (Mirror Lake)

After a couple hours of hiking we decided to head back as the wind had really picked up and it had started to snow on us. The plan was to walk to the next town, Puente de Inca, where there is a really cool looking naturally formed bridge and where we could also pick up a bus to take us back to the city of Mendoza, yet because of the storm that had just came in, the 0 degree weather and the fact that we had our stuff with us, we decided to try to hitchike to Puente de Inca. A really nice Chilean guy form Santiago picked us up. We then went through Argentina customs, since he had to drive through the border patrol and we made it safely to the town. I have never been so cold or ill-prepared in my life, but the experience of hiking in the Andes amongst a storm was totally worth it and something that I will definitely remember for the rest of my life.

 

Passing through the Argentina border patrol with the Chilean.

 Puente del Inca

 When we went to Aconcagua there wasn't too much snow in the mountains, yet Monika had returned 2 days later with half of the group we met up with and took this picture, in which the mountains were completely COVERED in snow from the storm that came the day we happened to go.

 I have yet to tell you this, but Mendoza is one of the driest wine regions in the world, where it rains on average of 2 days a year. It actually had not rained all winter long yet ironically, the next day when we arrived to the city, sure enough it was raining. I also forgot to tell you that I woke up my first day in Uspallata (before hiking the Andes) sick. But in the end, NOTHING (not rain, or the cold, or even sickness) can stop me from enjoying myself and having a good time. So after meeting up with the rest of the group, we decided to go exploring the city in the rain and go sunset horseback riding that night. It was SOOOO cold, but luckily the gaucho gave me his jacket. Although we saw no sunset as overcast clouds were covering it up, it was by far a cool experience because we were full on galloping on those horses. It is something that they would NEVER let you do in the states, as someone would fall off their horse while running down the hill and file a lawsuit. But luckily (for better or for worse), nobody sues in Argentina, therefore allowing us to be able to do those cool, slightly dangerous things. Another thing that they would never do in the United States is not give you a helmet, and on this horseback ride we were helmetless (a bit scary, but A LOT of fun). The feeling of being in the air with both of your horses legs off the ground, galloping is INCREDIBLE! Now, I really want to go watch some horse racing and see how graceful the racers ride their horses.

 Now for the main attraction of Mendoza: THE BODEGAS (wineries)!

Monday, the day we went wine-tasting happened to be a BEAUTIFUL day; perfect for bike riding through the bodegas. I believe in this case that pictures will do better justice than words...so here you go.  

 

To end my Mendoza journey, I decided to try something I have never tried before yet have always thought looked like a lot of fun: paragliding.

Here's a GoPro video from paragliding. The take off was awesome.

So in the end, whether you're healthy or sick, the sun is shining or rain is pouring, whether you decide to ride horses through the mountains or go galloping while watching the sun set over the Andes or even if you have the courage to go souring like eagles at the brisk of dawn, I would definitely tell you to go to Mendoza as there is no doubt that you will enjoy it. Live life to the fullest and take chances while you can. It's just one more adventure down of the many to come. Hasta Pronto! -Renae Angelique

I went to a petting zoo and came out ALIVE!

The World's Most Dangerous Zoo...Lujan

I don’t know about you, but after the many times of watching lion king as a kid, cuddling with a lion cub and hugging the king has always been on my top list of things to do in my lifetime. So after hearing about a zoo 2 hours from Buenos Aires that allows you to get in the cages with the animals and do just that…there was no doubt that I was going to end up there at some point in this South American journey.

When we arrived, we decided to start with the tigers. One of the tigers was rolled over on his back and reminded me of my old dog Shadow, aching for a belly rub. As I switched from stroking his belly to scratching it, all of a sudden the tiger quickly moved his head to gave me a piercing glare. I guess he didn’t like that…and it freaked me out. My heart started racing and I quickly moved away from the cat as my friends were laughing at what they had just witnessed.

Now I’m not a woman of many fears (thanks to my father) and thought I’d be hugging the lion as soon as I entered the cage with him, yet that idea quickly left my mind as I entered the cage with him roaring. The warning from the worker saying not to touch his face or feet didn't really help me with feeling any more comfortable either.

It was at this moment that I realized my life could end at any moment in this cage.

Oh yea...we also met a guy that looks exactly like Harry Potter.

Then we rode a dromedario (NOT a camel). Camel's have 2 humps, these guys only have 1.



Fed some elephants


Played with some bunnies and ducklings...


(When do you ever get the chance of holding a duckling without the fear of being attacked by mama?)


Laughed at some Alpaca's (the FUNNIEST looking animals.)


And posed with some donkeys.

LA CASA ROSADA (Casa de Gobierno)

 La Casa Rosada is basically Argentine's version of the Whitehouse and is where the president works out of. So me and some of my friends from the Iguazu trip decided to take a tour and check it out. In it I got to cross off yet another thing on my bucket list: Kiss a royal soldier in the palace and get one of them to smile (forreal...they never do).

 The President's Office. I actually made friends with a Secret Service guy in here when my group left.

Afterwards we checked out Puerto Madero (the most modern area of Buenos Aires which shows the direction they're headed in), ate some choripan for about US $2 (which I am REALLY going to miss when I return to the states), danced in a park where a DJ was playing electronic music and found a playground with a see-saw in which I was able to let my inner child out.

 

We then went to the San Telmo Feria where we were able to experience some live jazz, art and Argentine Culture before ending the night with a tango class.