Vacation

I feel like I've been on vacation, a very long vacation that has lasted since February 23rd, when I first landed in Chile. I have only been away from the United States for about two weeks, but it feels like a very long time. Each day I experience something new just as if I were on vacation. New foods, new sights, new sounds, new friends, new schedule, new places, new everything. I started my second week of classes  today, so we will see if the routine feeling sets in sometime.

This last weekend I traveled to Mendoza, Argentina, with some friends. The bus ride lasted about 7 hours, plus a 3-hour stop at the border for customs on the way there and a 1.5-hour stop at the same place on the way back. We rode on a double-decker bus that was surprisingly comfortable. The views were phenomenal! The Andes are spectacularly splendid. I don't have very much experience with mountains because southeast South Dakota is pretty flat, but some say that they resemble the mountains of Arizona, dry and rocky. For this flatlander, all mountains are cool.

I had the opportunity to experience my first hostel on this trip, Mendoza International Youth Hostel. It was very interesting and fun to meet and interact with people who were from different countries and spoke different languages. Spanish was sometimes our unifying language. 

Once my friends and I were settled in Mendoza, we explored. We walked a ton this weekend! We walked miles to get to a Mendoza's famous hill, Cerro de la Gloria, which is where a friend shot this picture. The city seemed like Viña del Mar, where I live in Chile, but with less people and less dogs. The people were very friendly. 

On top of this hill there was also a zoo. It was very different from zoos that a person would see in the U.S., especially the fences. Much of the time, we would have been able to touch the animals! The animals in the smallest pens were the big cats, and the animals in the largest and most distanced fences were herds of goats. I also saw one of my favorite animals, alligators, in the aquarium! -->

Interestingly enough, in the pond in the front of the picture, turtles and alligators cohabited. The turtles would crawl all over and hang out on top of the alligators kind of like birds hang out on top of hippos or rhinos.

Each day we were in Mendoza we ate chorizo (steak) and helado (ice cream) because Argentina is known for these things. We also drank wine, for Mendoza is the wine capital of Argentina. We had the misfortune of being one week late for Festival National de la Vendimia, Mendoza's National Wine Festival. Supposedly many people come to the region to celebrate Argentina, wine, and good company. However, mi mamá chilena (my Chilean mom) tells me that Chile has better wine ;). I have heard that Chile is the world's third largest wine exporter. 

Hasta luego, amigos!