Alex and I have been living in Mendoza for the past 4 days or so and there's basically one word that can describe it all... CHILL. Everything is so relaxed here; no rushing to and from places, time almost slows down. The city seems to run on personal interaction which is such a difference compared to the US.
El Parque Independencia
Everyone is always out with friends, family, or their significant other; walking, talking, doing anything to pass the time. Plenty of couples are just making out in the random squares in front of everyone, not seeming to care one bit. Many things are sold with the thought that you would share it with someone. Take the beers for example, the standard size is a liter. That's a lot of beer for one person!
Liter Beers
A standard day would be to get up at 9 or 10am and have desayuno (breakfast). This consists of mostly pastries and fruit and a coffee. At 1:30 or 2pm, everyone will have almuerzo (lunch). Many people will drink a glass of wine and plenty of carne (meat). At 4-5 pm, people will take a break from work and have a snack, usually with a coffee. Dinner will usually start as early as 8, but normally around 10pm.
Cappuccino with cinnamon
You can see how your night would extend into the early hours of the morning when your dinner does not end until midnight! Alex and I are desperately needing to catch up on sleep. Having friends here to distract you constantly really isn't helping our sleeping habits very much. So it goes...
Ketchup of Argentina, smooth and tasty
Mendoza is very well known for it's wineries. I've heard it called the San Luis Obispo of Argentina, can't remember by whom. One of friends hooked us up with a buddy who had a car so we drove down with them to apparently one of the best wineries here. It was gorgeous! Thunderclouds were in the distance, making the light have lots of contrast.
We got to tour the inside of their facility and see where the fermentation happens, the storage, and the bottling. I couldn't help but draw parallels between the wineries we've seen in the states. The US gives way more tastes per tasting. We got 3 different wines to try; Chardonnay, Merlot, and a Malbec.
All three were pretty good. Chardonnay smelled super sugary but when you tasted it, it was quite nice. I do have to say though, I am still a fan of our wines from Napa and Sonoma. There was much more conversation about how they make their wines, the things that they're tasting. US seems to get everyone drunk with the sole hope that you'll buy wines. This experience felt much more geniune, regardless of whether I could understand what they were saying or not!
After dinner, many people will go out for drinks, usually around midnight or so. We have been following the customs pretty well! I need to give my liver a rest for a bit though... Today, March 7th, we head down to Arenales. I was fortunate enough to find a super cheap car rental place in Mendoza to get us down there. Even some of my friends said that they were surprised at how cheap the car was to rent for the rest of our time here.
It has been raining the past 2 days and we are definitely hoping the rain dries quickly. The forecast shows sun for the next 2 weeks... WOOHOO! I'm super psyched to get on some sweet granite cracks up in the mountains. We have stuff like this to look forward to!
Alex and I are heading to the grocery store this afternoon; hopefully they have a good selection of camping friendly foods for us to buy. We'll see how long we can go without showering up there! Wish us luck and see you in a few days!
Top-Rope
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