crossing continents

wow. its been one week since i updated my northern hemisphere friends on events happening in my southern hemisphere life.

one week ago, i was partying in santiago with a bottle of pisco and some good friends. after that whirlwind week of museums, italianos, shopping, hostel adventures and couchsurfing situations, i decided to update my scenery. amanda and i bought tickets to cross the border once again.

monday morning, pancho and i raced to the bus station to meet with amanda. she arrived without a moment to spare, and us two girls said our goodbyes to the city. seven hours and a lot of sleep later, we arrived in mendoza, argentina.

mendoza has been perfect. tree-lined streets, quiet cafes, all the cafe con leche and medialunas i could ever want! its definitely argentina again, but not the craziness of bsas and warmer than bariloche. in mendoza, amanda was finally able to meet up again with her special french friend, ben. the three of us spent monday and tuesday eating pasta, roaming the streets and of course... drinking wine!

(oh, by the way, mendoza is the wine capital of argentina. sort of the napa valley of the continent) monday night amanda, ben and i met up with a friend of ben´s, an argentine chef named pablo. we took a late dinner with tapas and plenty of rose wine at a nearby winery. so amazing!

on wednesday, susie, leana, leana´s boyfriend chris, jen and joel arrived in mendoza. it was so fun to be reunited with the whole group again! i had to update everyone on events that transpired in santiago haha. a lot can happen in ten days, for sure. i moved to their hostel on wednesday morning, after a horrible experience in hostelling international - campo base (tiny gross rooms, one bathroom for everyone, rude staff... oh and dont forget getting woken up at 2 in the morning by your bunkmate having sex. out of control) the new place, la damajuana, is this amazing old mansion converted into a youth hostel. the garden is huge and green with a giant swimming pool in the middle! the backyard also leads to a nice kitchen in the old servants quarters. so great.

the next two days basically consisted of all of us, plus amanda and ben, sitting around the pool in our swimsuits soaking up the sun. or, rather, getting extremely burned. oh well. one day, i did nothing except eat fruit, ice cream and beer while sitting in a pink bikini by the pool! haha. what can i say, its vacation.

by friday, we were ready for a little more activity. susie booked us all on an excursion to see some wineries. not just any wine tour, however; a bicycle powered, 12 kilometer, 6 winery journey! a van came and picked us up, as well as about a dozen other hostel kids, and drove us to the bike rental place out in the country. we got a map and set out. the first stop was a huge old winery museum. we browsed the old barrels and vineyard equipment while sipping merlot. pretty amazing!

a few hours later, several wineries, many glasses of wine, a few chocolates and a random shot of absinthe later, our group was wobbling home on our bikes. we all went back to our respective hostels to rest and relax. susie, leana and chris also had to pack up. they had decided to head to cordoba for a few days before returning to bsas.

speaking of bsas. i found an apartment! months and months ago, i thought i had found a roommate in bsas, in palermo queens. but the whole situation unfortunately did not work out. i kept in touch with the guy, and he randomly emailed me a few days ago asking if i still needed a room. and i do.

so, tomorrow night i return to buenos aires. i have a solid place to stay at least until the end of april. my debit card is in the mail, my phone may be able to get fixed and life might be slightly predictable for a while. or maybe not. ha.