Here's to sweeping generalizations!

Wherein I threaten to pass judgement on not just an entire city, but an entire country based on 2.5 days in a small corner of a small city in said country. Heh, not really, though I can say that what I saw of Mendoza I really liked. What's not to like? For one, it's not Santiago. So many places win me over by simply doing that.

To begin with, it's sunny nearly 356 days/year (which I would enjoy from those magical things called windows). Secondly, while it's hot, it is that up-to-now mythical dry heat people go on & on about that makes it feel not as hot as it is. Third, the buildings are nicer, the people nicer-looking. It also kind of resembles Tuscany, particularly because Argentina is full of those rather iconic-looking trees that have a name I've never known.

And you know how you hear South America & you think, oh, well at least the dollar will be really strong there. In Chile, as I've mentioned, this is absolutely not the case. Like its underground mines, Chile's economy was completely sheltered from pretty much any & all fall-out from the economic crisis. Argentina, on the other hand, had its own series of economic crises from which it still sadly hasn't really recovered. So, ultimately the dollar definitely goes farther there.

My first 2 nights were at a bed & breakfast in the home of this married couple. The house is kind of 2 small houses joined by a front porch. On 1 side, Marcelo and his family live. On the other, there is a lovely living room, 2 guest rooms, and a beautiful backyeard with the ubiquitous asada barbeque area. Marcelo immediately set to recommending restaurants and offering to arrange tours. He seemed to assume as the natural order of things that I would want nothing more than to get out and do stuff, rather than what I sort of actually DID want to do, which was catch up on writing this here blog, read, and just generally recover from sitting in a car for 5 hours, which always exhausts me.

So despite my having no initial intention of going on any tours this particular trip, Marcelo talked me into a 2 bodega wine tour and olive oil factory, followed the next day by horseback riding with an asada. Now, it should be understood that Marcelo told me the asada following the 2 hour horsey ride was all-you-can-eat bbq and all the wine you can drink. It was the promise of lots of meat + unlimited wine that cost a grand total of US$50 that was the real attraction.

The wine tour was what you'd expect, although I did learn that the Malbec grape is French, but the climate where it originated there caused Malbec to be bitter, resulting in bad wine. Someone decided to try it here in Mendoza, and the dry, hot, sunny climate clearly agreed ridiculously with it.

As for my fellow tourists, there was that one cliche American, complete with fanny pack for Christ's sake, who was confused often, loud, and disinclined to think that anyplace could be called great if it isn't in California. Forutnately I befriended an Argentine and her French-Canadian friend who were lovely, and interesting because the Canadian didn't know that South Africa produced wine until I mentioned my tours there.

Yesterday was the horseback riding. Suffice it to say, if you want a group of people who speak 4 different languages in one bus to start mingling and talking, make sure you make them ride in the heat and sun at 5 PM for 2 hours, giving some of us slightly jumpy horses, just to wear us down, and then give us a lot of wine.

But let me be honest, because I just keep lying to myself. I am not the kind of person who goes, "YEAHHHHHHH, HORSEBACKRIDING! In the SUN! And heat! On a jumpy horse! FOR 2 HOURS!!!" I couldn't take pictures, because my horse needed me to watch the road for him. With one eye squeezed shut, what with that burning I've mentioned before. I did it, but I'm not doing it again.

And I'm sure I don't need to tell you that this all-you-can-eat bs was bs. I got 3 pieces of meat that were about 8 oz total. I did, however, get plenty of wine.

So now I'm STILL on my way back. Thanks to Chile being the place where speed and efficiency wouldn't even come to die, never mind be caught dead because they wouldn't be caught dead there, it is 9 God damned hours after I NEARLY missed my bus (4 minutes to spare, because for ONCE a South American severely underestimated the time it takes a normal human to get somewhere). We and several miles worth of traffic have been sitting outside of customs for around 2 hours at this point. Wanna know how long it took to get into Argentina? Around 45 minutes.

I only hope I'm home by 9:30. I mean, why the FUCK is everyone trying to get away from Argentina to CHILE? That's like masses of people wanting to leave the Caribbean for a Midwest winter.

Well, Argentina isn't perfect: we received a satchet of coffee from Argentina. Tell me if you can see what's wrong with this picture:

 

**

Seriously? And yeah, as is the South American way, it's really bad coffee. *Shudder*


** It IS a little hard to see. Right under that big ol' word cafe is "Torrado con azucar molido." Which means, "roasted with ground sugar." So, the sickening sweet tooth is a continental phenomenon. It's so understood that you'd want sugar in your crappy coffee that they just put it in with the coffee. *shudder again*