Adventures over the weekend

Our adventure began on our bus ride from Buenos Aires to Mendoza. I went on this trip with Krista and Andrea, but Krista wasn't with us at this point...she was to meet us down there. On the entire bus of probably 50 plus seats, there was only one other woman besides Andrea and I. We were to pick up the rest of the passengers a few hours into the trip. One of the bus drivers came and offered us mate, the communal tea drink native to Argentina. Seeming surprised when we accepted, he led us down to join him and his fellow driver in the driver's cabin to take part in the friendly ritual.

This was an experience! You always see the drivers disappear behind the mysterious curtain, but to be invited down was an honor! So we all began to chat and get to know one another a bit and form one of those temporary relationships that I've seemed to encounter a lot being down here. We got to know each other fairly well, sharing things that you don't just spout to strangers...yet at the same time we knew pretty much from the start that whne we got off the bus we wouldn't be seeing more of each other. They even allowed us to climb into the secret bed hidden behind the drivers' area and get some sleep after our bus was invaded by 30 plus chatty old people.

Arriving in Mendoza we met Krista and headed to our hostel to begin a pretty chill day. We wandered the city a bit and ended up spending most of the day in a nearby park, laying on a high-jacked blanket from my bed in the hostel. The weather was gorgeous and it felt soo good to just lie around, napping in the sun and chatting.

The next day we got up bright and early to head off and go whitewater rafting! It was my first time, so I was rather excited. We had about an hour journey to the rafting place, so we got to enjoy the scenery on th way. It was my first glimpse of the Andes Mountains!

After arriving at the rafting place, we got all wet-suited up, took some goofy photos, and got in the river. Krista said this one is flattering ;-)

After a short lesson on how to follow commands, we were heading down the coold river. We were accompanied by Oscar, our guide, and an older couple, Susan and Drew. they were there with a lawers convention and taking a little bit of time on their own to enjoy the country. They didn't speak Spanish, so they were grateful to have us as their translators! It felt good to help for once, instead of being the clueless foreigner. The rafting was absolutely beautiful because we were surrounded by the Andes with their lovely snow covered peaks. Yes, speaking of snow, the day was quite a bit chillier than the previous one and, by the time we were done with our 3 hour adventure, my fingers and toes were absolutely frozen. But here we are...still smiling!!

Sunday we got up even earlier, with even less sleep, thanks to our party hostel. We were heading to Chile!! A seven hour bus ride one way, just to spend the day there...But it ended up being a good day. We had a combination of sleep and taking in the gorgeous sights on the way there.

When we finally arrived in Santiago, we once again felt like out-of-place foriegners -- a feeling that we haven't felt in quite some time. We didn't even really know where to go because we couldn't find a map and we didn't really come armed with an itinerary. We took the metro to the "centro" and happended upon a huge park that was quite beautiful and was on a hill, so you could get great views of the city as you climbed up and up. We had some fun with photos and then were stuck.

We didn't really know what to do next, so we spotted some other "tourists" with a book of Chile and took action, asking them what else there was to see. As it so happened, one of the guys, William, was from Colombia but has been studying in Chile for a year, so he was helping the other guy out, Sandro from Brazil, showing him around the city and whatnot. So, they offered to show us around as well! I thought, sweet! Free guide. It was a good couple of hours getting to know them, eating ice cream, practicing spanish, and seeing some cool sights.

These are the two guys we met in Chile!

Me chillin' with two guards in front of the Chilean "white house"

After separating from the guys and eating dinner, we realized that we still had a lot of time to kill before catching the bus back to Mendoza, so we stopped at a cafe to kill time and spend our last Chilean money. This is where we entered into the silly stage of much fun, yet unnecessary, laughter. We must have been quite exhausted because everything seemed quite funny. First we hardly had any Chilean money left, thinking we could pay the rest with a credit card. Well, they didn't accept credit cards or Argentine pesos...the only other two types of currency we had. They did accept Euros or American money though...big surprise! Once we figured out exactly what we could buy to spend our money, the girls decided that they had to use the bathroom. Turns out there was a sign on the bathroom door saying that you had to pay to use it (not uncommon for public bathrooms)...but we didn't have enough money! There were a few other small things, but I'm not going to bore you with the little stuff.

The bus ride back was interesting with us trying to sleep, yet being interrupted by some flirty Chilean students on their way to visit Argentina for the week. At first we weren't sure if they were Argentines because of one guy's accent...but it turns out he was making fun of Argentines. The fact that he was making fun of Argentines, however, envoked some patriotism in me, which I took for a good sign.

Anyways, the rest of the trip was pretty much filled with boredom waiting in the bus station and sleeping on the ride home. But it was a great adventure!! Love to hear what you think. :-)