Today I returned from my long trip to Santiago, Chile and Mendoza, Argentina! It was a very successful trip and we saw so much!
Last saturday was our bus to Chile, but we had a minor setback when we found out the road through the Andes mountains was closed due to snow and that our bus was cancelled. We ended up taking a bus to Mendoza (on the way) 14 hours away and tried to find a bus that would go through the Andes when we got there. We got lucky and found one and arrived in Chile 24 hours after we left on Saturday.
The first night in Santiago we didn't do much because we were so exhausted from a long day of traveling. We found out the hard way that our hostel (similar to most other places in Santiago) didn't have heat, but also didn't have hot water.
The next day we took a day trip with the hostel to two amazing towns about an hour away from Santiago on the pacific coast, Valparaiso and Vina del Mar. Valparaiso is Santiago's shipping port, and was really pretty because all of the houses in this area were built into the huge hill that made up the town. Vina del Mar was also beautiful, with a beach instead of a port. We noticed that Chile has more American road systems and food chains than Buenos Aires, and were tempted to go inside a Dunkin Donuts in Vina del Mar and see what it was like. We ate something called an Italiano - a hot dog with diced tomatoes, crushed avocado, and mayonnaise - which was surprisingly really good!
The next day we took a walking tour through Santiago, which was very informative but also very tiring! We rode a trolley-ish thing to the top of a mountain called San Cristobal and had a gorgeous view of the entire city with the Andes in the backdrop. We walked down the mountain and took the wrong path, which took us about a 20 minute walk out of our way. We were absolutely exhausted by this point of walking for 7 hours straight, but still managed to meet up with some friends studying abroad in Santiago and go out with them.
The following day we did more walking around the city and went to a market, a fish market (which had amazing seafood), and got a drink called a Terremoto (earthquake). It was made of pineapple ice cream and sweet wine, and it was very strong! Unfortunately right after we drank them we had a tour of the government building, so we were a little silly when we were there. That night we went to a huge club with our abroad friends!
Thursday was our bus to Mendoza, and it took almost the entire day. We got there around 6, settled in, and went out to dinner for my birthday, which was Friday! We had a couple of (very gross) drinks afterwards, and went to bed.
The next morning (birthday!) we left to do our wine and bike tour. We took the wrong bus but eventually got out to the rurals of Mendoza. We rented bikes (drank a free glass of wine) then went exploring to different wineries throughout Mendoza. At each one you could pay a small fee (around $4-5) and get a tour and samples of different types of wines! We went to three wineries, a chocolate liquor place, and a beer garden where they brewed their own beer. We ended the trip at the bike rental place, where the owner wouldn't stop re-filling our glasses with free wine. Needless to say, my birthday was spent quite drunkenly. That night we ate at a bbq at the hostel and got free tequila shots!
The next morning we were all too hung over to do anything real, so we went to the zoo and napped in a park for the entire day. Then we ate an amazing dinner and got really good ice cream before our bus back to BSAS (Buenos Aires). Overall, a really fun and successful trip!
Classes start Tuesday, I'm really excited to see what they're like! I cannot believe that I have been here over a month already, the time flew by so fast!
Hasta luego,
D
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