The drive from Valparaiso to Mendoza was absolutely stunning. The Andes were gorgeous, and it was incredible to see how different they were in Chile compared to Argentina. My host mom told me to pay close attention to the drive because she said that there is a very distinct color change in the mountains once you leave Chile and enter into Argentina. I didn't really believe her, but turns out she was right. Chile is full of browns and greens, and Argentina has yellows and reds. I knew exactly when we passed into Argentina, just by comparing the colors of the mountains. I guess it also helped that we had to stop at the border to go through customs...
As soon as we arrived in Mendoza, our hostel had a car waiting for us. They took us to the hostel, where we enjoyed a cup of Mendoza's finest wine on the house. Later that night, we walked into town and bought some veggies for a vegetable stir fry. It was pretty delicious, and probably the most vegetables I've eaten since arriving in Chile in July, so I gave it a big thumbs up!
The very next day, we went to Termas Cacheuta (the hot springs). We were all expecting them to be natural, but when we arrived we soon realized that they're man-made. It was still a ton of fun and very relaxing. The place is also gorgeous, because it's completed surrounded by mountains!
After a few hours in the hot springs, we headed to a nearby restaurant and enjoyed some pizza. Each slice came with a single olive. It was pretty interesting, but again, delicious.
Finally, 2:00 hit and it was time for some fun! We visited 3 different wineries on our bikes, tasting 2-3 wines at each one. My favorite was the white wine at the first winery (Moscatel de Alejandria from Familia Cecchin). I found that after each winery, the bikes got a little more difficult to ride, and turns out the tour guides knew that as well. By the time we theft the 2nd winery, not only were Cristina and I the last ones in the group, but the van was also following us closely to make sure we didn't fall off our bikes. It was slightly embarrassing.
After returning safely to the hostel, we were ready to eat which was perfect because we had previously bought a ticket to the asado that our hostel was throwing that night. We ventured into the dining area where we found this guy cooking our food...yep, that's right. I ate some of the best beef I have ever tasted in my life and it was grilled by a real live Argentinian gaucho. It was also free tequila night in the hostel so needless to say, it was a fun time!
The next day we had planned to go paragliding, but couldn't because the weather was bad. So instead we walked around the most gigantic park in the world...Parque General San Martin. This park is so large that there are literally streets running through it. There is a soccer stadium, a zoo, a university...you name it. We obviously weren't able to see everything, but it was fun to walk around for a few hours.
