Chile/Mendoza- the end of an era.

So, I know it’s a bit belated, but posting/writing this blog has been the last thing that I have wanted to do since I have been back. However, here I am in route to Bishop, and as Ryan and Spence jam out to Saosin in the front, I find that my reflective side wants to come out. I have written most of this already- so that is posted below. Regarding my trip to Mendoza and Chile-


So, this could quite possibly by my last blog of Buenos Aires...maybe this is not entirely true, but my travels around south american are surely over and all I have left in front of me are finals and the horrible heat. In any case, I had an amazing final excursion, and after a 26 hour bus ride from coast to coast, exited the bus to see the headline on La Nacion say "¡Obama ganó!" How amazing is that? Anyways. Let's start from the beginning, shall we? Bus ride to Mendoza, same as normal, catch the bus on one of these twenty terminals and hope it's the right one. Did the bus ride on a thursday night and then arrived in Mendoza Friday morning. We found the hostel and got all that business figured out and then found the bus to go to the next town over where we could take the wine tours. For twenty pesos (I think?) we got a bike rental for the day, a map, and a bottle of water. I biked probably about 7 miles this day! Which was alot longer than I thought it would be, but still was amazing. In our tour of the wineries, we hit two wine places, one for olive oil and one for chocolate. I bought no wine, but olive oil and vinagre and chocolate, which will make for excellent christmas presents. (:)) but the chocolate was for me, aha. At the chocolate place they also had a bunch of different sauces to try, which was fun, but some were spicy hot! In any case, after this day I was sure that my bike riding muscles (ahem) would never recover, and sitting down hurt for what seemed like days. I slept very soundly that night and although the hostel was nice and we had a private bath (yes!) there were ten million kids there...this was the halloween, so combine that with ten million children and you will just about get an idea of what I did. The next day we did White water rafting (picture here) AND ziplining! Which was super fun. I mean, there really isn't that much to say about it besides I thought we were going to die at one point, and also that it was amazing. I had a blast, and it wasn't too pricey. That night, after much confusion and deciding and booking a last minute bus out of Mendoza, we did a night trip to Viña del Mar. We arrived to the bus station super early and nothing was open and we did not feel to comfortable wandering around by ourselves at 5 in the morning, so we hung out at the bus station and met a crazy little old man who found us a hostel. The woman there said she didn't have room for three just then, but we could sleep in a bed until the room for three checked out. So we took the most glorious nap, and the hostel was literally right behind the bus station. Ah, what I failed to mention is that only Katlyn, Jess, and I took the night bus to Viña--Jaclyn was going to come in the next morning, but we had no idea what time, and our phones did not work. This was a disaster with in itself. But it gets better, later. Anyways we slept for awhile, then switched rooms and then tromped over to the beach and had a picnic. This was beautiful and amazing. We stayed the night at the hostel but decided to change hostels when we realized that our woman was a little crazy and wouldn't let us shower when we wanted and we had no access to the kitchen. Which is a small problem when you have college students traveling on a tight budget. Anyways, we woke up the next morning and attempted to find another hostel. We walked all the way across town and found the one we were looking for, finally, and also we found Jaclyn! She had been wandering around on her own for ages and we just happened to meet up at the same place that morning! So that day we went to Valparaiso, and walked around...it was much more city like than Viña, which is weird because it is only like ten minutes away. But we tried to find Pablo Neruda's house, and when we finally did it was closed. Those towns also have elevators that take you up the hills, something we were supposed to do, but instead we managed to find the TOP of an elevator and rode it just down instead. Which was also fun. After the day in Valparaiso, (the houses looked like they were just stacked on top of each other...so picturesque.) we decided to have a bottle of wine on the beach and watch the sun set, and then have a nice dinner on the beach at a restaurant. I also bought a pair of amazingly comfortable pants.



Finally, a few days before I actually left, I had the chance to go to the Zoo de Lujan, where you can, believe it or not, actually touch the tigres. Which was excellent. Although it was mostly sad. But who can say they have touched a tiger? Me, that’s who. Pictures here.

As far as reflection goes- for those of you who want to say, “how was it?” It was amazing. I figured out in the last month why I went, which was so I could walk in the city at night listening to bittersweet symphony. As odd as that may sound, the sort of independence that that gives you…is unspeakable. Knowing that I lived in a city of my own choosing, could navigate my way through the bus systems, get around in a language that I spoke none of on my way there….is amazing. This, I will say is the conclusion of Emily’s blog- BA style. Thanks so much for reading. It was hard and terrible and wonderful and everlasting and short all at once, but I can finally say that I did it with no regrets. Too bad I have the best friends in the world and a wonderful boyfriend, or I may have just stayed. As for now, I am getting rather car sick from not looking at the road and sitting in back, so I am going to call it a night, a blog, a trip. Thank you to all who I met, my friends and in my memories and hearts for always. It blows my mind that some of you are still in South America at this point! I feel like I have been back in the states for an eternity! But it has been such a short time. I miss you all so much…and I really owe it to all of you AIFS kids for making my trip amazing. Thank you thank you thank you. Looking at the city lights as we are driving and as I type remind me of the toal and complete normalcy of living in LA and going back to my little po dunk of a town…Although now I come back to being a regular old college kid goin to scool in orange county…I am hoping that the little bit of portena I have in me will outlive the orange county in me. Fuck. Alright. Really calling it done now. Thanks for reading, thanks for being in my life. Buenos Aires will always have a vey much alive and real part in my heart. Ha! That rhymes! Chau, Mi Querida.