Back from MEndOzA!

A picture of the main street "San Martin"

A picture of the taxi's... the cars look very European but they scared me too...

Me and my best friends here in Chile!

Outside one of the vineyards we visited by bike!

The sun set in the Andes Mountains!

Hola Chicos y Chicas!

I have returned from Mendoza and my vacation was amazing!!! I love Argentina! On Wednesday night we were scheduled to go but the bus company called Hannah an hour before we were supposed to leave and they said that the pass was closed and that we would have to leave in the morning at 8:30 am. Because I wasn't leaving anymore my family and I went out for dinner and told me that they would drive me to the bus station in the morning which was nice of them. Then, later, my friends and I decided to go to Cafe Journal to have some drinks and eat some sushi. It was a lot of fun! So the morning came and my mama chilena woke me up with breakfast in bed at 7 and I finished getting ready and packed to go to the bus terminal. So I finished everything at about 7:55 in the morning and went out into the kitchen and said "OK, lista (ready)" and she responded with a "OK, saludos, chau chau!" And I was like WHAT?! YOUR NOT DRIVING ME? Which was freaking ridiculous because on Thursday it was a national holiday where EVERYTHING shuts down for the day because its a national workers day where all the workers have the day off in order to rest. Therefore there are no collectivos and no taxi's and no buses running!!!! AND there was no possible way I was going to make it to the bus station in under half an hour... its at least a 45 min walk. So I was freaking out and started running to the bus station not even knowing exactly where it was. I finally made it to the bus station at 8:25 which was a miracle since my bus left at 8:30. By the time I got there I couldn't breathe since I was running the whole time with all my luggage... but my bus literally left at 8:27 and I made it just in time... but I started to bitch about the situation as soon as I got on the bus!! It was supposed to be a 6 hr bus ride but once we got into the Andes mountains there was an accident and our bus sat in the same spot for 5 hours waiting for the accident to clear. It was so unbelievable... and our bus driver wouldn't even let us off the bus in fear that he would "lose the passengers" when there was no where to go and the bus wasn't moving!!!! Then we finally got to customs and since it was so backed up during the day it took another 3 hours to get through customs... where we had to sign out of Chile and sign into Argentina. Then it was another 3 hours to Mendoza. So by the time we got there it was 12:30 and it took another 45 minutes to find our hostel. Once we did we cracked open 4 bottles of local wine and played card games until 4 in the morning! The next day the 7 of us walked around Mendoza and saw the sights and what it had to offer for shopping. It is true, Argentina is much cheaper than Chile but I didn't end up buying much. I spent a lot of money on te con leche (tea and milk) at tonnes of local cafes. That's all the girls did... we went to cafes and bought tea and coffee and just sat there and talked and watched people. A lot of the people in Argentina are of European decent so we did not look out of place! That night we went out for dinner at a local restaurant where we ordered meat because Argentina is world redound for their meat... it was so thick that we couldn't even cut it with a knife! It was excellant. After that we went back to the hostel where we played so many games of asshole and turned it into a drinking game and 8 of us polished off 12 liters of beer. Needless to say me and Allison got wasted trying to keep up with the boys... and at 3 in the morning there we were in the bathroom.. with me holding her hair while she was kissing the toilet! I then went back downstairs by myself for some reason and ended up making friends with a guy named Juan Jose who worked there. He was 21 and I talked to him until 5:30 in the morning... all in Spanish! I can now have conversations!! So exciting. Then my friend Jaime woke me up at 8:30 because he rented bikes for us to do a bike and wine tour where you rent bikes and bike ride to various wineries in the country... because Mendoza is the heart of wine country. We did this and it was awesome! We went to different vineyards and to a chocolate factory where they were giving shots of absinthe! I am pretty sure that is illegal in all of North America. Oh Argentina. That day was also Hannah's birthday so we went out for dinner again and hung out and then decorated the hostel and had cake. The other 3 girls went to bed early that night but I stayed up with the boys and played more games of asshole. By that time I was exhausted but they convinced me to go out to a pub with them for only ONE drink. I eventually was persuaded by "Ashley... we are in Argentina and its our last night... you just want to waste that by sleeping?!" so how could I not go out. We went to an English pub that was dedicated to The Beatles and I had a rum and coke and we just hung out till 5 in the morning. Pubs and clubs there don't close until 10 in the morning but we were all so tired. I slept for only 3 hours and then was up again because we had to sign out of the hostel at 10 and catch our bus to go home at 12:30. At 11 we walked to the bus station and had breakfast and a tea then went on the bus where it took 9 hours for us to go home. But at least Chilean customs is a lot more organized and that only took an hour to go through. I returned home last night at 10:30 and my family was really happy to see me which was nice! I'll attach some pictures of the trip! Talk soon!

Love Ashley.