Mendoza and Jujuy (September 11-19)

Hi! Hope you've all been well! Due to the schedules of a traveling friends and the program that I'm here in Buenos Aires through, I had two back-to-back trips over the past couple of weeks. Here's a few highlights...

MENDOZA

Mendoza is a beautiful city at the base of the Andes mountains in western Argentina very close to the border with Chile. With a friend (Josh) I met while traveling in Peru, I took an overnight bus to Mendoza on Thursday.

The first thing we did was to bus up to a little town called Puente del Inca. Puente del Inca is up in the Andes mountains about 4 kilometers from Aconcagua, the highest mountain in South America. We didn't do a whole lot of advance planning/research, and were a bit surprised when it was still very snowy and cold up in Puente del Inca. However, it was sunny and warm during the days and we had an awesome time. We stayed in a little hostel in Puente del Inca and from there spent a day hiking around the area around Aconcagua. It was incredibly beautiful.

After a day in Puente del Inca, we took the bus back down to Mendoza and spent a day exploring the city. Mendoza is much smaller and calmer than Buenos Aires. We ate lunch in a cafe, visited the city's main plazas, and then went to the Park of San Martin. The park is enormous, complete with a rose garden, lake, zoo, and observatory tower. As we were there on a Sunday, it seemed like the entire city was in the park playing soccer, drinking an Argentine tea called mate, and picnicking. It was a beautiful spot and a nice change of pace from the rather more hectic atmosphere in Buenos Aires.

On Monday, we bused out to a little town called Maipu for a wine tour. The Mendoza region produces about 80% of Argentina's wine and is very well known for its wineries. We rented bikes and rode from vineyard to vineyard, stopping for tastings and tours. On one side of the road were the Andes mountains and on the other side were the vineyards- it was really breathtaking and the views made it hard to concentrate on the bike riding. We finished the day with a tour of a fancy chocolate-maker's store, then went back into Mendoza to catch our bus to Buenos Aires.

Mendoza Pictures

JUJUY

I spent Tuesday going to class and desperately trying to organize my life before leaving for Jujuy, and then went to a jazz club for a show as it was Josh's last night in Buenos Aires. On Wednesday morning, less than 24 hours after getting back from Mendoza, I flew to Jujuy with about 60 other students and coordinators from my program. One bad part- my camera/traveling companion (which must be at least 7 or 8 years old by now) finally stopped working on this trip, so there are no pictures (I took a few before it broke but I can't get them off the card for now- hopefully I will be able to later).

Jujuy is a province in the northwest of Argentine close to the borders with Chile and Bolivia. It is famous for it's incredibly colored canyons (kind of similar looking to places like the Grand Canyon in Colorado). We stayed in a charming little hotel, where every group of three of us got a little cabin to stay in. It was a welcome change from the value dorms (dorm rooms with 10-15 people in bunkbeds) that we stayed in in Mendoza. We ate a lot of delicious steak dinners (the program trips are all expenses paid) and had a lot of time to relax.

On Thursday, we went to a place called Pucara, which is both the ruins of a pre-Incan city and an excellent viewpoint to see some of the coolest parts of the canyons (the area is called the Quebrada de Humahuaca). We spent the afternoon exploring the near-by city/town of Humahuaca.

On Friday we went to the Salinas Grandes- an enormous salt flat up in the middle of the Andes. It was really cool to see-the whole thing is very large, very flat and very white. The native people have a whole production system set up to extract and sell the salt. In the afternoon, we went back to Pucara to hike through the Canyon of 7 Colors. We were there around dusk, and the lighting and the scenery were absolutely incredible. The colors ranged from a creamy beige to bright orange to dark red. It was a very fun way to finish off the trip.

Saturday morning, we left to fly back to Buenos Aires. I've spent today trying to catch up on my homework- it's a pretty daunting task, but all the traveling was definitely worth it. Both trips were incredible and I feel like I wouldn't have the chance to see everything I want to see in Argentina even if I were traveling here for a year. However, it's great to be back in the city- it's really starting to feel more like a home.

All my love, Melanie