Thursday, November 6, 2008

The most romantic city I've ever been in!

Rumors of Mendoza's beauty had preceded our arrival, and yet we were still amazed to see that they were all true. Apparently, after being destroyed by an earthquake many years ago, the entire city was rebuilt with wide streets, flowing channels, and TREES. I'm guessing that the governor of Mendoza was the original drafter of the Kyoto Protocol. It's been scorchingly hot in our two days here but you barely ever realize it because, wherever you go, you are under the loving shelter of the trees. Of course, if you DID ever get too hot, you could just race through one of the fountains which are second in number only to the trees...

Joo has had a love-hate relationship with many of the parks on our journey so far because she suffers from Pigeonophobia. In blessed Mendoza however, the pigeons are oddly absent. Joo's personal theory is that the Mendocians got together and killed all the pigeons, thus winning God's favor. He then blessed their entire town with beauty and peace.

The cuisine isn't bad at all either. Our first meal was a giant buffet complete with international salads, crepes, sushi, pastas, but all centering around the roaring fires of the typical Argentinian "asado" (BBQ). It took us some trial and error to communicate with the chefs exactly which parts of which animals on the grill we desired (and which we could barely look at), but the final result was delicious!


And to top it all off, we ran into a woman at the bus station who happened to be renting out a furnished apartment (not a hotel) for a couple days. Generally speaking, I never trust people who approach me at the bus stations, but I warily went along with it step-by-step, and it turned out to be a beautiful little apartment at a very low price! Long live the pigeon hunters!!


This will give us some nice privacy before our next endeavor... couchsurfing. Couchsurfing is traveller's terminology for an elaborate worldwide network of free places to stay. Joo was (understandably) a bit adverse to the idea earlier in the trip, but has graciously consented to follow my lead in our next stop of Santiago, Chile (mostly compelled by a dwindling budget for our long journey home). I sent out several requests and have already received three offers of places to stay, so am curious to see how the whole experience turns out (I've stayed with a lot of people before, but in a much different context. Couchsurfing has a whole philosophy, set of ideals, global vision along with it and could perhaps be a bit different.)

3 comments:

  1. Anxiously waiting for you to get back to Ohio and you will not have to sleep on a couch here. M

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  2. I used to be a pigeon hunter...with my BB gun. They sure make for a colorful walk. -Dennis

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  3. Yeah, I think I've gained more dexterity from dodging doodoo (dogs and pigeons) on the streets of BA than from our tango lessons. Dad, I think you've just become Joo's hero with your pigeon hunting past. Mom, we're looking forward to coming home too...Joo will be in heaven in your beds!

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