Mendoza!!

I went to another province in Argentina to visit a buddy of mine. Overall, it was very relaxing and spiritually centering... that could be the trees and clean air. Here's some of the highlights...

5 a.m. bus.
I took the first bus out of BA at 5 in the morning, thinking that people on the bus would want to sleep for the 16 hours it takes to get there. I get to the bus station with only about 2 hours of sleep. As I board the bus, a group of 17 kids, aged 9-10, boarded along with me. 11 hours of seat kicking and fidgeting. They got off somewhere in San Luis (another province) and I managed to get some sleep after that. (Notice that this paragraph reads a bit detatched... I'm still peturbed.)

Arrival
I get to the bus and there is my buddy Alex waiting for me. What a sight for sore (and tired) eyes! We hung out in December before he left to explore the rest of Argentina, and subsequently made Mendoza his home. I hadn't seen him for ages and was looking forward to some good wine and conversation. My first impression, which lasted me the whole 2 days I was there, was the lack of dog doo on the ground. And lack of garbage. What a beautiful city!!! Reminds me of home. And mountains! I haven't seen mountains since I left Vancouver. Man, I was glowing and grinning the whole time!

We walked back to his apartment to drop off my bags and headed out to the bars.

Por acà
We went to this little bar (no dancing) and had a bad bottle of wine. Can you believe it? Bad wine in Mendoza, the capital of wine for this country. But it went down ok, after the first glass. The bar was hip and trendy and, to my pleasant surprise - and to Alex's behest, played hip-hop. Upon me rapidly disintergrating to a point of slurring my words, we left and returned to the apartment where I abruptly hit the sack. In a separate room of course, much to the relief of his vacationing girlfriend.

to be continued...