Mendoza

So you know how when you get into the taxi and they start chatting with you ... like "where are you from?", "how many days will you be here?", "do you like Argentina?", "is this your first time in the city?" ... how does that sound like? If this sounds normal to you, well get ready to be fooled, cause this last question is not innocent at all ! If you say "yes", the taxi will drive you round and round, and you'll end up paying double than you were supposed to. I discovered it in Cordoba, when the regular price was 10 pesos, and I paid 15. Although it's only a dollar or so more, from now on my answer will be "sure, I know this city as the palm of my hand".
Arrived in Mendoza in the wine city of Argentina. Since it was 9pm, I chose a hostel close to the bus station, so I won't have to walk far in the dark, well the girl in the tourist information, sent me the wrong way, and instead of 3 blocks, I ended up walking 10. The hostel had great reviews on the internet, especially how friendly the stuff is ... no they're not! They're the most unfriendly people (well expect one hostel in Bolivia) I've ever seen, so the first thing in the morning, I was out of there.
Mendoza is so hot! We went to walk in a park, and at 8pm, I was still sweating, next day I didn't get out of the hostel until 7pm. The city is in the middle of a desert, but there was one genius who planted so many trees everywhere that makes living in Mendoza a little bit more bareble.
I met a guy (Jacob) and a girl (Zabu) in the hostel from France and Germany, and both of them live in Belgium right now, and we went to a wine tour together. All the tour agencies charge 70 pesos to go to a town half an hour away, and rent a bicycle, but we took a public bus which cost 4 pesos both ways, and rented a bicycle on the location, which was another 20 pesos. These tour agencies!!
There are approximately 14 wineries accessed by the bicycle, but in the 4 hours, we only had enough time for 4. One of the vineries produces 13 million litters of wine per year. I can't even imagine this kind of number! So the point of these vineries is to visit them, the owners will give a short explanation, and then give you to try their wine either for free or for a small charge. One was a chocolate factory. The owners weren't friendly, but for $4, we ate bread with various olive/pepper/eggplant dips, had 2 shots of licor each, different jams, and chocolates. Then we ended up in one very modern vinery, where we had lunch.
In the evening me and Jacob went to a salsa congress. In this city of 100,000 people, there were truely professional dancers, I was very surprised. Then a show started. A few couples were really very bad. Then another couple came in, the girl walked on the stage, then turned around, and she had this ballet skirt on (the one that goes horizontaly out), and a j-string. My eyes got popped out!! Then another couple danced bachata, and in the middle of the dance, the guy took off the girls dress, so she ended up in a bra and underware, by that time, my jaw had dropped :))I danced the night away with some locals, they dance so good that at 1am I already wanted to go back to the hostel, and I stayed there till 4am.
When me and Jacob got out, it turned out that he was drunk. He pulled me closed to him for a kiss ... what the hell? where did that come from?
note: all of the below was pretty much whined and not said
J - come on I want a kiss
Y - no
J - but why not?
Y - can we just go
J - why won't you kiss me, I thought you liked me
Y - 'thinking' - when did you get this thought from. everytime you tried to touch me, I took a step back, you didn't pay for any drinks or food, and I was dancing the whole night with other people
J - why did you invite me to go salsa with you then?
Y - 'thinking' ... no I didn't. I said that I'm going salsa, and you invited yourself over ... come on lets go
J - oh come on, kiss me kiss me kiss me
Y - .... dragging him out of the club, and starting walking very very fast
J - why are you running?
Y - thinking ... gee, I wonder why??
J - but why why why why why why whhhhhyyyyyyyyyyy????
J - for 20 minutes, he was jumping in front of me begging for a kiss ... talking about playing hard to get!!
I was thinking if I should kiss him, just to get rid of him, but then thought, what kind of behaviour is that? At 4:30am, I couldn't walk to the hostel by myself, and didn't really want to take a taxi either, so he was my only choice to get to the hostel safe. OMG! why was this club half an hour walking distance from the hostel, the walk never seemed to end!
Conclusion ... how can a guy in his 30s act that way??? And what's up with all this selfishness? "I want to kiss you" ... well kissing involves 2 people, and why am I supposed to feel uncomfortable with that kind of persistance?? Then I remembered a few of those moments, as in "I like you", "I'd like to kiss you", "I love kissing you" ??? What's wrong with men these days?? Since when is it a 1 person wish??? And on top of that all, they usually lean forward with a kiss, not giving a girl any change to back out. How about a test? Touch the hand or the waist to see how the girl reacts, take it slowly and make sure that she wants it too, instead of fullfilling his own wishes, and creating and uncomfortable situation? And then I have to explain myself? And he would usually feel upset and rejected? Well, look beyond your nose buddy!
Thank god next day I was checking out, I don't know what I would've done if I stayed in the hostel for more days, probably will fill my days up so I wouldn't show up there, but then again, why did it become my problem?
Anywho ... the next day, I went to the bus station to buy a ticket to another town, well all the buses were full, and the next bus was in 7 hours. I didn't want to wait, so I looked at the map, and there was an interesting spot 3 hours to the east, I bought a ticket there, and when I got there, it was saturday, everything was closed, and the tourist agencies only opened on monday. There was absolutely nothing to do at that place, so 3 hours later, 2 bus tickets, 2 taxies, and half an amount of the hostel, I went back to Mendoza. That was a fun day.
I arrived back at midnight, found a police station in the terminal, and asked the police to walk me to the hostel, since the way out of the terminal passes through tunnels, and no way I'm walking by myself in the dark in the tunnel.
Next day, I woke up sick :( took a shower, which took all of my energy away, and went back to sleep. woke up at 3pm. What to do, where to go? I was thinking to stay in Mendoza until I get better, but I was already tired of the city, and figured out that since I need to lay down and do nothing anyway, it's a perfect way to take a night bus to a new place, so I bought a ticket to Bariloche.
Buses are getting better and better. The hosts walk you to your sit, there is wifi, and in this one we were playing bingo.
The bus was full, and my seat didn't really work, at first it didn't decline at all, and then it didn't keep it's position, it's just my luck an 18 hour trip with a broken seat :( but then the person who was supposed to sit beside me didn't show up, and I was the only one on the bus with 2 seats ... yep, it is my luck !! :)) But in the middle of the night, one of the tires exploded, and then there was a road block, so we arrived 2 hours later, I could barely sit anymore, that was a long drive!
If I knew how the north of Argentina was, I would've skipped everything and came straight to Mendoza, or better yet, Bariloche.
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