Mendoza

First of all, we went back and added some pictures to the last three posts, so check them out.

Well, we`re packing up to leave Mendoza, Argentina tomorrow, after spending a week in the home of a winemaker and truly wonderful host, Pablo. It`s late now, so maybe we can say a little more tomorrow before we catch our bus, but the gist of it is that wine country has been beautiful and relaxing, minus an unexpectedly ugly start:

After getting into the Mendoza bus terminal around 5am, we lay down on our thermarests to nap a bit and let the sun come up. After a while, though, the experience became significantly less restful when a man who had been sleeping on a nearby bench started moaning, then got up and approached us, mumbling unintelligibly and spitting on the floor. We tried to get him to go away, but instead he tried to sit down on Taylor`s thermarest. When Taylor pushed him away, he got angry and started swinging. Fortunately none of the punches landed, and a couple of Gendarmarios (sort of military, sort of police) came around the corner and put him on the ground right as he tried to kick Taylor in the chest. No harm done, except that we were a little shaken up, and that we spent half of our first day in Mendoza sitting in a police station filing a report in two languages with the help of the Tourism Police, a select few officers who speak English and are assigned to help foreigners like us with any problems. I suppose the silver lining of that experience was how helpful they were, even driving us around some and storing our packs as we tried to get ahold of Pablo.

Since then, the week has gone totally smoothly. We`ve toured enough wineries to begin losing track, and consequently have learned (and tasted) a lot. Getting to know Pablo has made the stay here even richer. We also spent two nights up in the mountains outside of Mendoza, where we had a hostel pretty much all to ourselves. This week has added even more variety to our trip, as the slower pace has been a welcome change from the constant turnover of cities, buses, and hikes we`ve experienced so far. Mendoza, we`ll miss you!