Floating over the Andes

This morning we arrived in Mendoza after an overnight 15-hour bus ride. We arrived at our hostel and signed up to go paragliding. It was remarkable! We went up a dirt ¨road¨ to reach the take-off zone. I swear I got whiplash as we bumped over huge rocks as we reached the summit. The ride up and down was probably the most strenuous part!

Alejandro, our instructor, took me flying over the Andes and Mendoza. Paragliding is such a calming and surreal experience. You run off a cliff as your parachute fills with air and just float off over the mountains. While paragliding is not a high adrenaline activity, you have to have quite a bit of faith that the wind picks up enough to lift the parachute and fill it with air as you run off a mountain top! This was definitely a great way to get an overview of our newest travel destination.



The thin, fresh, mountain air made us hungry and sleepy. We headed back to town and ate at a restaurant called the Old Bull. We ordered super hamburgers, which ended up being a slab of ground beef topped with ham, cheese and a sunny side-up egg with NO BUN. This country and its cuisine continue to shock me.


Later in the evening, I decided to get some ice cream from Soppalsa, a italian gelato shop, Alejandro had recommended. Now, remember we are in wine country -- where I am convinced they put wine instead of milk in babies´ bottles. Seriously...wine is everywhere! Our hostel gives us wine for free. So, of course, at the ice cream shop, there was wine-flavored ice cream. I sampled the vanilla with Malbec (the most famous type of red wine in Mendoza). The wine overpowered the sweet vanilla. I couldn´t handle a whole scoop of it, so I settled on chocolate.

Our evening ended with a stop to Subway. Yes, the US franchise...we wanted a little taste of America and to "eat fresh." After finally satisying the vegetable food group once in Argentina with our subs, we headed back to the hostel and now are getting ready for our wine tour tomorrow!