Another beautiful Santiago sunrise....
Ok well I arrived in Santiago de Chile el 11 de Febrero.... and in Chile you get a 90 day tourist visa when you arrive, which means before 3 months is up you either need to have a work/residence visa, pay $100 to extend it, or leave the country and re-enter..... last Saturday I hit 87 days, so it was time to take action!! haha, I took an early morning bus Saturday to Mendoza, Argentina... had to be back for work Monday so was only in Mendoza for around 24hrs but still had a lot of fun! Although it was a short trip with much time spent in the bus, it was a lot of fun and I got to take a trip and check out the Andes..... so here we go.....
up 'n at em....
ready to roll!!
not exactly a packed bus... this turned to be awesome passing through customs....
startin to get into the mountains.
beautiful morning to check out some scenery...
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view from the front seat, 2nd level.... had a sweet view!!
the infamous hairpin section..... there's a little sign with the curve#... think there's 16 or 18? i dunno but a lot!! I have another picture of this place on the way back.... on the 2nd floor of that bus there's times where you feel like you're hangin off the edge!!
startin to see some snow....
The Andes.
Bout to enter one of the longer tunnel's I've been through..... I think the official border's in there somewhere.....
loooooooooong tunnel.....
Argentina!!
enjoying the view...
feet up, taking it all in.
I liked the color of these guys.
The beautiful Andes.
Some serious rocks.
not the longest tunnel i've ever been through.
Que azul!!
:)
made it! Well Mendoza has tons of trees, absolutely gorgeous...
Walked to a hostel I had looked up ahead of time but they had no space, and the guy recommended this place. Uuffff can't remember the name, something simple like Mendoza Hostel or Mendoza Inn.... was a cute little place with super friendly staff, and a good midpoint between the bus station and downtown..... oh, plus $10/night, good pick!!
street out in front of the hostel.
one of the main streets (Av. San Martin).
The main walkway towards the central plaza (Plaza Independencia).
Plaza Independencia.
More Plaza.
Random walkway going up San Martin.
Flowers for sale!
After some serious walking it's time for una cerveza y comiiiida!!
Mendoza is super famous for it's beef.... now I know I know, I could've come across some better bife de chorizo, but it was 18:30 and I was literally dying of starvation, and I couldn't walk any farther, and I couldn't wait for ther other places to open around 8 / 9, so i stopped here... and it was still suuuper tasty!! With the beer and bife total came to around $10 or a touch more, deal!!
Quick story: so after eating the above, I went back to the hostel, showered, got dressed, and ready to go out. Figured if I'm only going to be in a city/country for one night, I gotta at least check out the night life a little bit... at least a cursory glance. Went out around 11:30 or so, and decided not to bring my camera for not losing it / breaking it / having it stolen purposes so no pictures (which I now quasi-regret).... anyways, found a bar with "live electronic music"... was a little unsure as to what that meant, but there was a computer set up with a keyboard and some bongos, a guy and a girl.... was a nice upbeat vibe in there.... the girl would occasionally sing, and the guy would play the keyboard / bongos.... fun atmosphere. I started talking to them for a bit and mentioned that I'm a rapper and have been involved in hip hop music for a long time, the guy seemed intrigued.... about 45 minutes later I was sitting there talking with some new Argentinian friends and the DJ asked me to come up, gave me the microphone, and I just jumped right in.... there was probably around 30 or so people in the bar, and I hung out up there, did 3 or 4 verses, maybe 5 minutes up there.... was a ton of fun!! Would love to have some pictures, but thought it was at least worthy of a quick recap haha, I love Mendoza!!!
Also, side note: I really like Mendoza's public transportation... color wise hahaa..... i like the taxi paint job and all the buses look old and are all different colors......
taxi.
bus1.
bus2.
bus3.
random brush fire? haha there was nobody keepin an eye on this one so really no clue what was goin on here....
Well Sunday I woke up, hung around the hostel a bit, then kinda had to rush to eat and get to the station to take the bus home.... but lemme relax and take Mendoza a little more before I'm outta here....
Asked for Ají (hot pepper sauce (I live off ají)).... and the guy brought me 3 different bottles!! Heaven!!!
Lomo sandwich, suuuuper tasty....
headed back to Stgo.... somehow got the front seat again! yessss!!! (this bus was full)
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Gorgeous fall colors...
Hairpins again! Check those bad boys out!!!
So we were just movin along, starting to get out of the Andes when we pulled over for a minute... we were all kind of ?? didn't really know why.... figured the driver was going to the bathroom or something........ anyways 3 or 4 minutes later we hear him get back in the bus, and start it up.... but it wouldn't start.......... uuuffffffff....... 30 tries later it's apparent it's not gonna start.... I get out to play field reporter......
no good..... ps. my seat was 2nd level and to the left as you look from this angle....
at least I'll take in the sun set painting the mountains red a little....
luckily, about 15 minutes after we stopped, another tour bus came up behind us (you can see it in the bus pic above).... they had 22 available seats so you better believe I got one of those seats and made it home by bout 9pm.... was a little tired the next day but wasn't too bad.
Also suuuper lucky.... I was in Mendoza the 8th and 9th.... and last Friday, the 14th, it rained a ton here..... so it snowed a ton in the mountains, and I may have been stuck in Mendoza.... thanks for holding off that extra week winter!!
Well it was a great trip and I got the itch to travel again soon..... this weekend I go to the beach because my buddy Ivan has a concert Thursday night in Valparaiso, so I'm gonna go support the band (Ventura).... plus Friday is a holiday so no work!!! For everyone interested in history, Friday we (yes me too) celebrate a really interesting holiday in honor of The Battle of Iquique. A navy battle between Chile and Peru (allied with Bolivia) which Chile ultimately lost, but the bravery of Chilean Captain Arturo Prat, rallied the rest of Chile, who then went on to win the war with Peru, and is the reason Chile has the northern most part of the country. Not sure I've ever heard of a country celebrating a lost battle, but check out that link, pretty interesting I do declare!!
Ok, spent too long writing this, now it's midnight and I need to sleeeeeep!! Oh, ps., most people reading this probably know, but my cousin Ryan and his wife Jessica just had a baby this weekend!!!!! Woooo!!!! Her name is Natalie Ann and she looks really really cute and I can't wait to meet her!!!!!!
Oh, also, it was rainy Friday so there were a million people selling umbrellas by the metro stops, and this one guy was sitting a ways away but had his table set up.... and I checked 'em out and ended up buying some house slippers for a little under $5!! Yessss!!!! Nice and comfy and warm!!!!
look at those sweet deals!
my feet are pumped!!
Ok, that's really it, no more, I'm off to bed! Abrazos y besos y chauuu!!!!!
Zak
