When home is a hostel you know you´re living life.

What a crazy weekend.

We hop on a bus from Cordoba to Mendoza, a city right near the Chilean border smack in the middle of the Andes Mountains. We get there around 8AM and head to our hostel. I haven´t even put my stuff down before a friend of mine asks me if I want to take the next bus to Los Penitentes, another city about 2,300 meters up, and about 3 hours away. I´m in. The plan is to go snowboarding all day, sleep there and then head back to Mendoza the following evening. So a smaller group of us rent our equipment and hop the next bus to Los Penitentes.

We climb higher and higher. The view was...I can´t even describe it. I´ll let the pictures do the talking.



So we get there and we are in the middle of nowhere. I mean this town is one street. That´s it. Just a few hostels, restaurants, a gas station and the ski lodge. I go around running from hostel to hostel looking for a place to spend the night and there is not a bed left in the town. I finally find one that that has two beds open, but were traveling with three people. I beg the guy to let two of us share a bed and he agrees. He looks behind me and sees that both the people I´m traveling with are guys and asks me if one of them is my boyfriend. I tell him no and he looks at me like I´m out of my mind as he hands me the key to our room.

Snowboarding the Andes was one of the most challenging things I´ve ever done and it was some of the most fun I´ve ever had. I ate it big time twice. Like smashing my head into the ground and my board flying up over me. Repeatedly. This as I am still getting over the horse injury too. By the end of the first run I was in so much pain that I could brarely walk. So I did it again. And again.

This is me after I just got off the lift at the top of the mountain.



This is me half way down the first run.



After the lifts close it was time to get some grub. Here´s where things get interesting. I ask where an ATM is and they tell me the nearest one is 60km away. And no one accepts travelers checks. And no one accepts credit cards. I search my pockets and I have 5 pesos on me which is less than 2 dollars. I´m fucked. So there I am in the middle of nowhere, stuck in the Andes, I haven´t showered in days, haven´t brushed my teeth, haven´t eaten in 24 hours, my whole body hurts, and I´m out of money. I can´t even pay for the hostel. So I book it. I borrow 5 dollars from a buddy of mine, go back to the hostel tell the guy who thinks I´m crazy that my plans have changed, and I buy a bus ticket off him. Within twenty minutes I´m back on a bus to Mendoza, snowboard in hand, and I can´t stop smiling. I think it´s hilarious. On the way home I dig through my backpack and blow my last peso on the best cup of hot choloate I´ve ever had.

I hit Mendoza before midnight and meet up with friends there. I stop at an ATM and finally eat. At this point I´m so tired I can barely stand so a bunch of us crash at our hostel.

Day 2. We wake up at 9 and after returning my equipment I try and sign up for a wine tour. The lady tells me that the bodegas close early on Sundays so I´ve missed my shot. I ask what else there is to do in Mendoza on a Sunday. One word: Parapente. I´m not even going to try to explain this. Just go here and watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laj3nOdKam4

Adrhenalin still surging we head out to dinner and barely make our bus back to Córdoba. I get back home around 7AM, crash, wake up at 12 and go to class.

So that was my weekend.



Things I´m glad didn´t happen to me:

One. My friend Amielia is talking to a random Argentine boy in the Plaza España in Mendoza. He leaves and a minute later she realizes her purse is gone. She looks down the street and sees the guy holding it close to his chest. She sprits after him and shoves the guy into a wall. He drops the bag and walks away.

And the second story you are not going to believe. I swear this actually happened. Saturday night a few people decided to stay in Los Penitentes. This group went out to a bar and one of them, my buddy Russ, got especially toasted. He walks outside to take a piss. While peeing falls over and he´s so drunk he just falls asleep. Right there. Pants down. In his piss. In the snow. Were not sure exactly how much time went by. But basically a while later the extreme cold wakes him up. I´m going to say one more thing and I´ll let you put it together. Frost Bite.

In other news: Things are going well with classes. I have a final exam tomorrow. Right after the exam I move into my apartment and then an hour later I´m going to Buenos Aires. Talk about a busy day. I took my horseback riding final, we crossed a river and rode a trail in the mountains. And I am posting about 500 photos on Sunday.

Lost in translation: Russ has been telling people (in Spanish) that he´s hungover and he doesn´t understand why they think it´s so hilarious. He just found out five minutes ago that he was actually telling them that he´s pregnant. He was really saying ¨I´ve missed my last period.¨

Tid Bits:

I still haven´t bought clothes since I´ve been here so I still only have 6 shirts and a couple pairs of jeans.

I read a book that told me when traveling in Argentina it is essential to have a Swiss Army knife with a corkscrew. Glad I took that advice. It came in very handy on a few of those bus rides this weekend.

I´ve starting dreaming in Spanish.