Day Cinco: El Ciudad de Detroit Piedra

Fine, so yesterday was the first day I didn´t post. You wanna fight about it? It´s a rather chilly morning here in Mendoza but let me recap the past 36 hours before you meet me out front:

After the post I headed up to the hostel bar and started chatting with an American girl from Baltimore who lives in LA. Seemed super nice, had a one-way ticket to Argentina and told me she was going to Bariloche on Monday. She was rolling solo as well and we started talking about Calafate and my plans to rent a car there despite my very limited stick driving experience (shout out to Dad and that time you woke up the Kraskys after 5 minute of teaching me to drive a manual). The offer was that she would come down and drive stick and we´d go check out the glaciers but getting down there turned out to be a 42 hour bus ride for her and in the end was too much of a pain in the ass. Too bad. Meanwhile, I know some readers of this blog who are probably saying to themselves "I´d take a 42 hour bus ride just to get away from Kubin. What is this girl thinking?" Thanks Matt, even when I´m 6,000 miles away from you I can still read your gerbil brain. GFY.

Spent the last night in Buenos Aires with a few Enligsh speaking guys from the hostel. The squad was made up of two Americans, a Brit, an Aussie and an Irish guy who spoke with no breaths or pauses in between words. Guy should come with subtitles. I had no clue what the hell he was talking about so just kept nodding everytime he started speaking and laughed when he laughed. This strategy worked as long as he didn´t ask a question and when he did ask a question there was about 10 seconds of awkward slience before he´d laugh and I´d follow suit. We headed out to Palermo to grab a bite to eat and some beers. Dinner slowly turned to drinks and the next thing you know it was 2am and we were all beat. James, the Brit, Victor, Victor´s friend Jake and I all headed home and I thanked Victor for being a teriffic tour guide during my stay in BA.

Woke up yesterday morning feeling somewhat ill (I´ll be kind and spare you the details), packed up my bag and spent the morning watching Sunday futbol on the TV with some of the hostel pack. We eventually settled on Man U v. Arsenal but unfortunately had to leave for my plane at the half only to see that all the offensive fireworks took place after I left. Man U took the game 2-1. Boo.

Flight was good, landed in Mendoza to visit Vivian Holz and on the plane ride realizied that not only have I not met this woman but I´ve never even seen a picture of her. I could very easily ask someone if they´re Vivian and end up duct taped to some chair in an Argentine basement while preparing myself to become a ritualistic sacrifice. My fears were just that, pretty easy to spot Vivian as she said I looked just like Dad which is either a major compliment for him or a major insult to me. Not sure yet.

Vivan, Luis (boyfriend) and Daphne (daughter) spent the afternoon driving me around Mendoza to show me the sights which are quite dramatic. Mendoza is situated right on at the feet of the incredibly imposing Andes. Anywhere you go here you´re bound to see the peak of some 18,000 mountain looming over you, it´s tres sweet. The four of us then headed out to dinner at a very nice Itallian place in town where all the pasta is homemade (I got the gnocchi with tomato sauce) and then headed home for the night.

I have some other observations which will have to wait ´till tonight as I´m heading out with Vivian for a wine tour and other Mendoza related activities.

Viva,
Le Kuby