I went paragliding, I went Andes mountain climbing..

This weekend I crossed the border and ventured into the lovely town of Mendoza, Argentina.

Mendoza is only about 6 hours from Santiago; however, the ever-so-lovely customs pit stop straps on an extra 2 hours to the trek. So thurdsay night, we departed around 11:30PM aboard a double-decker coach bus. Sat in the front seats on the second floor-- a bit scary at first when you're curving and swerving around mountainous roads and looking down from high above...but the ride felt surprisingly smooth and secure.

Arrived at the border at around 3AM, where we had to exit the bus to get our passports stamped and then waited in the cold cold cold for the Argentine police to check our luggage and make sure we weren't smuggling any fruit (or drugs) across the border. After a good half hour of standing outside, watching the policemen chat and crack jokes in their little heated glass cube as we froze our potos off outside, a man finally came out and worked his way through the crowed to collect a tip for the luggage inspectors. 

A tip? Don't you give a tip to reward good performance? Don't you give a tip after someone has actually done something? And isn't it a bit sketchy that they are basically asking for bribe money to allow us to smuggle whatever we want? Goodness me.

After the tip was collected, the inspectors took an incredibly lazy, unthorough glance at our bags and told us to get back on the bus. What a waste of time.

Fortunately, the delay at customs meant that we didn't arrive in Mendoza until after the sun had risen. Hooray.

Spent Friday morning trying to get Argentine money. For some reason the ATMs were weird and wouldn't let of my friends take out money. Buttt eventually we figured things out.

Friday afternoon went on a wine tasting tour. Apparently, Mendoza is home to some of the finest Malbec wines in the world. Despite the tour, I still can' tell you what it means to be a Malbec though...

• Stop 1 on the tour was Weinert winery. Saw some huuuge casks and some bottles of wine that have been aging since 1976 and will cost $500 when they go to market. Tasted a white and red wine. The white was okay and the red just tasted like moldy cheese (seriously-- even the adults on the tour agreed). Fortunately we ended the tasting with delicious white grape juice that got rid of the cheese taste.

• Stop 2 was Cecchin Winery, an organic winery. Learned about how they use the skins of the grapes and other natural products to process the wine instead of using chemicals.

• Stop 3 was an olive orchard and olive oil factory. below is a picture of an olive smusher

• Stop 4 was a artesanal chocolate and liquor shop. They make everything from absinthe to chocolate liquor to dulce de leche + banana + white chocolate chip liquor. 

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early to go paragliding! We drove in an army truck to the top of a big mountain and throughout the 20 minute ride we tried to distract ourselves from the nerves by making lists of various things. First we made a list of flying songs ("free falling", "i'm like a bird", "i'll fly away", "born to fly", etc) Then we made a list of things that are more dangerous than paragliding (dating a chilean boy with dreadlocks, actually thinking that chilean fashion is cool, breathing Santiago air for a year, eating mayonaise + choloesterol filled -chilean cuisine for a year, etc). A nice distraction to stop us from thinking about the crazy stunt we were about to perform.

Once we got to the top of the mountain, we unloaded onto a clearing of gravel. The instructors unpacked our parachutes and then gave each of us our detailed instructions:

1) "when i say walk, walk"

2) "when i say run, run"

3) "don't jump"

sounded easy enough. and fortunately it really was that simple. You just wait for the parachute to catch wind, start moving forward and poof soon enough you're walking on air. Then, rather than falling straight down to the ground like I envisioned, we just bounced gleefully in the air for a good 20 minutes or so. The instructor manipulated the parachute like a marionette - pulling every which way on strings to make us turn and swing and catch the wind to move up and down through the air. The flight was an absolute blast and so surreal..the only thing that kept coming out of my mouth was "increible!" 

fear

adrenaline

ecstasy

 Although it was definitely an adventure of a lifetime, I was a little sad that I didn't get to share the fun with my family orcertain crazy adventure-seeking friends from back home. I guess that just means I'll have to go again with them. And then again once more on a honeymoon adventure. And then again once more for my 100th birthday...