Mendoza, The Land of Wine

Hey everyone!  About a month ago I went on a trip to Mendoza and I wanted to make a new post so you could all see what I've been doing.  Mendoza is a city in the eastern part of Argentina that is known for it's wine, like the Napa Valley of California.  It is also very close to the border of Chile and we were able to see some of the mountains of the Andes.  The first day we arrived in Mendoza we unpacked and showered and then we went to go bicycle riding to the wineries(called bodegas here) to try some of the famous Mendoza wine.  Unfortunately, I'm not a huge fan of wine, but it was a great experience, especially since the city supposedly has the best wine in Argentina.  We got a tour of both the wineries we went to and there they explained to us how they grew the grapes and how all the different wines were made.  At the end of each tour we got to try a few different wines.  I think my favorite part was the bike riding, so many people do it out here!

The next day, we got up bright and early to go on a rafting trip in a river basically right next to the Andes!  I could never have imagined that I would raft near such a famous mountain range but it was an amazing experience.  I had never been rafting and they had so many security measures it was a little scary but I survived the ride without even falling in, although we did get doused with ice cold mountain water all throughout the ride.  In the picture you can see we all had full suits on with helmets and life jackets which was great because one girl ended up falling in and another boat flipped over.  I'd rather be protected and prepared than not!  I'm the one on the end on the left and Jessica is right next to me, this is the group we came to Mendoza with.

 That took up a good portion of the day and after that we just came back to the hostel, showered and got ready for dinner.  The next day we all decided to go on a hike right next to the Andes mountains.  We had about a 2 hour drive there, but on the way we stopped by a gorgeous lake that was so blue it didn't look real.  I had never seen water so clear outside of pictures.  We took a few pictures and then headed on our way to the hike.  The first picture is of the lake that we stopped at, and even this doesn't do it justice.  As you can see, we had fun haha!  The second picture we took on the hike, but it wasn't one of the biggest mountains, just some of the smaller ones around us.  There was one mountain that our guide talked about that is popular to climb, but we don't have any pictures of it, it was a little difficult to see.  The last picture is of a lagoon in the mountain valley area that was basically all frozen over because it was still pretty cold up there.  After we did the hike, we had lunch at a little diner on the way back.  

The last day we were free to do whatever we wanted and we decided to have lunch with some of the girls from the trip(the two on the right in the last picture).  After lunch we went and looked for some souveneirs around the city and we went to a little plaza nearby to walk around.  It was a really fun and adventurous trip!  I hope you all enjoyed the new blog, the next one will be about my trip to Brazil!!