Gil and I made it to Mendoza Tuesday evening. We flew from PM to Buenos Aires to Mendoza, so we were essentially chasing the sun, which resulted in some incredible views from the plane.
For those curious, Mendoza is on the west side of Argentina and is right next to the Andes. You can see the mountains from the city!
Here it is on the map. Do you remember where I am? Hint: next to the weird looking Peninsula on the east coast.
Although our flight from Puerto Madryn left around 1, because flying from Madryn is such an event, we didn't end up getting to Mendoza until 8 or 9, which left us enough time to find our Airbnb and get some dinner. For dinner on our first night, Gil and I went to a sushi restaurant recommended by one of the Fulbrighters placed in Mendoza.
Our least favorite piece of sushi was the green roll in the bottom left corner. It didn't quite have enough crunch for us.
The restaurant was cute, though.
We went to bed early that night because we had to be up and ready to go Wednesday morning for our first day trip - a trip to the spa! I had heard from other Fulbrighters that the thermal pools at this spa in the mountains was an absolute must. However, when I looked to make a reservation, the only option with availability was if we did a half day through the area called Potrerillos and the other half at the pools, so we did want had to be done and signed up for this interesting adventure.
We were picked up for our adventure in one of the 5 plazas in Mendoza. While there were really no signs specifically indicating that the vans were for us, I saw a line and decided that it was in our best interest to wait in line.
The description of our adventure online made it sound like we would be hiking through the mountains and stopping at two places along the way, so Gil and I dressed ready to hike in active gear. Two others on the excursion did as well. They looked ready to do some intense hiking, so I got a little concerned about the difficulty of the hike. Was I then a little confused when two families with younger children get on our same bus? Yes. Very much so. I assumed that maybe they were just going to the same place but a different excursion. Needless to say, after waiting about 30 minutes for a family who was running very late, when the families stayed with us as we started our day, I had a feeling that we weren't actually hiking.
Our first stop on our adventure through Potrerillos was a man's house. All 15 of us were herded into these people's living room to try their homemade jellies and jams. To be honest, I was a little excited because it had been described as kind of like a pastry/sweets shop, which left me assuming that I wouldn't be able to eat anything. Considering I had brought nothing with me to snack on the entire day (very bad move on my part), I ate quite a lot of the bread and jam while Gil nodded away pretending to understand what the man was telling us about his home.
Then we were pushed out of the house to, you guessed it, purchase said jam and jelly. I'll be honest, I bought some. It was actually pretty good. I definitely do not use it for its intended purpose, though, and just plop a little in my oatmeal as sweetener. Disgraceful, I know.
After this fun little pitstop, we all piled back into our little van to be dropped off at another fun little location - a brewery (lol how many times can I say "little" in a sentence). At this point the two in the group who had been planning on hardcore hiking and Gil and I realized that we weren't actually going hiking but were actually being dropped off at a brewery with two different families with children around the ages or 7-10. This was a little disappointing to say the least, but when given the option to do the 30 minute hike ourselves instead of the brewery tour, Gil and I ended up declining because it was a bit chilly and foggy.
Just check out the fog! Supposedly there were mountains behind that fog!
At the brewery, we were given a quick tour that I struggled to translate for Gil because my Spanish vocabulary only stretches so far. I wasn't too concerned, though, because I know that my pal Greg will give us a brewery tour back in Iowa whenever we want.
After our tour, we sat in the freezing seating area and drank some beers and ate some empanadas. I was really impressed with the IPA I ordered. Gil was impressed with the 6 empanadas he had since they all had cheese.
It was a cute brewery. It just would've been cuter if we were dressed more appropriately or if it had been a tad warmer.
Quite chilly, we again piled onto the van/bus situation and finally headed to the spa. We were given about 2.5 hours to enjoy the water, which felt short when they first notified us but was actually the ideal length of time.
When we got there, I changed into my bathing suit while listening to Gil awkwardly ask a man if the changing area was for both women and "hermanos" before heading to the pools. Like I've mentioned, it was quite chilly out, so it wasn't very difficult finding the warmer pools. While I wanted to be adventurous and go back and forth between the different temperatures, this was tricky because it was really pretty miserable getting out of the water let alone getting out of cold water. We stuck to the warmer pools.
Here are some of the pools. You can tell they were some of the cooler pools.
The scenery was super pretty. I felt super fancy sitting in our warm pools looking out at the mountains. This was definitely not something your average grad student does.
In retrospect, this probably would've been an ideal end of our trip rather than day 1 of the trip since it was so calming and relaxing, but you win some you lose some.
After feeling fancy with our little spa day, we were herded back onto the bus (again) and shipped back to the city of Mendoza. Upon arrival, I, unsurprisingly, was absolutely starving after having only eaten oatmeal for breakfast (of course) and the provided bread. I found a cafe online that was nearby that had avocado toast, so Gil and I made our way to food and coffee.
The cafe was actually super cute and apparently very popular according to the line of people waiting for a table. We decided to wait since we were both pretty worn out and a snack really sounded nice. While we waited, I snuck into the bathroom which happened to be right next to the line of people waiting for a table. During my little bathroom sneak, poor Gil experienced another language moment. This time, apparently someone came over and asked the group in front of us if someone was in the bathroom to which the group responded no, so the person proceeded to walk towards the bathroom. Gil, knowing I was in this one-person bathroom, panicked and yelled out, "There's someone in there." You can probably guess what language that was in. I can only imagine the look this person gave Gil before continuing their walk to the bathroom door. Gil, in his valiant attempt to keep this person from trying to open a locked door, he used two words in his maybe 20 word Spanish vocabulary. Pointing at the door he said, "Mi novia," which ended up being a success.
He relayed this information to me once I got out of the bathroom. I, surprisingly, did not hear this encounter while I was in the bathroom, which was a bit of a bummer because it was probably incredibly entertaining.
As we continued to wait, more and more people passed us to put their names on the list. We had done so when we first arrived, but as yet another group passed us, one of the girls in the group of four in front of us looked at me and in a quiet, nervous English she asked me if we had put our names on the list. It was so sweet because she had clearly heard Gil's attempt to stave off enemies from the bathroom and thought we only spoke English and needed help. I answered her in Spanish, which led to a quick conversation with the group about why they were in Mendoza, what they've done so far, and an "ohhhhh so he doesn't speak any Spanish at all" moment. This conversation made me feel a biiiit guilty when a table of two was available before one of four, but to be fair, the table was pretty small.
When we got to the table, I reviewed and translated the menu for Gil, memorizing his order and making sure I knew his answer to any possible question the server might ask. For myself, I was dreaming of the avocado toast. It had scrambled eggs on it, but scrambled eggs don't grow on avocado toast. You can take them off. After making sly, awkward eye contact with the server to signal that we were ready, I asked for the avocado toast with the eggs on the side (so Gil could have them). With the straightest face I've ever seen, she said they couldn't do that. That it comes together. I tried to ask again, mentioning that I don't eat eggs because I'm vegan because maybe I had said it incorrectly, but again she said that they couldn't take the eggs off as if it was the most normal response on the planet.
So I ordered...more bread and jelly.
I then ordered for Gil, which I did at basically every restaurant, which probably made me look like a mega-controlling girlfriend. For example, here, I asked which kinds of fruit they had for their smoothies. She then turned to Gil, listed them off and waited for a response from a man giving her the blankest stare imaginable. Without even translating or referring back to him, I responded to her saying, "He'll have x." I imagined myself being that girlfriend who orders a fruit salad for her partner even though they asked for the brownie. Not the case here, but it's not like he would've known until they brought it out...
Anyhoo, we ate, walked back to the Airbnb, watched some Rick and Morty, and then took a taxi to go get dinner because (shocker) a loaf of bread was not sustaining me. We went to what was a vegetarian/vegan buffet. The buffet part was closed to the public because of COVID, I assume, so, instead, we had to do this awkward game of pointing at what we wanted while the girl got it for us. I'll be honest, not the ideal buffet situation because I didn't know what half the food was and was super self-conscious and worried that she was judging for the combination of food I was choosing. For Gil, I asked what he was interested in and we did a combination of translating and mimicking to show her what he wanted. It honestly felt like much more pressure than a typical buffet, but it was totally worth it because they charged by weight. This felt kind of illegal because they charged me for my salad of lettuce and carrots and Gil for his sushi by weight. I don't know when was the last time any of you picked up some lettuce, but long story short we definitely should've paid a lot more for this meal.
Here it is...it was really yummy!!
Now for our next full day (literally only on day 2 - thank you for those still with me), we met up with another Fulbrighter, Annabelle (remember, I hung out with her in Chaco and Corrientes), and her husband, Craig, who just happened to be in Mendoza the same exact time as us (a legitimate coincidence). We got picked up at around 8:30 (am) for a day full of private winery tours. Although this meant that we would be having some breakfast wine at around 9:30am, we felt very fancy.
Our first stop had a gorgeous view of the mountains. Since it had been super foggy the previous day, we hadn't been able to see the Andes. :( This view was the perfect first look!
This first winery was very formal in our tour and tasting. We got a nice look at where the wine is made and then were brought to a tasting room where we were taught how to check the color of the wines and how to properly taste a wine. Malbecs are super common in the region, so you will see mostly red wines in my pictures. While I, personally, enjoy my vinho verde from Trader Joe's and basically only vinho verde from Trader Joe's (I'm not fancy it's like a $7 bottle), it was fun to try the reds.
Our second stop was a family owned winery that happened to be understaffed that day, so our poor guide was running back and forth between groups while switching between English and Spanish. This tasting was much less formal than the previous. However, since we had learned the basics in the first tasting, I think we were all happy with enjoying the view, weather, and wine, especially since we had all agreed to drink all the wine given to us in this second tasting.
I loved the stark contrast between the blue sky and pink buildings at this winery.
We got some much needed snacks at this winery!
On the left was a girl from the U.S. Annabelle and Craig invited along. They happened to be sitting next to her on their plane ride(s)/adventure from Salta to Mendoza.
At the third winery, we had lunch along with some wines. I think we had imagined this day ending around 2 based on the itinerary given to us, but I don't think we made it to this third winery until around 1:30/2. We sat down in the restaurant that was completely empty except for us and a table of men who looked far more important than us, U.S. kids, who were pretty tipsy and loopy by the time we got there.
Here, we were given even more wine and a four course meal. I'll reiterate that we felt very fancy. This was far beyond my price range in any normal world.
Look at all these glasses. I lost track of how many wines they gave us, but at one point they asked me to do the unthinkable and make a "rosé" by emptying a white into my glass of red so that they could give me even more wine. As an aside, they did not say, "Make a rosé," that is just something I made up.
We mentioned beforehand that I was vegan, and they were nice enough to have a full four courses of yummy, like really yummy, vegan food. If you're interested in what Gil and the other carnivores ate, I'm sure Gil would be happy to share, but I only took pictures of my food:
First up was humita, a dish typical to northwestern Argentina. It's squished, sweet corn with peppers, onions, etc. So good.
Next, I had some mushrooms, which I was really excited about because they really just don't seem to be as common here.
It took a while for the main dish to come out, so we took a break from the inside to walk around outside. At this point, I wasn't hammered or anything, but I was significantly wine tipsy as you can imagine, so the fresh air was really nice.
Gil struggled with the hammock and blamed it on the hammock rather than the many glasses of wine we'd had.
It was a real cute place.
It had a really nice view of the mountains.
You remember Annabelle now, right?
For the entrée, I had risotto, and I think everyone else had steak.
Then for dessert, fruit for me and flan for everyone else, I'm convinced they must've gone to pick the fruit fresh or handmade the flan right there and then because it took an eteeeernity for dessert to be ready. Like we left this winery at 5ish. We were there forever and were starting to get a little sleepy and cranky and ready to leave by the time the dessert arrived.
The drive back was about 2ish hours, so while some napped I watched the sunset behind the mountains!
The view from our Airbnb:
After some of the wine wore off, Gil and I went to eat dinner at one of the vegetarian restaurants in Mendoza, Calendula. Gil, bravely, ordered his water all by himself! It always made me giggle when he ordered his water because he always prefaced it with, "I don't speak Spanish but..."
We shared some empanadas.
Then, I convinced him to order a milanesa with cheese, tomato sauce, and an egg on top because it is a dish that is suuuuper duper common here in Argentina.
We, then, made our way back to the Airbnb and went to bed because that was only our second full day of our like two week long adventure. *laughs tiredly*
Day three, though, was pretty chill for my standards. I, however, have no chill on vacations, so ten miles later, I think Gil probably begged to differ. We did start with a chill brunch, though.
We did also have a chill walk around a huge park in search of bike rentals that we never found.
This park literally went on forever.
Then we did a chill walk to take a chill picture of the Mendoza sign.
We had some chill coffee on the way back to the Airbnb. Ha...get it? This was also a very exciting cup of coffee because iced coffee really isn't a thing here unless you're at Starbies.
We finished the night with a chill dinner with two of the Fulbrighters who are placed in Mendoza and Annabelle and Craig at an Indian restaurant. While I knew it was going to be no Exotic India, I was very excited to have some Indian food.
Perhaps just by the looks of us they knew we were going to be loud because they sat us in this private little room off to the side of the restaurant. They were spot on, but I still found it amusing.
Luckily, Gil was able to read this menu. Unluckily, the menu was the most complicated menu I've ever seen in my entire life.
The menu was in this box, and from each side, you pulled out different parts of the menu each of which could be unfolded.
While the menu seemed to break a record for the most unnecessarily complicated thing on the planet, I suppose with a convoluted menu it only makes sense to have a convoluted ordering system. To order our food (our server, thankfully spoke English, making things a lot easier for Craig and Gil), we each ordered our appetizers, then we went around the table again to order our main dish, then we went around the table again to order our rice, then we went around the table to order the type of naan each of us wanted. Upon writing this, I'm realizing that this actually wasn't that difficult, but I promise you it seemed really, really challenging in person. You had to be there.
During dinner, I can imagine Gil and Craig appreciated having multiple people to chat with in English. I don't remember if I mentioned it, but Craig and Annabelle live in Nebraska, so not only were Gil and Craig able to bond over flying on the same airplane to Argentina but also their age and the Midwest. I can imagine they had an incredibly profound conversation amongst themselves as they were sort of shut out of the conversation Annabelle and I were having with the other Fulbrighters, Ezekiel and Fran. We yelled over and around each other laughing at silly jokes and experiences we've had as well as nursing a few of those random conversations you have over dinner that you don't quite remember afterwards that seemed so important in the moment but were actually arbitrary pieces of information that were thrown around in a semi-cohesive manner.
As predicted, it was no Exotic India, but the food was pretty solid and even a little spicy.
Leaving dinner was a bit bittersweet. I felt giddy and grateful that was able to get to know a few more Fulbrighters who (not shocked) happened to be really fun, funny, and genuine people. I also felt sad because as we said goodbye, we weren't able to say, "See you in..." The crappy thing about Fulbright is that I got to meet all of these great people in March, got to know them a little more in July, and that's it. There's no other mandatory meetings. We see them or we don't see them.
Anyhoo, enough reflection. You're here for food pictures, right? Well, Gil and I walked back to spend one more night in our cute little Airbnb before heading to Salta bright and early the next day to take some more food pics!
Bye, Mendoza!
The mountains are so beautiful! 🏔️