Its funny how we only value time when we realize ours is not infinite.
Another few weeks have passed and now the countdown has begun; tomorrow marks my final ten days in Argentina. What can I say? I am terrified. I am excited. I am stressed. I am living al pedo. I don't want to go home. I want to see my family.
I am a walking contradiction... siempre la misma con vos Amelia.
After my twin left, I made it my objective to live/enjoy/experience/experiment as much as I could this month. So what have I been up to recently? Well, everything. I attended an Argentine cooking class for the second time, danced Cotton-Eyed Joe at yet another cultural fair, played frisbee como siempre, transformed myself into a chamuyera (my apologies to the people affected by this), and just had an overall good time.
A couple of weekends ago, I organized a trip to Cascada de El Salto. We were three Americans, a French guy, and an Argentine. The trek is a pretty easy one until you reach the last kilometer where it starts to go uphill fast. Because of snow and frozen toes, we didn't make it to the top, but that doesn't me we didn't try. When we stopped for lunch, I threw myself into the snow and giddily made snow angels for the first time in a very long time. Coming off of the mountain, we stopped for beers while before taking the bus back to Mendoza.
Perhaps the highlight from the last few weeks was my solo adventure to the largest mountain outside of the Himalayas. The day I decided to go, el famoso Zonda estaba en altura which basically means the weather was bad and I probably shouldn't have been in la Alta Montana. Anyways, after a three hour long bus ride, I made it to Parque Provincial Aconcagua! The Park Ranger looked at me like I was a little crazy but took my 20 pesos, gave me a map, and said he would see me a la vuelta. I took of through the wind and snow with hopes that I would be able to the peak. The trail wasn't very long and soon enough I am at the lookout for the south face. There are two mountains that open up and give you a lovely view of Aconcagua; what did I see? Some clouds and a few snowflakes - only moderately disappointing. However, the scenery was absolutely incredible and now I have another excuse to come back (but next time to climb to the 6.962 meter summit).
My journey continued to Puente del Inca: an abandoned thermal spa built into the side of the mountain and a point where San Martin stopped on el Paseo de los Andes. You can't go inside so I was only there for a few minutes. I quick looked over my shoulder and saw the bus I was supposed to take pass by... thumbs out, I started hitchhiking the 80 y pico kilometers to Uspallata. A militar picked me up pretty quickly and gave me a lecture on how I shouldn't be doing this alone and that Argentina is a very dangerous place, blah blah blah. After his scolding, we got to talking and he is actually the general for a unit of the Blue Helmets, which is super cool! He dropped me off in the center of town where I enjoyed the scenery of the precordillera y la cordillera frontal with a beer and some empanadas. Three hours back and I would call it a day well spent.
The next day I was picked up for yet another mountain adventure. After months of looking at it from afar, learning about it in class, and getting it tattooed on my arm, I was finally in Cordon del Plata. Mariano, Gustavo, and I took a day trip to Vallecitos, where I climbed up as far as I could without losing them. The scenery was espectacular (see pictures below). We ended the day at a bar watching the sunset over the mountains with craft beer in hand.
I am sensing a pattern with mountains and beer...
To end the weekend, as if I wasn't already on a high, I went to watch a movie on mattresses on the floor of a hostel. The movie ended up being pretty weird but afterwards I spent the night roaming around the city with Marcos (Argentine), Juan Pablo (Columbian), and Isa (Chilean). We went to the top of a cerro that overlooks the city, found Jesus, and then got pizza at three in the morning.
Anyways, last week I passed one class with a ten, today I passed another class with an eight, and tomorrow I take my last exam for this semester. Stuff is wrapping up pretty quickly; the next post will be pretty sad so enjoy this while it lasts.
Besitos.
