The Wonderful Thing about Argentina, is Argentina's a Wonderful Thing.

So, my friend Olivia and I decided to see what the other side of the Andes looked like and take a gander at Argentina for our two week vacation from my little monsters at school and at home. Before, I describe our vacation I should note that I have recently made the realization that I spend a good 8-10 hours a day with kids who haven't hit puberty yet and many of them are more mature than me, but anyways...

I guess I should say a little bit about my traveling companion, Olivia. She's a loud, opinionated liberal from Texas (I know it sounds like an oxymoron) who went to college at LSU and incidently is the perfect traveling companion.

So Olivia and I departed on the first Monday of vacation after having a rather festive weekend with our amigos in Antofagasta. Considering our penchants for planning vacations, we bought a plane flight to Santiago and thought we'd see what would happen.(Somewhere along the trip, we came up with the idea for a travel channel show called "Traveling without Reservations" in which a couple of crazy gringos would travel the world without planning anything and see what happens along the way. Oh and by the way, if anyone steals my idea I may be a lawyer some day so know you've been warned. Oh and if this show already exists they stole my idea).

I've definitely decided I like flying as a two and a half plane ride is much easier than an 18 hour bus ride and we would never have the level of comfort traveling as we did on the trip to Santiago. Anyways, upon arrival we met up with our friend James at the airport. James would be hanging out with us for the first five days of our vacation before he headed to the exotic beaches of Columbia and on to training to become an Antarctic tour guide. James is an Aussie who is about the closest thing to Crocodile Dundee I have ever met. A world class adventurer who makes my travels seem like a trip to the mailbox.

Our first night was a jovial but quiet night as we set our plans to embark across the Andes and into Argentina. Originally, we planned on staying in Santiago for a couple of days and meeting up with some friends, but upon arrival at the bus station to plan our trip we were confronted with the real possibility that the mountain pass to Argentina would be closed in a couple of days and decided to take a last minute bus across the border to Mendoza, Argentina.

After a seven hour ride through some fairly precarious switchbacks, which would be shut down a couple of days later, we arrived in Mendoza unscathed. The next couple of days, we would hear the stories of the other gringos as we enjoyed our wonderful vacation and appreciate how well we have it in Antofagasta.

"The volunteers and I in Antofagasta are spoiled with our malls, modern- ish groceries, our beaches and our movie theaters. There is also not a week that goes by without me having contact with the other gringos. I know that this is one of the reasons I dont feel my spanish improving rapidly, but we all agree that we would not have made it in Chile without each other. Perhaps, this is part of the problem in other regions as many of the volunteers from other regions have since quit or changed locations due to various extranjero problems with families, schools, chilean situation in general. I am very thankful for the gringos that are a part of my chilean experience. Some truly amazing souls. We are already discussing the sorrow we will experience come December. Ok, live in the moment... anyway." (Excerpt from Olivia Cosby's blog. Ocosby1.blogspot.com.) [I am such a wanna be lawyer, citing sources and all.]

Our first few days in Mendoza were ethereal. We lived like kings because of the extremely favorable exchange rate as we ate huge amounts of food. Although, slightly overrated we ate gigantic steaks at the famed Argentinian steak houses, consumed bottles of vino and stayed in a fairly dilapidated but centrally located hostel that became a home to us for our stay.

Mendoza is famous for its vineyards so Olivia and I decided to take a winery tour one day. Although I've decided I have the delicate palette of a cardboard box, I learned a bit about wine production and thoroughly enjoyed my wine samples. We bought bottles of wine at one of the vineyards as gifts for our chilean host families. We carried these bottles with us for the length of the trip, losing one to a bitter baggage handler who promised to take care of it and (we think) purposely broke when we turned our backs.

A highlight of our vacation was snowboarding in the Andes. After some deliberation due to concerns about inclimate weather closing the pass to the resort, we decided to snowboard at the Penitentes resort, which is about two hours outside of Mendoza. Luckily, the roads leading to Penitentes had been cleared the night before we disembarked and a fresh 12 inches of powder fell the day before.

Anyways, snowboarding in the Andes was really quite crazy. Only the lower passes were open in the morning, so we stayed in the lower runs. But anyways, the slope of mountains was at about a fifty or fifty-five degree angle and the mountain really wasn't snowboard friendly. They only had one chairlift on the lower portion and the only way up the hill was on a tow rope that you put between your legs which is nearly impossible to use on a snowboard. So anyways, I wound up tumbling down the hill a couple of times before I got my balance and took advantage of the great snow. But all in all, it was a great day and I just wish we had the time to stay longer.