Mendelicioza

Hey hey everyone! So our trip has taken us back to summer weather. seriously, bariloche, the wind was about to blow all life and energy out of me for a while. but it was beautiful! lakes everywhere, that were v. calm and bluegreen and peaceful the first day we got there. THEN the day that we decide to do the momentous 27km bike ride around the lake loop, mister wind god wakes up on the wrong side of the mountain and starts whipping waves out of those lakes like i never could have imagined. now that we are in mendoza, which is v. pretty as well...i almost feel as if i had been taking the lake region for granted! with all the hills/mountains and snowpeaked volcanos and little wildflowers dotting the roads, it seriously felt as though we had taken a side trip to europe. even a girl from swedem said that it reminded her of her own country! i have had to fight hard against the urge to break out in sound of music sing alongs (climb every mountain: during puyehue; the hills are alive: all the time; adelweiss: when trotting along roads with all the wild flowers). but now we are in mendoza. it's crazy hot here, so it's almost as if you're stupified in between 11 and 3pm (especially transitioning from easy breezy bariloche). BUT we dragged ourselves out yesterday to enjoy a wonderous biking tour of vineyards and olive farms and chocolate liquer factory places. all of the roads and avenues here are quite wide because of this earthquake that destroyed everything. so the city planners built all of the buildings low, and the roads wide. there are all these beautiful shade trees, so it's nice to walk throughout the town. also, to bike. we met up with these 4 australian boys who adopted us into their group because we saved their friend, chucky, who had gotten lost (we soon realized that this is quite a common story). so we vineyard hopped and had a really wonderful day! unfortunately, the roads were a bit tricky with gravel, etc, so both emily and i have our respective scrapes. it's okay, though, we're becoming more and more hardcore as our voyage continues. the vineyard tour was 28km of biking, but it wasn't half as hard as the bariloche biking view tour adventure. also, a very important update: argentina has officially tainted us! not really, but we ate meat at a bbq dinner thing last night at a hostel, that turned into a dancefloor after everyone had their fill. argentine and aussie influences led us astray...but it was seriously delicious. hmmm. tomorrow we are going to one of the top zoos in SA, a jesuit ruins from the 19th century, and a serpentine musuem/zoo place. braving the heat to get our fill of mendoza. then we're off to BA by the 20th! our trip is picking up speed, and we're meeting lots of friends along the way. hands down, hostels> hotels and homestays. very refreshing. alright, i hope by this scattered post that you all can observe our high spirits. take care!