Mendoza was absolutely wonderful! The city is just beautiful. The region is naturally very dry, but it´s now a bustling wine-growing region. In order to accomplish this, they dug an intricate irrigation system. So that the city itself doesn´t interfere with this irrigation system, tiny irrigation routes run along most of the streets. Nearly everywhere you go in Mendoza you hear the lovely trickle of running water.
We also spent an entire day sampling Argentinian wines and regional delights. One of Mendoza´s best vineyard regions is called Maipú (heehee), and we rented some bikes and found our way around. We visited five different locations and tried a wide variety of wines, olive oils, liquors, dulce de leches, and chocolates.
In addition to basking in Mendoza´s beauty, we ate some amazing food. We splurged on a couple of meals here - seafood Rizotto flavored with squid ink, lamb cooked in a malbec sauce with mushroom ratatouille and couscous, and a super-long pancho (hot dog) with more condiments than dog. (The restaurant was called ``Mr. Dog´´ which is funny, because the connotation of hot dog with a dog doesn´t even really make sense in Spanish...).
All that, though, was a few days ago. We´re now in Bariloche, a town that´s now pretty touristy because it´s got such an amazing view of a perfectly blue lake backed by the snow-capped Andes mountains. We spent yesterday just exploring the little city, eating more good food, and drinking the best hot chocolate of my life.
And today, WE WENT PARAGLIDING!!
We met Frederico and Ernesto, who drove us up a mountain and led us on a short ``trek´´ to a spot near the top. We put on a bunch of silly-looking (but very essential for staying alive) gear, and I strapped myself to Frederico, who strapped himself to the sail.
Then we started running down the mountain. And suddenly, I wasn´t running on the mountain anymore. I was flying.
It was the most amazing feeling I´ve ever experienced. We flew around for about 20 minutes. The views were beautiful, but the true sensation of flying was even more amazing.
Did you ever have dreams about flying when you were a kid? I did, all the time. I would dream that I´d run as fast as I could across our front yard, flapping my arms like mad, and then suddenly I´d take off. And I could feel exactly how the birds felt, soaring on wind currents.
Today, that´s what it was like. We would dip down to where it felt like my feet could almost touch the treetops, then we´d catch a different current and soar upward. A falcon flew right by us, and I knew exactly how he felt.
Today I was a bird, and I got to fly. It´s been an amazing day.
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