Day Six -- Look out the window, dorks!

Sunday, January 8 was a travel day as we flew from Buenos Aires to Mendoza, which is Argentine wine country and, of course, my last name. During the first flight we decided to watch some episodes of The Amazing Race on our laptop. Tom's brother Sean told him about the show years ago but we never really thought much about it until we saw an episode in San Miguel. The show consists of teams of two people racing across the globe following clues and undertaking different challenges to win a million dollars. We closed our windows so we could see the screen better and had a great time watching the show -- pausing every now and then to talk about what we would do if we were contestants, and marveling at how awesome it is that they get to go to such breathtaking locations. The only thing disturbing our viewing pleasure was the captain who kept coming on over the loud speaker. At one point, I actually bothered to listen to him and heard him say something about looking out the window. So I opened the shade and there, all around us, were the gorgeous, amazing Andes (including the highest peak in the world outside the Himalayas). We immediately looked at each other and burst out laughing. Here we were watching The Amazing Race and envying the contestants for the exotic locales they visited, all the while flying over (and ignoring) one of the most incredible mountain ranges in the world!!! Talk about irony...


Mendoza is a pretty little town, with lots of tree-lined streets and sidewalk cafes. We were happy to find that our hotel room had air conditioning (!), daily maid service, and even a balcony overlooking Plaza Independencia. Quite a step up from Casa Vaiven, and for only $7 more! After checking in we stopped to listen to some local talent (a drum line and a rock band) in the plaza, walked along a huge outdoor crafts market, and headed out for dinner.

-Elva