Mendoza, Argentina- Arrival and WORLD CUP!
One rule/law/thing that some South American countries/airports have adopted is called a reciprocity fee. And from our travels in Argentina on our previous Buenos Aires experience, we’d already been subjects to those fees once before. To the tune of $270- just to get into their country. Ouch. Although when I realized the concept of ”reciprocity fee” was because that is what they are charged to come into my country, all I could be mad at those crazy rule making Americans. (GO USA!) ANYWAY…Adam and I were pretty confident that this trip and the tragedy was going to cost us another $270 to get into Argentina. That or forfeit the weekend and the cost of the plane tickets. So we went. And good news!- we didn’t have to pay the reciprocity in Mendoza! YAY!!! Our luck is getting better already!!
We arrived in Mendoza on a Friday night, and the town was BUMPIN’!! It turns out we were in Argentina the night before the world cup soccer (futbol) team was supposed to play in their first round World Cup game. WOO HOO!! The energy and amount of blue and white (team colors) in the streets was pretty amazing!! For anyone that has had the wonderful experience of being in another world country during the time of the World Cup, you may understand how serious this can be. Friday night was spent walking around town, taking in the energy and going on a search for food, trinkets and what our Saturday adventure might be. We considered white water rafting, biking, wine tours and all sorts of things. The boys were pretty stoked about white water rafting, but it was pretty chilly outside. I was not convinced it was the best idea ever. Luckily for me, and unluckily for the boys, all rafting trips were sold out. That’s what we get for waiting until the last second to book a tour. But they still had spots on the wine tour. Chris and I had never done winery tours before, so why not?
That night we found ourselves a recommended “parillada” or “parilla”- steakhouse, with “tenedor libre” or “free fork”, which essentially is ALL YOU CAN EAT! I didn’t know they would actually feed you every part of the pig/cow/horse/questionable animal part when ordering the “mixed plate.” So the first griddle the waitress brings out, I’m willing to try everything. And that was a bad idea. One of the items that looked like a small intestine was filled with the most disgusting paste tasting YUCK that I HAVE EVER TASTED!!! Blaoeiqahoash…gross! I honestly could not even swallow it. And in a previous experience of tasting blood sausage for the first disgusting time a few months prior, I was not going to even attempt the large, extremely dark sausage looking piece. Luckily Argentina didn’t treat us wrong. There were a few pieces of steak and sausage on that griddle that were pretty much to die for! Just like you hear about the Argentina beef….
The next morning, the entire town was going CRAZY with excitement about the upcoming 11:00am game. Considering we didn’t arrive back at the hostel until VERY late the night before, I was no so thrilled to be hearing those vuvuzela horns and screaming. But I rolled out of bed right before the game started. And just as the game was aired, the whole town went dead. There was not a TV screen around that wasn’t playing that super important game. And the team spirit of EVERYONE involved was truly amazing to watch. It’s like the Superbowl on crack…without the stupid commercials. ARGENTINA WINS!!! They move off to the 2nd round!! And to find out later, the USA ties England…MAJOR upset for those Brits- thinkin’ they could wipe the floor with us. HA!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
No Responses Yet to “Mendoza, Argentina- Arrival and WORLD CUP!”