Day 5: Mendoza (Oh look it's winter in Ann Arbor)

You'd think that after four consecutive days of being sleep deprived, waking up early and possibly hung over, we'd learn to call it quits earlier at night and take it easy. Well that's the thing. You'd think. Turns out that we, on the other hand, aren't that bright. We woke to a 7:30 am pick-up and flight to make our way to Mendoza. But Iguazu had been brilliant, and so even if some of us were a tad queasy on the plane - we were happy on the inside.

However, Iguazu didn't seem to happy to see us. Clouds. Rain. Temperature like Ann Arbor around Thanksgiving? Somewhere around us the gorgeous Andes were alleged to rise out of the earth. But it was too cloudy and misty to spot them that morning. At one point during our bus tour of the city that day, it even started snowing. At this point I'll bring your attention to the fact that just that morning, we woke up near a tropical rainforest. Ah Argentina.

On the plus side, our guide Eugenia (eww-hen-ya) turned out to be a darling. And Sawna's joy knew no bounds when, after arriving at our hotel she found all of zero flies in our room's bathroom.

Mendoza, as it turns out is a pretty huge place. Not some remote tiny-town we mistakenly assumed it would be. With origins in the cattle route between Buenos Aires and Chile, Mendoza is a desert town that owes its rise to a flood irrigation system and a dry, multi-altitude climate that makes the grapes happy.

The high point of the day was stand up, sit down - El Palenque - a delightful tavern-restaurant with amazing food and atmosphere. Have to say I got some of my best shots with the prime lens right here. It was here that we discovered caprese empanadas. And the carne empanada here was probably the best - spicy!