Backpacking South America

We’ve finally made it to Mendoza, the original inspiration for our trip.  While it is a city full of opportunities, it has always been quite an adjustment for us.

After a 24 hour bus ride from Puerto Madryn, we arrived to a pretty bustling city.  Mendoza is the fourth largest city in Argentina, with 130,000 in the city, and 850,000 in the greater metropolitan area.  That seems like a lot of people, but it doesn’t feel like a lot or people.  It’s a drastic change from Buenos Aires and it took us pretty much an entire week to adjust and begin to appreciate all this city has to offer.

A Smaller City

Not as many people take the colectivo (aka – the bus), but they also have a card that you can charge up, unlike Buenso Aires  (moneda not needed).  However, if you do use moneda to take the bus, please note: you will not get change.  Many people have cars and where they park them is called the “Playa,” not to be confused with the “Beach.”

Everybody Eats Ice Cream…All the Time

If  you can’t beat ‘em – join ‘em.

We’ve been in Buenos Aires for a week now and have loved nearly every moment of it.  We have visited many parts of the city and have walked miles and miles and miles (I guess there called kilometers here).   We look forward to our next few weeks here and hope to learn more about this city and its people (porteños).

This is a very big city with people everywhere at all hours. 
Manhattan is busy, but Buenos Areas is bananas.   Walking through the city, taking the bus to school, everywhere we go the streets are filled with people, it seems every street level space is filled with a bodega, kiosk or some sort of retail store.  And they protest something, all the time.

Beef and Wine are cheap, everything else is about the same.
Did you know it’s cheaper to get a glass of wine than a bottle of water in a restaurant?  Did you know it’s cheaper to buy a steak than it is to buy a liter of soda?  Well, it is.

Watch where you walk.
If you’re not watching where you are walking, you WILL step in SOMETHING… Dog walkers can only walk a maximum number of 14 dogs…”Huh?,” you say.  That 15th dog really puts them over and shakes up the bunch.  Maybe it has something to do with balance – 7 on this arm, 7 on that arm?  In any case, we’ve also observed a number of feral dogs in the city.  They seem much better behaved than domestic dogs.  They don’t seem to bother you at all. 

If you’re not watching where you are going when crossing the street, you WILL get hit by a car (or bike).  Even when pedestrians have the right of way, cars that are turning will turn right into the crosswalk and right up to the crossing pedestrians, just waiting for a little room to squeeze through.  Oh, and did I mention, bicyclists and motorcycles don’t adhere to traffic laws.  (There are a fair amount of bikes, but no one wears a helmet.)  And, aside from all the dog poop, if you’re looking up and not down, it’s very likely you could trip over missing pieces in the sidewalk.  It just happens.