Mendoza was great. Mendoza was sketchy. Here's why:

The wine was fabulous, of course.

The scenery was stunning. We took a trek up a hill to a monument where we got a perfect view of the Andes- even the far off ones with snow all over them. Sarah kept saying, "If I keep walking just a little further I'll make it to Chile. I must go to Chile!"

Our hostel was perfect but a bit of a shock for the first time hostel virgin.


My personal favourite event at the hostel was the "asado"- a barbecue, Argentine style. Basically, the whole animal is placed in the parilla and rubbed with salts and spices and then ravaged...I mean eaten by the heathens..I mean hungry people. SarahT and Becca opted for the soyburger (pussies....shit, did I just say that?)

So, being a hostel virgin I wasn't quite prepared for sharing everything with other people including those of the opposite sex. As soon as SarahT loudly asked, "How old is too old to be staying in a hostel." with the gentleman in question sitting right next to us, our troubles began. Including the fact that the sketchy old man ended up being my bunk buddy. Yeah, it was a little creepy, especially when, after asking me where I was from and finding out that I was a fellow Brit (dependent Brit without an accent, of course), he said, "Everywhere we Brits go we kill people." Dude, that is so not how to make friends with three girls who already think it's sketchy that you're over 50 and staying in a hostel. We would have given you at least the benefit of the doubt but, that just wasn't cool.

Other sketchy things about Mendoza. Remember how I'm like totally the biggest fan of dogs. Oh, you don't remember the 50 posts I've written about my child? I'll have to remember to post one soon.

Anywho, in Mendoza, the dogs don't really have homes like they do here in Buenos Aires where they're basically treated like royalty. In Mendoza they own the parks, barking in packs at anyone they don't particularly like walking or biking through their park (this is actually really comical to watch but I really did feel bad for the people they were barking at). They also like to walk through the viaducts below the sidewalks so they tend to be a bit dirty and greasy looking plus I'm sure they all have something much worse than rabies.

So, being the dog lover I am I also some how also become the dog whisperer (BTW that show is sad).

After dinner on Saturday night at a well Spanish restaurant we decided to make room for a little more alcohol. Thinking Mendoza would be safer than Buenos Aires at night (we've felt pretty comfortable so far and no, I haven't had to use the heel of my shoe as a weapon) we set out on foot. Not more than 5 minutes later we were being stalked by a sketchy man. We popped back into the doorway of the Spanish restaurant and he kept going. We set off again hoping no more sketchy men (we'd thankfully left the sketchiest of them all back at the hostel) would follow us.

Clip, clip, clip, clip.....we turned to face the scariest of all. A frightening mutt had decided to follow us. He joined us like he was our friend that we really didn't want there (I know a few of those) and continued to follow us even when I turned around and said "NO!" in my really scary voice.

He even crossed the street to fake us out and we thought we'd lost him but no...clip, clip, clip, clip...there he was again. He followed us all the way to the bar. I was so worried he was going to wait for us by the window and watch us. That freakin' sound. It will haunt all of us forever...

Clip, clip, clip, clip....