I arrived in Buenos Aires at the end of July and one of the hardest things for me to adjust to was the size of the city. Buenos Aires is a ginormous, bustling city that is about the size of NYC metro. As someone who has lived my whole life in the suburbs, it was quite overwhelming at first to always be surrounded by people or noise, or both. However, something I have really learned to appreciate is to spend some of the long holiday weekends out of the city to give me a break from the hustle and bustle. In September, I went with a few friends from my local university to Mendoza, Argentina for a long four-day weekend and it was amazing!

We started out the trip by walking around the city, which seemed much more calm than Buenos Aires, and enjoyed the scenery. We had some of the best food I have ever eaten in Argentina at a small-Venezuelan restaurant called “La Cocina de Nelson.” We liked this restaurant so much we came back three days in a row for their arepas, which are round corn patties that are grilled and stuffed with filling, and for their Papelón con Limon which is sugarcane juice flavored with lemon. We spent the rest of the day recuperating at our hostel and ended up making friends that we got to explore with for the rest of the weekend!

The next day was filled with wine tours and other excursions, as Mendoza is essentially the wine valley of Argentina. Argentina is known for their production of Malbec – a dry, dark red wine. Many of these wine were also paired with olive oil – another large Argentina product – or alfajores. Alfajores are traditional Argentina pastries made with two cookies smushed together with dulce de leche, a sweet sauce similar to caramel, in the middle.

Our last full day in Mendoza was by far my favorite. My friends and I went on a half-day excursion to the mountains with a local, family-owned company. With this excursion, we were able to go to this family’s ranch way out in the countryside. Once we arrived, we met the family, and the gauchos, or cowboys, that would be leading our three hour horseback ride on wild horses that the family had trained, throughout the mountains. After the horseback, the family prepared a traditional asado, which is like a barbecue, at their home with locally sourced meat and other traditional Argentine plates. The whole excursion group ate the traditional meal with Malbec, and as true Argentinians, talked about everything under the sun! We ended the night with an hour or so long drive back through “el campo” to our hostel. Such a relaxing day away from the city! 

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Learn more about this blogger’s study abroad program: CEA: Latin American Studies in Buenos Aires