Mendoza, Argentina - wine, rafting, and getting our bags stolen

After taking the best bus ride of my entire life (plush leather seats, reclining capabilities, double decker buses with food and drink), i arrived in mendoza on friday. The only negative was the couple sitting in front of my who made out the entire 15 hour trip...which would´ve been okay, except for the fact that there was a lot of loud saliva noises involved. BUT, i won a bottle of wine playing bingo (random, i know...), so all is forgotten and forgiven. Mendoza was a fairly little city (compared to buenos aires) with lots of beautiful parks...and lots of bag stealing. In the first hour one of the guys i was eating lunch with had his bag stolen (though we caught him cause a argentinian lady started yelling), and then an hour later we saved a backpacker from getting her bag stolen...THEN, the next day an older man dropped his keys in front of two of us, and i ran after him with his keys. when i tried to give them back to him, he was really confused, saying stuff like, ´keys? what keys...are these my keys?¨and so forth, and when i looked back i noticed that some other guy had gone up to Shen and was trying to sell her postcards. that´s when i realized that it was totally dodgy so i threw the keys at the man and ran back, after which all three men (there was another one, creeping up on our bags) ran away. the good thing is that the stealing was non violent...as soon as you caught the thieves, they dropped whatever the stole ran away. the bad thing is that...well, you get stuff stolen.
I lucked out in my hostel, with three brit guys who were really sweet (despite being incredibly intimidating...skinheads, built, and tattooed like crazy), and a couple american guys who were pretty cool. also, i had friends from buenos aires down for the weekend as well...that night was the full moon, and we ended up going midnight rafting. basically, we took a bus out to the site, then we got free beer and meat, and then they loaded us into rafts and sent us down the river, after which we ended up at an outdoor party. it was a bit complicated and super unorganized (a la south america), but in the end it was a pretty good time...despite the fact that it was Chilly with a capital C.
Oh, and on a side note. i hate casinos. i found out that i got 30 pesos worth of fake bills from the jerks.
okay, so then the next day i went wandering around some big park and saw some pretty weird things....people go karting randomly on the street, an emergency exit sign on an open patio, and reindeer in some random zoo. also got a beautiful view from this thing we had to climb (un cerro...i don´t know what it is cause i couldn´t find the translation in my dictionary...)...oh, and mendoza is right among the andes, so that´s pretty sweet.
the next day involved the main event...wine tour. we loaded onto a bus, hit up a few wineries and liqueur places, and then ate the hugest meal EVER. meats, and vegetables, and empanadas (my favourite.), and cheeses, and breads, and salads, and dessert, and grains i can´t identify, and things that i know the name of in spanish but i don´t know in english. oh, and of course, unlimited wine. they have a type of wine here called malbec...special to argentina and absolutely delicious. get yourself to the LCBO and find a bottela of it right now!
anywho, i got back yesterday morning (after the long ride i went straight from the bus station to spanish class...bad idea)...spanish classes have been awesome, but GIC Argentina (the company i´m with) seems intent on screwing me over for lessons...i signed up for 2 weeks of private classes (=40 hours), but since this week there have been three days of holiday (mon, thurs, fri cause of easter..), they think this means that i shouldn´t get those classes....which is crazy, right?
mom, don´t worry, i´m not picking up random cab men...try and work less, 17 hours is only fit for a robot. oh, and the word is ciao, you´re right...but it´s spelt ´chau´here.
al, in BA there´s no official siesta, but i often have a self imposed siesta...especially between dinner and going out.
sonia...yes, i´m having much more luck here at the casino than in sydney...but perhaps it´s due to the fact that i didn´t just put all my money on one number in roulette. and yes, steak rocks.

p.s. i{ve started posting all my pics on facebook, so if you want the full show, they will soon be all there (including my southeast asia pics!)