Mendoza: Is this still S America?

One day in Salta, and we were on the road again. We booked a bus to head for Mendoza, about 1200km south, and our gateway to Chile.

As we previously stated, the bus cost us a small fortune, but we were extremely overwhelmed and impressed with it. The seats looked like the first class seats on Air Canada, the windows were huge and clean, there was TP in the baño, and there was an unpresidented lack of the smell of B.O. (But we must note, everyone has raved about the buses in Chile and Argentina, how amazing they are and how punctual... 2 out of 2 buses so far for us have been late even arriving at the terminal to load, let alone leaving... so we shall see).

The highways in Argentina are superb! They are paved, relatively straight, and at times even divided! Our trip to Mendoza was great and included 3 movies, snacks, and a very delicious dinner service as well as breakfast this morning.

We arrived in Mendoza this morning at 9am and had to give our heads a shake. To start with, the bus depot was unreal. There is really no other way to describe it; it is reminisant of an airport back in Canada, with electronic shops, restaurants, bars, newstands, you name it... From there we headed off to find our hostal, it is equipped with a garden area with a ping-pong table, computer use, a living room area with cable TV and a kitchen that serves a free breakfast. (Although, gone are the days of less than 4CAD each for a private room).

After a shower we headed out to explore the city. There is no way to really describe how absolutely amazing the transformation that took place when we crossed the border. It doesn´t just feel like we are in another country, we literally feel as though we have teleported forward in time. Needless to say, we are again in a larger city center, but the resemblence to Europe or even N American cities to a certain extent is uncanny after the last 3 months of travel.

We found ourselves strolling down streets with unbelievalby wide sidewalks, monsterous trees providing shade, sidewalk cafes filled with people, cars that have mufflers.... We now know what Dorthy was feeling like when she said, "I don´t think we are in Kansas anymore, Toto."

It was strange not to see a pig or donkey or llama grazing at the parks. And the people were not constantly trying to sell us something, or just staring. And we saw no one dressed in flowing skirts or with the pork pie hats.

Although the city is a reprise from what we have been living for the last few months, there is not much to do here other than wander the streets and relax, and considering that we have relized we have less than 3 months left here. We have decided that we are going to be moving on tomorrow. Our plans are to either head right to Santiago tomorrow, or stop off in the town of Uspallata (the location for Brad Pitt in "Seven Years in Tibet") for a day or two beforehand.