Mendozz Part III

A preface: I've never been a horse person. I never had that phase where I bought horse folders and wanted to go riding (at least not that I can remember). I avoid horses in much the same way I avoid dogs -- not only do they smell terrible (let's be honest here, they do) but there's so much that can go wrong on a horse. If, for example it gets spooked by something (let's say a snake, to make the scenario even more dramatic for me) and freaks out, I could not only be bucked off but also entangled in a stirrup or fallen upon. Not fun! Christopher Reeve!

This being known, it may come as a shock that on my third day in Mendoza I willingly and eagerly paid money for a guided horse tour. And it was totally awesome. We took a bus, then a van up through the Andes to a small stable in a small town. A cute little gaucho man designated horses for us, and we took a three hour horse ride through the mountains. LE-GIT.

It's me! No lie.

Having ridden a horse only once before, I found the first thirty minutes absolutely terrifying -- I freaked out when the horse moved its head after I first got on, I freaked out when the horse started walking into another horse, I FREAKED out when the horse started trotting down a steep incline. The gaucho guide kept saying "no fear, no fear" which I initially believed were kind words to calm me but realized was a strained warning not to spook the horse with my nervous yelps. A ways in, I grew used to the ride and was able to keep my composure up and down hills (though I was not going to risk taking a hand off the reins to take any photos, so the ones I have are from before/after/other people's cameras).

Tranka, Spanka, Jappa // my "no fear" face, obvi

My horse's name was Spanka (no joke); Becky's was Tranka, and Debbie's was Jappa. Garrett had the least-funnily named horse with Gaucho (which seemed to fit since he was the only one able to ride -- he actually got scolded a few times for galloping when the going speed was mine aka a concerted effort to move forward at all aka I was more cool with this than I should have been, plodding meant safe). The route was scenic to the point of ridiculousness. No but really look at this:


Anyway, when we got back to Mendoza we had four hours before our bus left, so we walked around the city. Mendoza has a park that's as large as the city proper, which we found comical, and an odd water drainage system that forms a moat on every block. It's a really cute place, and I'm looking into teaching English there (at the moment I'm looking into teaching English anywhere in the world, actually, but that's another post). On the way back we got a movie (!) and more packaged cookies (!!) aaaaaand a bus that was still 60 degrees in the middle of the night. Whatevz. Good weekend. Anybody who comes to visit we're GOING.

No but what if a kid falls in there? Why is it on underline?