The Sights of Mendoza

I’ve come to love my new home here in Mendoza as I begin to settle in and digest the fact that it is indeed home for the next five months. Most impressive are all the trees that grow throughout the city and particularly in the Parque de San Martin. It’s winter here, so many of the trees don’t have leaves, but nonetheless I can just imagine what the city will look like once all the trees are leafing out. There are many plazas within the city such as La Plaza Independencia, La Plaza Italia, La Plaza España, etc. which all showcase a variety of water features and gorgeous trees and statues. For safety reasons I haven’t been taking my camera with me most places, but hopefully in the future I’ll be able to snap some photos of more of these plazas. I particularly like the Plaza España because it has beautiful tile work around the fountains. Overall I think the plazas are a wonderful breath of fresh air and I hope once classes start I can meet classmates in one of the plazas to study and share matte.

The other amazing feature of the city previously mentioned is the Parque de San Martin which is very close to my house. The park features many different elements, including monuments, lakes, statues, fountains, a zoo, soccer fields, tennis courts, and much much more. It’s pretty much enormous. I’ve gone there a couple times just to walk around and enjoy the sights with friends and it’s just so beautiful! One element I absolutely can’t wait to see in the summer is a part of the park called La Rosada because it’s absolutely covered in roses. Rose bushes, roses climbing white columned terraces over the walkways, beautiful statues and benches everywhere… in my imagination I can completely visualize it in the summer and I can’t wait!

The park also extends westward enough that it starts gaining elevation into the mountains. The high point of the area is el Monumento al Ejército de los Andes which features a sculpture celebrating San Martin and his Army of the Andes. It was erected in 1914 and was quite impressive! From the vantage point of the monument we could see the mountains much more clearly than in the city as well as many wineries nestled against the foothills. Unfortunately we visited the spot during the afternoon and photographs were difficult with the sun, but in the morning I would love to return and watch the Andes come in full view. My heart aches to get into the mountains and I’m doing my best to make sure that happens this weekend!

Ciao for now!

-Lisa en Argentina