A Beautiful Melting Pot Of Cultures

Hola todos!

It truly feels like so many big things have happened since I last wrote here, so I am excited to share what I have been up to. I’ve had the absolute blessing of hosting my sisters here in Mendoza and it has been such a special thing to share this place and all that it means to me with my family. Since having them here, I’ve been able to pretend to be a tourist here again, which has brought a lot of exciting experiences, and even things that I would have never experienced if it hadn’t been for stepping away from my normal pace of life here and exploring this city like it’s my first time here again. There’s so much to share, but for now I want to focus on one specific moment that really impacted how I want to spend the rest of my time here. 

In all of the fun tourist activities that I have done while hosting family here, it has been so interesting to meet the wide variety of people who are also visiting here and hear about their traveling experiences. I’ve always been told that there is a large tourist population in Mendoza, but in my day-to-day life, it can often feel like I am the only one. It’s extremely rare that I ever come across another native English speaker, much less another person from the United States. Needless to say, it was very exciting for me to meet new people from new places. In one day I met a group of friends from Europe who were traveling around South America to do volunteer work, a couple from Germany who was spending 6 months traveling all across the world, a girl from Ireland who was solo-traveling throughout Argentina and Chile, and a couple on their honeymoon from Australia that were working their way up through South and North America. 

Last week, we spent an evening horseback riding through the Andes Mountains with this blend of cultures. It was not only a beautiful view, but it was a beautiful thing to experience with strangers who have all come from different places. After riding, we went back to the ranch and shared an asado all together. We all shared about our background and the culture that we come from. We shared about how we got here and why we chose to come to Mendoza. We shared about what we’ve learned so far from being here and what we hope to get out of traveling. It was a beautiful way of putting life in perspective. It made the world feel a little smaller and more connected, while highlighting the beauty in diversity. It made me see a soft humility in humanity to be willing to experience and embrace a culture much different from their own. It made me realize that connection is much deeper than speaking the same language or having the same life experiences. More than anything else, it made me overwhelmingly grateful for this opportunity to see the world with my own eyes and escape my own little world for a much bigger, more beautiful one. 

With love, Sarah