Since I had gone to sleep at 7:30am, I was excited to sleep in a bit. Sadly, my body had other plans and I was awake at 11:00am. I woke up and decided to head out for some coffee and breakfast since I had missed the one at the hostel. I went by myself because I really needed some time to think. My relationship with my sister had come to such a head that I can no longer remove it from this blog. I think traveling with anyone for long periods of time is challenging. But it is certainly more challenging when you fundamentally do not understand the other person. We have always been from two different worlds; we find different things important and react differently in situations. I think this is usually a strength for us but lately it has been a curse. It is not that we do it care about each other; the truth is quite the opposite, we love each other very much. And I think because of that love, we try to cater to the other ones needs which actually pisses them off. We've spent the last week in relative silence and now it has really all come out. Alyssa said that she is going to go back to Tucson; I wasn't sure if she's serious or if she was bluffing but I can't say that I blame her. We aren't having fun anymore- it's not worth spending thousands of dollars to be miserable. I really hope that we can work through this and move forward. My feeling is that if she leaves on this note, this is all we'll ever be. We'll live in different cities, in different states, have jobs, families and different lives. We will be those sisters we said we'd never become, with our children only barely knowing each other, seeing each other only on Christmas. I really do not want this and I hope we can make a change.
Besides the sad circumstances, the coffee shop I'm sitting at us adorable. I am having a double espresso and croissant which is what they eat in Argentina for breakfast. Missing the free hostel breakfast usually vexes me but I knew that would happen this morning. Luckily, it is a little warmer here so I am perfectly comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt. It gives my one long sleeve shirt a much needed break.
Once back at the hostel, I met up with Alyssa and we went to check out one of the streets in Mendoza that is known for its cafes and live music. We ordered salads but ironically they contained mostly cheese and rice...lol. Lunch gave us a good opportunity to talk and discuss our situation openly. For my part, I have decided to try to not think of her as my sister, but as a fellow traveller. Somehow, this alleviates some of the pressure and stress from the situation and gives me a little more space from things. The talk was really good and I hope that moving forward we will not have any other issues.
We walked around during the afternoon, checking out the shops and eyeing things that if I actually had any space in my backpack I wold love to buy. We also exchanged our Chilean pesos for Argentinian ones. Apparently the official exchange rate for USD to Argentinian pesos is a 1 to 5 but there is a very well known black market where you can exchange them at a 1 to 10 rate. I guess this stems from the fact that Argentinians know their currency is unstable so they want to buy up American cash so that they have stable currency. Knowing this, we wished we had brought more cash into the country to exchange! I really like Mendoza and was happy to stroll around the city even though I was so exhausted. I was definitely making it an early night!
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