Argentina - Mendoza - Adios to the Americas

So in about 48 hours, I´ll be boarding my flight from Santiago to Auckland. And 48 hours after that I will arrive in New Zealand, despite the fact that the flight is only 13 hours. That´s right, I have discovered time travel and will be skipping March 3rd this year. I never cared for that date anyway, so no big loss. We´ll see how the jet lag pans out...

While I´m definitely looking forward to getting to New Zealand and shamelessly abusing Mike and Ashley´s hospitality in Dunedin when I arrive, I´m also sad to be leaving the Americas, which have proved both challenging and amazing. For now, I´m chilling in Mendoza again en route back to Santiago for my flight on the 2nd and trying very hard not to spend money since I´m already outrageously overbudget for this leg of the trip.

I have to say Argentina was a stand out for me, for any number of reasons, but particularly because they have solved three problems that affect me regularly in my Canadian life:

1) Serviettes. Here, there is a cloth napkin for your lap and then a supply of paper (or plastic) napkins on the table. This solves my long term dilemma over shuffling the one serviette I´m given in Canada between my lap and the table.
2) Individual servings for purchase at the grocery store. I can buy just one yogourt, or just one granola bar. I don´t have to buy the club pack of anything.
3) Most importantly, they have invented ice cream delivery services here. I can´t tell you the number of times I bemoaned the unavailability of this service when I was too lazy to drive 20 minutes to the nearest DQ or Baskin Robbins.

That´ll be the last post from the Americas, my readalongers. And if anything really important happens on March 3rd, pass it on.