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Published: December 17th 2007
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This is after we got back to the park and I was able to have a good look. I though a photo was essential The last week was spent travelling west towards the border of Argentina and Chile. We stayed in two places, Cordoba and Mendoza. Cordoba was the site of possibly the dodgest hostel we stayed in. Damn you Baluch!!! For all its pitfalls, it had free b´fast and the internet was free and fastest there.
Cordoba is meant to be the cultural capital of Argentina, I think. Its home to 7 universities and had heaps of awesome street performances. We went on a day trip from Cordoba to Alta Gracia, Che´s home town (where he grew up as a kid). This turned out to be a side adventure as the main purpose of the trip was to go mountain biking. When we got off the bus, we didn´t really know where to go, but managed to pick up a stray dog who guided us to the bike place and then left us. Once we got our bikes and maps we were off. First stop was through this park, all the play equipment was made out of wood and looked fairly suss.
The mountain biking was fun and lasted about 4 hours. The first part was the hardest because it was this gradual uphill climb. We got to one of the turn around points, which was a river. I had visions of a wide at least 10m across river that would be fun to ride the bike through. Turns out it was only 2-3m wide and about 30cm deep, enough to get your bum wet on the way through. On our next route (this was the fun part) we got to the top of a steep hill and took some nice photos, it was quite scenic, little did I know what was instore for me. Apparently the guy who gave us the bikes told us to take it reasonably slow, I somehow missed out on that bit of info and decided to take this hill on. Not only was it steep, but it was bends, curves and the gravel was nice and loooooooose! So I managed to stack it going down, but as I realised this was happening I abandoned ship (Maja got the best view because she was behind me) and managed to land on my left shoulder, grazed/gashed my leg and graze my elbow. So that was the best part of the ride. When we got back to Alta Gracia we were meeting at this park, Scuba and I took a different route to Maja and John and we ended up on the other side other creek that ran through the park. We decided not to let that bother us and carried our bikes over these rickety bridges, that shouldn´t even exist.
After that adventure we checked out Che´s House (now turned into a muesum). It was a nice house and had lots of information... if you could read Spanish. Still I felt I had done something cultural.
We walked around Cordoba (like every city) and checked out a few art muesums. Our next stop was Mendoza, and we were due to catch a night bus. Turns out the buses went on strike. Only a few company were still running so we grabbed the last few tickets and waited for it.
We arrived in Mendoza at about 8am and headed to the hostel. Hostel Lao is by far the best hostel we have stayed in. Mendoza is famous for its wine region. We had an Asada night at the hostel. An Asada is a traditional Argentinian BBQ, where they cook up all this meat and drink lots of wine and cerveza. Some of the wines were pretty awesome, in particular the Malbec, which is the best product of the region (thats what I´ve been told). Our first adventure was to go rafting. We were told the rapids would be grade 3-4, but they were pretty tame and about grade 2. It was still fun though, a nice way to be introduced to the activity. The water was so cold, but so clear and beautiful. The view of the Andes was awesome as well. Other than that not much else happened. I bought a windproof jacket, for Patagonia, since I realised that it was going to be frickin freezing and a canterbury jumper with thermals wouldn´t cut it.
That concludes the Argentinian leg of the journey and I haven´t included photos because I forgot to bring the cd, but I will add them ASAP, especially the one of my leg. It makes me look so tough 😊
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Mama
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good lookin' legs
What other particular activity are you saving the "good" leg for?