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Published: November 27th 2010
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We took an early morning minibus to Marlgue. It was cramped as we had been given four seats at the back of the bus. The woman in front of me had subsequently decided to lounge in her chair which meant mine and Blakes knees were pinned to the back of her seat 6 hours or so. thinking how ridiculous to recline in a minivan, blake and I made it difficult for her and proceed to shove our knees deeper into the back of her chair, making it difficult for her to sleep. The town was tiny and baron upon first impressions. reading up on it, it was supposedly a tourist town in teh winter, but in Spring it was very quiet indeed. After grabbing a few essentials from the supermarket, we hopped in a ute taxi - the boys in the back and teh girls up front in the cab section. We were headed for a hostel we had prebooked in mendoza, called the Malargue eco hostel. Eco becuase it was a farm type property and boasted environmentally friendliness.
We arrived only to be greeted by the same woman I had been digging my knees into for 6 hours on
the bus. Turns out she runs the hostel with her husband it was a little awakrd to say the least. More annoying was the fact that she wasnt told that we were coming, so fussing about she fumbled her way through the check in process and escorted us to out 4 bed dorm. the hostel was lovely and we seemingly had the place to ourselves for the night, bonus! After a hearty meal of homecooked stew and a film we all hit the hay. About 2am, I awoke in some discomfort only to discover large welts on my neck and chest. I tried not to wake Kyle and tahlei instead just wispering to blake. It was unavoidable though as teh welts were subsequently bed bug bites. We all jumped out of our beds, weary and annoyed. I was working myself up a bit especially when I saw the size of the welts and Kyle squashed an actuial bed bug in my bed. I have never felt so gross. No one else had seemed to be bitten so I jumped in the shower then we all bunked in together, Kyle and tahlei on the bottom bunk and Blake and I on
the top. Needless to say we didnt sleep a weink and i ended up having a few more bites in the morning, on my face was the worst. Tahlei had asuffered some serious looking ones too. The boys escaped though, lucky for them.
The next morning we informed the woman we would be checking out and that she would be washing all of our clothes and sleeping bags, she seemed shocked but there isnt really much you can do besides close the hostel for a day and fumigate. We thought this is what might happen, alas when we left a group of 17 showed up ready for a saty at the Eco Hostel, we were shafted to our new hostel so quicly that we didnt even have enough time to asy hi to the new guests let alone tell them about what kind of stay they were in for. it was a shame about the bed bugs as teh hostel weas really very nice but there was no way I was getting back in one of those beds.
Before setting of on a 14Km walk we stopped for suplys at a nearby shop. It was basically a womans
house that she had converted into a shopfront, fairly stocked up too! Tahlei and I were instantly distracted by the baby in the next room, we could see him through a crack in the door. Before we knew it the young mum went and picked him up and plonked him in my arms. He was adorable, Tahlei and I spent the next five minutes passing him back and forth for hugs, forgetting that we still needed to buy lunch.
Half the 14 Km walk down we spent lunch under the shade of a tree, dining on salami and cheese rolls - a dish I could gladly do without. We saw a flamingo, trout (random trout farm) and wild pigs that day, Blake and I thought the pigs were boars and quickly ran to the roads edge. Turns out it was just one pig attacking another.... by attacking I mean very aggresively trying "mate" - heavy!
The next morning we had arranged to go horseriding in the mountians, I was not looking forward to it as before this experience I was pretty terified of horses. Once I was on I was OK though the terain was not at a
beginners level it was hardcore to say the least. Up steap mountians, down even steaper mountians, across rivers and strwams and over loose rocks. It was demanding but the horses could have done it with there eyes closed. Eack of our hourses did a great job except for one of the rouge horses that came along with us - "Goose" we named him, He had no rider so could go where he wanted. 9 times out of ten he convinced the other hourses to follow him - pest!
That night it was the boys tur to cook dinner, we were having house burgers, we were excited. 3 hours passed amd still no siogn of the boys or the burgers. Once they had arrived, raviounas, we tucked in. they were pretty good, long overdue, but good. We told them how good they were which was a mistake - we didn´t hear the end of it thye entire trip.
Besides the bed bugs abnd the initial horror of jumpoing on a horse Malargue was pretty special. the town itself didn´t have much going on but the mountians about an hour out were spectacular and the only way to see it
was to be oin horseback.
Next blog - San Rafial amd the reggae festival.
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