Voyage to the End of the World

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My last couple days in Mendoza have been full of action. Exactly how I like things. I just cant stand getting caught in the lazy days of vacation where you do absolutly nothing. That is except Ruttgers. That is an exception. So on Monday I had arranged to a trip to Argentina Rafting to go down the Rio Mendoza. I have been white water rafting in Honduras once before and had a great time. I assumed this trip would be similar, but I was dead wrong.

Upon arrival to the site I soon saw that this river was chocolate brown. I also found out that the water is freezin cold as it is runoff from the andes mountains. I was kind of excited about these facts as it added a little twist to the trip. We proceeded to get our gear and head up stream about 20 min. to the launch spot. I ended up being in a boat with a bunch of retirees and along with there guide had to carry the burden of the rowing from the front of the boat. I had no problem with this becuase this way I get to hit all of the rapids head on. There were no drops on this river, but some pretty intense rapids that almost put me right out of the boat. After we made it through all the tough areas I jumped in the water to get a the blood flowing a little and it worked to perfection. Overall it was a great experience. I would of liked to flip the boat or have something else happen, but not on this one.

Later in the afternoon I had a nice lunch on site and prceeded to do the canopy tour. I think we did around 6 lines which took about 2 hrs. It wasnt near as exciting as the rafting, but it had a special allure to it. Getting up high in the hills allowed is to see some amazing views of the lake below.

I got home from rafting at around 7 ordered some really strage pizza and hit the hay. On tues we spent the day touring 2 different wineries and having the best lunch ever. The first winery was owned and operated my Carmelo Patti who is a famous botique winemaker down here. To my suprise we got the tour directly from the man himself. He spoke no english so at first I was enjoying trying to figure out what was going on. That was until another group came with a translator which ruined my spanish lesson for the day. I really enjoyed seeing the process of making wine and seeing the passion this man has for his business.

After this tour we went to lunch which was amazing to sy the least. Check out the pictures of this spread of food we walked into. I got so full after this meal that I took a power nap in the lawn of the restaurant while we waited for our driver. We checked out a similar winery after this and got to tour the actual vinyard this time. After this last one I was ready to go home and already thinking deeply about my upcoming adventure going south.

I had had enough of the normal vacation at this point and was itching to get onto Patagonia and beyond. Tonight I leave on a bus down to Neoquen to get my rental car and start my 1500 mle journey to the most southernly city in the world. Im going to spend over 25 days on this voyage as I check out many of the best national parks in the world and fly fish over 15 different rivers and lakes on the way. They say that this drive is rarely done do to the large distances between towns in the far south of argentina. They also say for those willing.... its the adventure of a lifetime. Sign me up.

At this point I have no true itinerary as I just try to make it south by feb 5th. I know most of the towns are small and far and few between so access to the internet will be spotty. The blog will be farther apart at this point, but have much more excitement to them I hope.

Chau

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Photos

Safety Talk for Rafting
Nice wetsuit huh..The water was brown and around 12 celcius which is pretty cold. We had to wear this full body wetsuit and a slash guard

Group of Brown Water Rafters
This is our whole group as we prepare to hit the rapids. There were a total of 4 boats and 4 Kayakers around just in case we fell in. I was really hoping are boat would flip or something. What fun that would of been.

Here we go
Isnt that the most beautiful water you have ever seen. It really taste good too. Trust me. My boat it the first one in this group. I got to sit in the front and took every rapid head on. It was pretty mint.

I am not in this boat
I wasnt able to get the pictures from our boat, but this is an example of some of the rapids we were hitting.

Another shot of my buddies boat
More rapids

Cowabunga Dude...
This was pretty sweet. I have never done a zip line tour before and didnt realize you could go upside down like this.

Across the Rio Mendoza
This was probably oevr a 100 Yard line.

Scenery
They called this a canopy tour, but as you can see there is no trees or canopy anywhere. This all tookl place in the andes mountains, in a high desert like setting.

Cannon Ball
On the last one they made us do a connon ball in order to cut the wind resistance so we could make it all the way across. I still fell short by about 30 yards.

Winery. On top of the vats
We were standing on top of the wine at this poitn as it is being fermented for up to a year. We actaully tried wine right out of them to see how the different stages of fermentation affect the taste.

Side View of the Vats
This is the same structure we were on top of where the fermentation process takes place

Wine Making
On the left is a press that they use to squeeze the juice out of the grapes and the containers to the right hold the wine after it comes apart from the skin.

Brown to Aqua Blue
I have no idea how this happens, but as you can see that brown river turns to a amazing aqua blue color as it pours into Lake Mendoza.

Grapes
Simply Put

Carmelo.. The Winemaker
This is us with the owner of this botique winery. He produces around 65K bottles a year and only has one other employee. He does absolutly everything in this place.

Check out this Spread
On the day we were checking out the wineries we had lunch in this private room and we came in to this spread of gourmet food on the table. It was unreal. The best lunch I have ever had for sure and for only 17 bucks it was quite a bargain too. I thought the boar head was a nice touch.

Entrance to Lunch
This is the entrance to where we had lunch. There were tons of grapes growing on teh trellace on the way in. They actaully use these grapes to make there own wine right on site.

Grape, Grapes, and More Grapes
This is a pic of the grapes on the vine. This winery has around 40 acres of grapes growing that produces around 250K bottles of wine a year

No that steak is not on its side.
This was the biggest piece of meat I have had on this trip yet. It was over 5 inches tall and cooked to perfection.

Comments

[dino]

get er goin
Reed, Quite working on getting laid and get a rod out (fly rod) and lets see some of those trout patagonia is famous for. Sounds great, enjoy your trip Kev

[Linda]

You should host a travel show - might be a new career for you! By the way, aren't you supposed to be in class?

[Andrea]

Hola
Me llamo Andrea. Tengo veintisiete años. Quiero ser médico.Hablad más lentamente, por favor. Está más o menos cinco inutos andando. Podríais decirme adónde puedo comprar un poco queso, por favor? Me he desconectado. Quiero ver una película ciencia ficción. Dónde ésta la estación de ferrocarril más cerca? Hay otro hotel cerca de aquí. Buenos noches…………your favorite Aunt, Andrea. You didn’t know I speak fluent Spanish, did ya! I expect a response in the same. Love you – Stay Safe, don’t mind telling you I’m a little concerned reading about your adventures so far.

[billy lu]

I am your hero
Buddy u nneed to start closing some deals like your heros billy lu rich and alton. when lloyd and i come out we will show u how be careful and have fun!!

[Reedo]

I ended class a little early to head south. Im going to take some more school later in my trip

[Reedo]

No way
No conozco to estae fluencia en espanol. Estoy muy supriendo. Mi espanol es muy poco ahora, perro es letamente va mejor. Youll have to give me lesson when I get back

[Colin Stuart]

Wild On , Reed Whiting
Looking good Reedo, looks like the voyage keeps getting better and better. I was wondering why i havent seen any trout pictures yet and after seeing you on all these wine tours i've found my answer, lay off the wine and dust off your fly rod big guy! All the best mi amigo, stu

[Reedo]

Check out the other blogs
Theres a bunch of fish pic on there bro you just have to go to the other blogs its not sending emails anymore. I have some shit lined up for us down here when your done with hockey bro. It took 25 days of messing around but were dialed now.