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Published: December 18th 2008
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Hello.... I though id already published these 3 blogs but apparantly i just saved them.... maybe i was waiting to be able to add some photos... OK well here they are.....
Hey everyone!!
Im up stupidly early in the morning because of the jet lag so thought i would make the most of it and finish up my blogs for South America!!
Finally left BA and got the overnight bus to Mendoza - was sooo tired from a lack of sleep that i slept like a baby.... i had 2 seats to myself for most of the way but vaguely remember some guy lifting my head up and pushing me on to my own seat when he got on in the early hours of the morning, i remember looking at him deliriously sleepy and thinking he looked like santa then next time i woke up he was gone! hehe! i chose the cheapest bus so the food was horrible.... nearly all bread in South America is cheap.... and sweet croisants with icing on top and then cheese and ham in the middle just dont work! So i gave mine to a stray dog who was giving me puppydog
eyes at a petrol station! :o)
Got to Mendoza and checked into Breakpoint hostel which was really cool and had a swimming pool... however I found out that Mendoza inn down the road was just as nice and much cheaper so i moved there after one night...but still spent most of the time at the other hostel as had met some hilarious Irish guys there! The first night i was there we all had a big bbq in the garden which was really fun and got to know everyone! 2 English girls had been there weeks because their friend they were travelling with accidentally put her foot through one of the glass doors in the middle of the night, was in hospital for weeks as she needed so many operations before having to go back to England because the insurance were refusing to cover it! Poor thing! :o(
The next day i did the winery tour with 2 of the English guys.... everyone else was too hungover and didnt want to come! We rented bikes from Mr Hugo, who was recommended to us by everyone as when you get back to give the bikes back its all you
can drink wine, but unfortunately only managed to get around 2 wineries because we went to the biggest ones first where you cant just sample you have to buy 2 glasses and the second one was a restaurant where we had a very late lunch! We wanted to go to the olive oil factory and the chocolate factory but the waitress told us they closed at 6pm so by the time we cycled there it would have been quite late! I wasnt at all interested in all you can drink wine at Mr Hugos (still detoxing after BA!) and we were all too tired to cycle back there so we got the bus back to Mendoza and Mr Hugo picked up the bikes from the restaurant! Saw a few people i knew at the wineries who i had met in Uruguay.... small world! The day was really lovely though.... realised how much i missed cycling and the countryside was beautiful! I also had a really cool bike - it was massive with a big basket at the front.... kept feeling like i was going to take off and fly like in E.T! hehe! ;o) That evening we had another big
bbq and then everyone went out and i went back to my hostel as i was sooo tired and couldnt face the thought of anymore wine!
The next day i met up with an English guy, Richard, who ive bumped into lots of times around South America, we, and his Irish friend, rented bikes and cycled around Mendoza which was lovely - found the hugest and most beautiful park ive ever seen although apparantly i was too quick for them because after a while of speeding off i turned around and they were nowhere to be seen so in the end i gave up waiting and just cycled around the lakes etc on my own! Then had a lazy afternoon by the pool!!
The next day i ended up stuck in Mendoza as i missed my bus in the morning and was told to come back later as i had been put on the later bus, so that evening i packed up all my things and went down to the station at 10pm only to be told that the bus was already full and i needed to come back the next morning for the 10am bus! I was
so paranoid about oversleeping again that i was at the bus station by about 8am, was told i had a space on the bus but needed to go and get cash out.... by the time i got back the stupid guy had given my seat to someone else so i needed to wait until 1pm! But nevermind.... i got to Santiago eventually.... but very late as the bus was delayed and then half an hour after crossing the border we turned round and drove back, waited there for a while and then drove off again.... noone knew why! I really embarrassed myself by standing up to go to the toilet downstairs, didnt see we were going round a hairpin bend and flew across the bus and landed on the laps of a couple sleeping across the aisle.... have never been so embarrassed and spent the rest of the journey hiding behind my lonely planet in shame! :o(Unfortunately I also got my mobile stolen on the bus... apparantly there are people out there who also like pink phones! :o( So all in all it wasnt a very successful journey!!
I really liked Mendoza though... the scenery is lovely, the plazas
and parks are beautiful and all the roads especially in the pedestrian zone are really wide as they had an earthquake in 1861 and were paranoid there would be another one so built the whole city with wide avenues for the rubble to fall into and huge plazas as evacuation points! We tried lots of different wines while we were there and ive really started to love red wine since being in South America..... the only thing i dont love is the purple teeth you get! ;o)
Right will do a very quick blog for Santiago.... it really will be quick as i wasnt there long!! :o) and will also try and attach some photos as this computer seems to have a memory card reader (still waiting for camera charger from ebay!)!
Lots of love from New Zealand!! xxxxxxxxxxx
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