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Arriving from Easter Island into Santiago, raining! seems like i take the weather with me. As per Kathi's instructions, took the blue bus out of the airport,got off at Los heroes, took the subway and got off at Boquedano, walked around trying to find the Providencia hostel in the rain and cold. Found it and after setting my things in my room went to a chow at the Chinese restaurant across the street, I was starving so did not matter what food. The next morning I met Mario the super friendly owner of the hostel and helped me locate the Paraguay embassy and a few tips, including checking out the La Licenciada bar(coffee served by scantily clad women,sort of a hooters type cafe) and El Rapido a fast food place serving great empanadas. From the hostel it took a good 20 minutes to walk to Huerfanos St. in downtown and found the embassy, filled some forms then when it was time to pay, they only accept $ US and they wont change bills so i have to find a freaking money changer to give them exact $65, for multiple, I could have gotten single $45 but i suddenly toyed with the
idea I might return to Paraguay many times, multiple is valid for the life of the passport, 7 more years for me! relieved to be out of there, need to come back the next day to pick up passport, the guys at the embassy aren't friendly, never smiled nor chit chat, granted my Spanish is not up to par, but at least they should pretend they welcome tourists in their country. The next day I left the hostel with my packs, took the metro to University de Chile stop, damn its crowded! Picked up the passport, changed some left over money, and off to the bus station, only I got off at Estacion Central, wrong! Should have been the University of Santiago stop, have to walk about 15 minutes to get there exactly 10:30am huffing and puffing I found a bus errr a shuttle service that runs to Mendoza leaving ahora mismo! So bought the 12,000 pesos ticket and off we go.
There we only about 8 of us in the shuttle, and sat next 2 me are two old nanas that chit chat the whole way through! They only stopped briefly at the border post then went on
again! The scenery is fantastic! Gorgeous mountains, valleys, hills wow and we went up more than 3,000 meters to cross over to Chile, border control took more than an hour. The sun was out most of the trip until we passed a lake with lots of fog then on the other side the clouds appeared and stayed cloudy until we reached Mendoza. Took a taxi to Itaka House, from outside looks very nice but rooms are crap, old carpets, very dirty as if not vacuumed at all, decided to move to Lao Hostel the next day where my buddy Joe is staying. Walked around town to orient myself, it is quite cold here. Had a trout meal at the restaurant, then off to my cold bed.
The next day walked half an hour to the next hostel, Lao, as i was walking the main street a lady approached me from behind and said I have something in my pants, She smeared me with lotion to distract me! All over the back of my pants and my big backpack! This is a scam, it clicked on me right away so I brushed her aside and told her to f--k off! Now
had to walk the town stained. Finally found the hostel and cleaned up myself, waited for 3 hours for propre check in time so watched some tennis on tv. After I got my things sorted, i went for a walk to the huge Parque San Martin. I walked about 2 hours trying to get from the hostel to the Jardin Zoologico and Cerro dela Gloria, a small hikable hill, but got lost badly, the map we were given is crap! there are streets that were not on the map and the park itself is super big and confusing, roads and paths criss crossing everywhere, i met Fabian the Swiss dude from the hostel, he gave up looking for it but I persevered, got lost more, found a couple of tennis clubs, very envious, wanted to play, on red clay! Anyway, somehow I managed to find the Zoo with the help of locals of course but my feet are sore! The Zoo is immense as well and took me couple hours to see most, lots of cats, jaguars, pumas, leopards, panthers, which snarled at me when I took ages to photographed it, very moody!
Walked back to town again, passing the
Carrefour to shop for dinner, my feet hurts so bad been walking a good 5 hours straight now, relieved to make it back at the hostel and chill, free red wine at the hostel too yay..Off to the wine tour by bike, we decide to do it ourselves, about 5 of us from the hostel took the bus. Curtis an American dude, Georgina, an English girl, Fabian from Switzerland, Joe and me. We rented bikes at Mr.Hugo, they were very friendly and gave us free water. Our first stop was the Trapiche winery, really nice and chic looking, the wines were good too especially the malbecs. After we had our fill we moved on to Vina el Cerno where we had our lunch of fabulous steak sandwich for only 20 pesos. The wineries you pay for winetasting around 15 to 25 pesos roughly 4 to 7 dollars. I tried 3 wines here, a sweeter variety and 2 malbecs one heavier but better for meat. We sat around on bean bags and chill for a bit then moved on to the table for lunch. From there our last stop was Familia de Tomasi, we bought one good malbec and sat finished
it sitting near the grapevines. Then back to Mr.Hugo to return the bike and avail of some more free booze, which was not a good idea aswe got so drunk we played rubber face off silliest thing ever but quite fun when you're plastered. When we biked on the road and we have to be careful because of traffic and Argentinean drivers can get crazy, we were promised by the bike shop free booze when and "if " we return in one piece! Surprisingly we did!, took the bus back, we met Lionel another Swiss dude and Amy an American girl we hang out with them and went back to our hostel to chill. Joe bought dinner of steak and potatoes, we cooked them and served it to the hungry folks. Georgina and curtis went for a nap and never woke up for dinner, dead to the world! too much wine! Lionel was disappointed we decided not to go out and party, I left them watching a movie in the living room and went to bed myself.
Bad hangovers for everyone so today is chill day, we had pizza for lunch then back to the hostel to watch some
movies on TV, a bit cold and cloudy nothing of interest really to do. in the eve the carrefour store nearby the hostel is shut because its Sunday so we took a taxi to the bigger one an bought dinner and snacks for tomorrow when Joe and I will hike the Parque Provincial Aconcagua. We got this tip on how to go there from the nice American couple who went there when we biked the wineries couple days ago. so early to bed, no alcohol this time, Joe and I woke up at 5:15am and got ready, we took a taxi to the bus station and found Expreso Uspallata, the bus company that leaves at 6am for Puente del Inca, we fell asleep pretty quickly in the bus, then at Upsallata we have to change buses the driver woke us up, so this is what he was telling us earlier that we both did not understand as we were still both half asleep. About 4 hours total travel time we finally arrived at Puente del Inca a natural bridge rock formation stained with various colors, it has a hot spring but is now off limits to all to protect it.
a quick photo then I
asked one of the vendors selling souvenirs on how we can get to the Parque, he pointed to the rail tracks and told us to follow it and eventually we shall see a sign to the right, we followed the train tracks until the bridge when it was too dangerous to cross as it crosses over a river, we both walked and followed the highway, big trucks whizzing by. When we found the sign took us about 5 minutes to get to the entrance we paid 5 pesos entry fee and we started hiking the trail, we dont know exactly how high we are but we can feel the altitude, we took our time, the guy at the park entrance said it takes 3 hours roundtrip to follow the trail, the scenery is fantastic, perfect day too, cloudless blue sky. Aconcagua, the mountain range itself is scraggy and not attractive but is the highest mountain outside of the Himalayas. we loved the landscapes around and took more photos of them than the mountain itself. Great walk, we rested at the mirador and had our lunch, Joe chatted with an elderly Argentinean couple while I stuffed
myself with food. We found the Lago Halcones, we came close to it and realized we can see the nearby mountain ranges reflected on it so we took heaps of photos, gorgeous! then went back slowly to the entrance, we visited the office that has some information about the area. We walked for about an hour to get back to Puente del inca, only now that I realized that the Customs office for Chile and Argentina is just around the corner, this is where we got processed, crossing the border. Joe said there is another one on the Chilean side, this one seems close today. Anyway we made it back and we treated ourselves with quilmes and some empanadas while witing for the bus back. The bus ride back is quicker, only 3 1/2 hours though it stopped at a lot of places.
Back in town, we walked back to the hostel and showered and got ready for the asado feast tonite at the hostel, 17 American students checked in all from one University in Virginia here on a 2 week learning excursion, everyone seems very nice, and then the empanadas started to get passed around and wine ,
reds and whites started flowing as well, we are already pretty hammered by the time the asado is ready, cow meat to our heart's desire. we tired all sorts of red wine, malbec, shiraz-malbec combi which i thought was great and some white wine from Salta region, i think it was called torontes, good one.
Went to bed at 3am really wasted once again, passed out right away. Woke up early to sort out my s..t, pay the hostel, check out, do laundry, but bus ticket to Tucuman etc. Walked around as well for the last time, found the mercado central and bought my lunch there, saw some live snails for sale(caracoles in Spanish), yuck! They look like garden slugs. Went back to the hostel and had lunch and chilled, and went to nap, bus leaves tonite at 8:30pm for Tucuman.
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