Mendoza - Snow , Wine & Swine!

WOW! As bus rides go that's gotta be up there with the 250 from Piccadilly to Trafford Park!!! In fact, it was a 7 hour journey through the Andes, crossing an International border, on a luxury coach with free food & drink and reclining seats, and it only cost 3 times that of the 250 journey. Amazing really! 20 mins through Hulme & Trafford, or a bus through the Andes?

Grabbed a cab from the bus station in Mendoza to the hostel, fair distance but only cost a quid. The place was amazing, really old traditional South American House, but this made it really cold, so plenty of blankets required!

Swine Flu has hit Argentina hard, and as a result loads of businesses have closed...including bars. So it took a bit of asking around and befriending locals to find out where one could quaff large amounts of ale till the early hours. It seems a few places were still willing! Only 1 pub could serve late, an irish bar, suprise suprise and it was basically 24 hours. But the new swine flu law, and this is true, is that everyone in the place had to have a seat, no standing at all, as this apparently spreads the flu. The theory being if you're sat down you're not too close to people. Anyway, we found this Irish place in the early hours and tried to walk in as it looked empty but was told it was full! Full because they don't have many chairs so not many people can go in! So we had to wait, and no one was coming out in a hurry as it was freezing cold and it was the only place serving! We were detirmed to get in, and it only took 1 hour of constantly annoying the bouncers & manager before he found some emergency chairs...we were in!!! atmosphere was pretty rubbish as it was half empty, and you weren't allowed to mingle, as that involved leaving your chair!!! Weird night, but very late one, i made breakfast as i got back to the hostel!!

Being so close to the Andes, there are a few good ski resorts, so a few of us decided to go up. Really cheap around here. Transfers there & back (3 hours each way), all your clothes, boots, board and lift pass came to around £50! Bargain! I got to the top of one of the smaller slopes, and realised it was a tad bigger that the one i went to in New Zealand! But, of course, i nailed it! Snowboarding is great, really hard work, but such a good day! The atmosphere is brilliant. Good few bars & restaurants and music playing constantly!

Another famous Mendoza past-time is drinking wine, as the place is full of vineyards! To take full advantage of this, a load of us rented mountain bikes one morning and set off. We found a vineyard, had a tour, sampled many wines (pretty rough stuff, although some were decent) and moved on to the next! Brilliant way to spend the day, cycling round vineyards and drinking lots of wine! Got back to the hostel full of Red Wine, and few of us cooked a huge feast with 2 more bottles of red! 1 girl introduced a bottle of absinthe to the table, christ, forgot how burny that stuff was! Lazed around the hostel all night and early hours and disgusted myself my finishing off another 2 bottles of red! Impressive feat, but quite bad! And strangely enough i felt fine in the morning!

Anyway, that was pretty much Mendoza done with, Snowboarding and wine...... Another bus awaits to Buenos 'City centre shut down because of Swine Flu' Aires!

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