So having checked weather reports, we decided to cancel plans to go South (gonna do that on our return to argentina in about 5 weeks), and have instead headed west to mendoza near the Chilean border, and wow... what can I say? Beautiful chilled out city with the andes in sight, cool, crisp mountain air and a chance to chill the fuck out. Which is just the remedy for the mayhem that was BA! It seems like for the first time in ages I am totally relaxed, and when I put my head down at night my brain feels peaceful in [View Full Entry]

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Leaving Mendoza today after a week here. Great city. Quite sleepy, but very relaxing and much better weather than the cold and wet of Bariloche. This is wine producing region of Argentina so you can probably imagine that red wine consumption has been pretty grand! We did a wine tour on bikes which was great fun even if slightly dangerous after a fair amount of red wine. It was one of my best days so far. Great fun and the wine was out of this world. I reckon I´m a bit of a connessour now(I know that´s probably not how you [View Full Entry]

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I attended a Spanish language program at a place called Intercultural last week. I left the house at about 7:45 each morning. It is about a 30 minute walk each way. I allowed my self time to stop at a cafe for jugo naranja (fresh squeezed), cafe con leche, and a medaluna. From 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. I heard not a word of English unless it inadvertently escaped from my own lips. It was very taxing for my old brain, but I do think my comprehension of the language and my ability to speak has improved noticeably. The instructors there [View Full Entry]

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With a day time bus trip on offer, the chance to rest the feet and tune into some spanish lessons was anticipated. But with the impending (and very imposing Andes) beckoning from the distance, there was no way any Spanish was going to be done. The feet rested while the neck struggled to ensure the views were throughly appreciated. *Gradually decreasing agricultural activity as the altitude ascended. *A town with equal numbers of parked cars and horse drawn carts (with car tyres) *Hitting an Alpe d”Huez style switchback assault up to the Andean pass *Through a ski field, with two skiers [View Full Entry]

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Back to where I left off...last Thursday the school held a cooking class to learn how to make alfajores and some kind of pie, I forgot what it´s called. But I kept the recipes and hope to make them when I get back to the states! I think that´s the only kind of Argentine cuisine I´ll be able to make myself. No huge steaks or entrail stew for me. I´m kidding, it´s not really entrail stew, but stew with even one bit of cow guts is enough for me to consider it entrail stew. I´m not trying to insult the stew [View Full Entry]

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We were both looking forward to the bus journey back to Santiago from Mandoza. The crossing of this part of the Andes is both long and unpredictable. The road can be closed at short notice so we left a couple of days grace in case anything went wrong. Our bus left on time and the day was very clear which was great as we really wanted a good view as our crossing from Osorno to Bariloche had been dense fog so we saw little of the mountains on that journey. As we started winding through the hills and climbing it very [View Full Entry]

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All right, after a somewhat good night's rest talking to some Brazilians, I headed out to the train station to buy my ticket to Salta. After going through that pain (I should have shopped around, but I trusted Andesmar...) I bought a ticket to head to the Hot Springs in Cacheuta. The bus ride was an hour, and there weren't that many people on it. It was beautiful driving through the Andes. Cacheuta is a very little pueblo in the Andes. The biggest attraction, of course, is the thermal hot springs. The pictures are beautiful, but when I got there, not [View Full Entry]

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We were both pretty excited about going to Mendoza - the centre of wine country in Argentina and at the gateway to the Andes mountains. The bus journey started well with a jolly steward who gave us blankets and cushions and we soon curled up to catch up on some sleep. However, we were awoken for breakfast which was another Argentinian culinary masterpiece - dry crackers (with some jam to dip them in if you wished), a white chocolate covered wafer bar and a white chocolate alfajore (a very popular biscuit sandwich containing dulce de leche - caramalised condensed milk - [View Full Entry]

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Since the sun doesn't rise until about 8am here, I didn't wake up until about 9am or so. This is very very late for me. I finally got started along the day and headed out into town. I was supposed to head to the High Mountain tour, but had to postpone it for a day because I had no clothes that would be appropriate for the mountain... but I still thought, this is something I must do while I am here! So my main mission was to buy clothes appropriate for going to the mountain. As I walked around Mendoza I [View Full Entry]

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I arrived at 9am on the cama bus... which is the most amazing thing every invented. I've also never been on a Greyhound that I remember, so I have nothing really to compare it too. But if you read my other entry-- dinner, breakfast, movie, what more could you ask for? I must say, I held onto my things as tightly as I could... I took the cab to my hostel, which actually isn't that far away from the bus terminal. I really could have walked. This just means that it is far away from town (which I will get to [View Full Entry]

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