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Published: March 7th 2007
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A big hill
Mt Aconcagua - all 6,959m of it How I loved Mendoza. After an incredible bus ride from Santiago through the Andes (see the Viva South America post for further details), and an impressively slow and boring border crossing from Chile into Argentina, I arrived in town at about 10PM. Paradoxically, I had been sensible enough to book a hostel in advance, but foolish enough to not print out the booking confirmation with the address of the hostel or directions of how to get there. As soon as I got off the bus and was confronted by the throng of hostel spruikers I began looking for one spruiking my hostel so I could get an address. As it turned out, Greg and Gemma, a couple from the UK, happened to be on the same bus and heading to the same hostel so they took me under their wing, and I made it to the hostel.
Mendoza is a beautiful city with wide, leafy streets, and a rather slow, relaxed pace of life. While this was a charm, I think the real reason I loved my time there so much is the great group of people I hooked up with. Greg was laid-back and easy going almost to the
Christ of the Andes
Very chilly at 4,100m up point of indifference, but he had two great passions in life: Tottenham Hotspurs FC, and carp fishing. He knew everything there was to know about these two topics, and became uncharacteristically excited whenever the conversation turned toward them. I know little to nothing about either, but his enthusiasm was infectious and knowledge impressive. I look forward to wetting a line with him in northern Scotland in September - he was a fantastic bloke. He and Gem were so good to me and had the most similar outlook on life to me of anyone I´ve met thus far.
Then there was the Europeans. Juliane, the doe-eyed Danish princess and her German knight in shining armour Oliver were also favourites of mine - both great senses of humour and just genuinely warm, friendly people. The Dutch were the party animals, with Caroline "this is my first beer ever" being one of the biggest fizzhounds I´ve ever met, and Thomas and Evo always emerging late in the afternoon after yet another huge night on the town.
Some of the highlights of Mendoza activity wise were the bus tour I did with Greg and Gem up into the Andes. We took in
views of Cerro Aconcagua (at 6,959m the highest peak in the world outside the Himalaya), then headed up to the peak of Cerro Cristo Redento to see the Christ of the Andes monument sitting at an altitude of around 4,000m astride the border of Argentina and Chile. The views were spectacular but the windchill prevented more than a few minutes exposed to the elements. The Inca Bridge was also interesting on the way back although I was perhaps slightly underwhelmed by it - I thought London Bridge was better before it collapsed but perhaps I am biased. There were a few others stops in there as well but none really warranting a written description - mainly just incredible scenery that had to be seen to be believed.
Another highlight was playing a soccer game with a few of the locals. One of the Argentine guys at the hostel asked us if we wanted to join in for the game, and I agreed to it, assuming it was a hands-in-pockets intensity game of kick-around in a park somewhere. It turned out that it was close to a full 90 minutes hit-out on a floodlit astroturf pitch with a bunch of
The Inca Bridge
A natural formation - much more impressive in person I'm afraid locals who lived and breathed the game and had played it twice a week since they were in nappies. It was intimidating at first but they were very friendly and I think they quickly grew to understand that I was just a tad greener at the game than them, and went a bit easier on me while still taking the game quite seriously themselves.
After the game we went home and had dinner - at 12:30AM. It was in Mendoza that I learnt that it was pointless trying to live on Australian time (ie sleep from around midnight-8AM) in Argentina and adopt the local lifestyle of bed at 5-6AM, and then either sleep in till midday, or get up at 10AM for breakfast and a couple of hours of reading before retiring for siesta for a few hours in the afternoon. If you try to fight this lifestyle then you find that none of the shops are open and services are available when you are awake.
Perhaps the only disappointment for me in Mendoza was the wine country. I sampled some of the local plonk and it was very pleasing to my untrained pallet, but the actual vineyards
were all completely flat and had an indefineable ´mass production´appearance - visually they couldn´t compare with the Yarra Valley.
All in all, Mendoza was just fantastic. Though I was spoilt with the people I met there, I would have a hard time believing anyone who said they didn´t thoroughly enjoy their time there.
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