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Published: July 26th 2006
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hey all,
what we have seen in and around mendoza is the most stunning landscape we have seen so far and unfortunately i have no photos to post because our digital camera is possibly now being sold on a street corner in buenos aires. i will do my best to describe..
mendoza is a small town a little out from the base of the andes. it is surrounded by vinyards and further beyond that the andes shoot up. being wine country its no surprise within an hour of dumping our stuff in the hostel we were already at the biggest vineyard sipping the goods. we went to 2 vineyards, the second being much smaller, family owned, far more informative and with much better tasting wine. however, to be honest, south american wine in general is nothing to write home about. they create a red called the ´malbec´which is the most popular (i think because went they try to make a shiraz its just filthy) but yet even that is questionable... not to be a wine snob but it has no body, thus lacking everything. stick to aussie reds.
the next day in mendoza was the 9 february - in
haze
still smiling for the moment australia the 10th, my birthday, so we made it a particularly fun day. i pointed out to haze that i will be 26 for 367 days given the leap year and extra day being on the other side of the world. she seemed particularly uninterested in this little fact so maybe someone else out there will.
heading into the andes is amazing, they start instantly, almost right out of the last vinyard, into overbearing rock of all different colours. the hostel we found up there is a little cottage looking up into the mountains, down into a lake, with horses grazing in the small paddock out the back. and it was on these horses we crossed the andes on! yes we rode horses up and over very steep, rocky mountains, without a lesson! this didnt matter, we certainly looked the part with our ponchos on. hazel´s horse was perfect for her - it wouldnt stop eating, as if tasting the array of delights each part of the andes offered. due to her hungry horse haze kept falling behind which was really very unfortunate because my horse was a complusive farter.
we saw eagles, lamas, goats and various other wildlife i
would name if i had done a natural science degree. but it was the view that was simply breathtaking. you will have to ask to see the photos we took on my old school camera.
the way down felt even steeper, the horses slipping down, rocks tumbling, we had to lean all way back on the horse - poor fellas had it tough.
next we went white water rafting down the andes. even though the water was brown we were assured it was clean. now this i have photos of, so i will have to come back and post them (not with me right now). we had 4 in the boat and one dude that ran the thing up the back probably doing all the work and shouting all the instructions. the 2 girls were in the middle and me and another guy at the front. i was quickly banished from the front of the boat after a few rapids because it became clear to our driver dude i was mixing up my ´left´and ´rights´, ´forwards´and ´backwards´when he barked them out in spanish (which is no surpise - i am still mixing up portugese in my spanish). the rapids
were quite large and within moments everyone on the boat was totally wet. a few hundred metres down the guy at the front flipped out. from the expression on his face it was much colder fully in. it soon became clear our driver was shouting instructions for us to paddle into rapids backwards, sideways and so we would get stuck in them and fill up with water, it was more sensible to do the opposite of what he said.
the whole trip down was all rapids and a further few hundred metres down both the girl in front of me and myself got flipped out. this would have been ok except when i tried to come up my head was hitting the boat. the boat and i were both still stuck in the rapid. this wasnt such a good position to be in. i was face down, cluching rocks on the bottom of the river bed while the back of my head was hitting the bottom of the boat. i was jammed. it crossed my mind to have a bit of a panic but instead found myself wondering if i was about to die a 26 or 27 year old
- can you officially have 367 days as a 26 year old?? no one had answered this for me yet. but yet my situation stayed the same. i tried the ´ol flip around but that didnt work. so awkardly, beding the arms back i pulled myself along the bottom of the boat and popped up eventually about 20 metres away. it was only then, i think, i pulled the face the previous guy did expressing how cold it was.
but what a beautiful way to spend my (australian) birthday! on my actually birthday we travelled from mendoza to santiago, which is essentially all the way through the andes - a trip that absolutely must be done in the daytime! its stunning and the roads are scary. not a bad thing being in two countries on your birthday!
--dan--
hola amigas/amigos!
Besides the inevitable touristy vibe that such a small town can give out, Mendoza ended up being a perfect place to celebrate Dans birthday! (who was yes, 26 for 367 days of the year! I think he was just a little upset that I announced his age of 27 to our tour guide when it was
the last possible day that he could have been 26..However, I would like to make mention of the fact that technically he had celebrated his Australian birthday by this time, but no need to dwell on that!)
Upon arrival, we got straight on a bus to sample the renowned Argentian wine. Dan almost spat out the malbec (their reserve specialty of course) and I did my best to ignore the ¨tobacco¨ undertones in the shiraz, and avoid being an Aussie connessiour! But despite the wine (?) and the standard number of only 2 tastes of varieties per winery, the actual wineries were just charming, cosy and extremely informative..
Horse-riding across the Andes will definitely go down on my list of breath-taking travelling experiences;
Panoramic views of the Andes, rocky hills, glistening streams. If only the sounds accompanying us were as serene
- Dan´s horse must have had a big dinner the night before! I found it rather interesting that our horses seemed to suit us perfectly. Dan had the tallest best looking horse, but was stubborn, and would not take note of Dans English mumbo jumbo commands! And my little baby was so gentle, had a mind of
he's fine up the back
really clever driver dude trying to sink us its own refusing to follow the pack but would take me to the same place in a much more creative manner, and was happy to go wherever i wanted, as long as i let him eat - at every single possible stop that is!
Rafting was, well it wasn´t in white water. Have now mastered the Spanish directions and experienced what Dan pointed out was a ride that forced us to go through the rapids and have people fall out. This was not on my preferred list of things to do obviously, especially into cold, brown water. And when Dan disappeared for far too long underwater, after making 4 of us work like crazy to go aliente aliente (forward) into the rapids, lets just say I was happy when our 7 kms were over!
the chilean border cross was our most exciting yet.. unorganised and time-consuming, our busload had to line up along benches and watch our bags put through a conveyor belt. Any suspicious bags were pointed out and passengers had to come forward like naughty school children, and unpack their bags in front of a live audience. I made Dan declare 1 orange (in fear of having to do the same) and this seemed to put us on their good side. Dan was smiling though, as this meant 2 passport stamps, and 2 countries on his birthday!
xx haze xx
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