Mucho Vino Tinto in Mendoza!

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January 5th 2006

Published: January 21st 2006

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Hayley

Stunning Lake !!

Hola,
Well another year gone, but boy what a fun one 2006 will be!
We spent new years eve partying in Mendoza, a lovely leafy green city with the Andes in view, also the highest mountain in South America - Aconcagua. So full of lots of proffesional climbers who have really inspired me! I saw the first sunrise of 2006 over the Plaza Español it was very beautiful.

While in Mendoza we met up with Mark & Anna friends from home, who live in Sweden. We had a very good night out eating and dancing. Was great to meet up - enjoy the rest of your travels!!

In Mendoza we were inspired to purchase some property, we now have our very own 2 woman tent, complete with cooking equipment and foam roll up thingies, its lovely and blue. All in all cost about 100quid, have worked out we need to stay in it for at least 25 nights for it to be worth the spend, but after 2 nights I can say that its brilliant! What an investment!

So armed with our mobile home, our adventure bags, adventure equipment and whilst wearing adventure shoes, we hopped on a

Cañon

bus to a smaller city, called San Rafael (3 hrs south of Mendoza).
We pitched our tent on the Isla Rio Diamante, an island in the river about 6kms out of the city, it was great.

We are being adventurous with cooking too, delicous camping meals and not a pot noodle in sight.. no!
San Rafael is full of vineyards and many farms growing fab produce, so we have had sundried toms (after seeing them dry), olives (after seeing them picked), wine after seeing the grapes grow (you get the gist) so fresh and full of flavour. So we begin our road to camping culinary genius.
Speaking of food.... it was here in the Andes, where the filmed ´Alive´- where the passengers of a plane crash had nothing to eat....... but their dead relatives. eeeww!!

San Rafael has 4 canyons surrounding it, they were amazing. Really beautiful lakes and mountains. With a few big dams for hydro electic power. We went white water rafting again, this time it was grade 4 rapids! Great fun. The instructor only spoke spanish so we are now fluent in ´forward´back´stop´!

Speaking of spanish, I have become really frustrated that my conversations

The lake in the cañon

never go further than the basics, where do you live, do you have a sister etc, and beyond booking a bus ticket or ordering food, I am stuck!
So to kick start it I am going to be taking 2 weeks of lessons while living with a family. Lo & I are living with different families so that we are forced to not speak English at all! Also will be great experience.We will have lessons in the classroom AM, and PM we are out learning spanish by the lake!

These are the details of my family. They have changed as my other family are busy.

Details: Patricia lives in a beautiful and calm neighbourhood. She lives with her husband Daniel and her children: Cinthia, Esteban and Brian (20, 19 and 16 years old). They are very kind persons. You will be in a private room.

We leave tonight on another night bus (14hrs) for Bariloche, the Lake District, it is supposed to be amazing! Then we are camping for 2 nights before we split and go to our new homes!
So until Bariloche. Bye Bye! Hope you are all sticking to your NY resolutions whatever they are.