Mina Clavero

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Mina Clavero was a much anticipated destination of ours. Seeking refuge from the large cities, especially after the party hardy adventures of Cordoba, we were anxious for camping and time alone with nature. The drive was beautiful, even though it was raining and overcast. We ledt from Cordoba and headed out of the city up through mountain ranges, winding snake-like roads lead us up and over the mountains over rolling green hills. Ironically, as we were boarding the bus in Cordoba an old man asked us about our plans, as he noticed our bags and camping gear. He advised us to stay away from Mina Clavero, that it was a tourist destination but not beautiful like the town he is from, another 2 hours south of MC. He told us the real beauty lies beyond the guide book destinations, and that we ahd been reeled in by the classic tourist marketing. We acknowlegded his advice but stuck to our plan. Got off the bus in pouring rain and stopped at the firsy spot we found with space for us. A hostel, but more like a hotel run by an artist, painter, and her husband. Tha plce was lacking energy, no young people and we were disconnected from the main part of town, which we had yet to even discover. That night we set out to find some food and stumbled across the main strip of town, a hidden gem, you would have never imagined this small town was so full of action and beauty. The clouds that day had been hiding the surrounding landscape. We walked the road, which by dusk has become only available to pedestrians, families on vacation and locals out on the town. The place was absoultely beautiful when we saw it in the day time, two rivers running through the town, Mina Clavero Rivero and Rio de los Patos. Walking over a bridge in town you turn and look up and see endless green mountains and a huge river running down through the lanscape, the town is low in elevation so you feel like you are at the bottom of a half pipe with views looking up all around. We changed locations to a lively fun hostel full of travelers called, Andamundos, where we met a group of Argentine girls form Buenos Aires and a bunch of others from all over, Italy, New Zealand, The states, and Brazil. We went hiking with the Argentine girls to a swimming hole called Nido del Aguila, where there were endless cliffs to jump. Meggie was the only girl to do any jumping off the cliffs, called ¨media loca¨and such for being so ¨brave¨. Lucas jumped all the cliffs as well, but we both skipped the 25 meter jump as it was a bit scary, unable to see our landing. This swimming hole was so fun an beautiful that we went two days ina row. The rocks are giant and make a very interesting passageway for the river to flow through. The landscape was lush but also rocky, with the cold clear river running through it all. After all our time there and Luke´s visit to the high jump, Meggie also ventured up there and contemplated for a while, with everyone staring at her, things got a little nerve-racking, the local guys yelling ¨lo dudo, lo dudo¨(doubting meg) and ¨tirate flaca tirate¨.....backing down we both decided to jump the 15 meter instead.
The time in MC was fun regardless of the unpredictable sun and rain, one day we were told to get off the beach where the MC river was because all the rain in the mountains was going to cause an unexpected and rapid level change to the river. We chatted with a Brazilian, Itialian and girl from BA as we waited for the river to rise, which it did. In a matter of minutes the water covered the entire becah and rose higher than we imagined possible. So much more to say about MC, including the many people we met. ALthough we were unable to camp due to ¨tomrmentas electricas¨ we enjoyed every minute there, even our hike up into the mountains to a secret beach in a plcae called La Toma, which ended in a 2 hour return hike down back to town in the pouring rain... Nos agarro la lluvia!! Thats when we started our tedious journey to San Juan and Barreal.... We are so behind on our blog that its going to be impossible to catch up, as we are writing about this journey that was over amonth ago... we are going to try and put our heads together to find a way to shorten our descriptions and make this possible!!! We are writing from Bariloche Argentina now....

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