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Published: January 9th 2011
Jan 5th
So I arrived to Cordoba at around 3:30am after a day and 1/2 of travel. That really took it's toll on me. But I caught a taxi to the hostel check in and caught a few hours of sleep. When I woke I over heard another travel that he got robbed from a locked locker. Lil sketchy.
I went down stairs and sorted my room price out cause I got over charged at night. I alos asked about the rock climbing poster. The woman said she'd check and get back to me.
So from there I decided to walk around the city and take in the sites. There are 7 universities here so I had high hopes for beautiful scenic city.
Well it turned out to be just average. There were some nice walking streets and a church or 2 but once you've seen one you've seen them all. Same goes for museums, gov buildings ect. Well I walked around for an hour or so then went back to the hostel bored. I putzed around a bit then went out for decent lomo sandwich dinner. When I returned to the hostel I met with the climbing guide. He gave me some options but it was just me so it was going to be expensive and he admitted to not being very good climber but he was learning to be a guide so be knew all safety and what not. Well needless to say I canned that idea. I asked the hostel woman if there was any hiking around so she gave me some information about 2 towns. To check out tomorrow.
Jan 6
So today I headed to Carlos Paz to try and hike a bit. The woman told me just to go to information and ask where to hike. Well there was only one up to a cross and it wasn't really a woodsy hike more small hill climb and very touristy. The view gave way to the city not really pretty scenery. The lake was man made from a dike that had very touristy swimming beaches.
So I decided to leave and go to Questa Blanca, which turned out to be more of a disappointment.
There was no tourist office I asked the police officer where to hike because it appeared to be a woodsy mt town. He told me to go to the beautiful dike. Awesome (sarcastic). So I headed off on a horse back trail but with in minutes ened up on a road and couldn't find another trail and I tried ending at garbage dumps and dead ends. So I wound up walking on the road to the dike. It was ehh. Good thing I just like flowing water. Oh along the river was swarms of tourists bathing it's shores. I should have know the bus was full of teenyboppers one nearly passed out I had to give her some water. Anyway I was about to turn back and I decided to look around the bend and there was finally a path there that I ran up quickly it had a decent view however I could see it just lead to another beach where more tourists were camping and bathing. It was getting late so I headed back.
The hostel was offering a museum tour and tour of crumbceta a tiny mt town fit tomorrow. I considered it but it was 30 bucks not including and food and I didn't like what she and recommend today so I passed that idea.
Jan 7
Today I bought my night bus ticket to Mendoza then headed to La Falda in hopes to hike here. However it rained most of the day. It was a very cute town though. Much better than the last two. The woman at the hostel said she's likes the first 2 more, must be a city thing, because this town was very small and quaint. I walked up and down the main street waiting for the rain to stop. I had a slow lunch and was considering heading back and it finally started to clear so I headed up to where the "hiking" was. At the base of hotel Eden. I stared up the road and then branched off to what I thought the path was.
It started out well in the trees nice fresh air. Then turned at a barbed wire fench. Then it crossed the partially down fence so I hopped it and landed in large grasses and thorn bushes. I scrambled on up the path that was splitting and going everywhere. I picked the steepest one because I was short on time. I was getting cut and scraped by thorns along the way and trying to remember my path. I got high enough that I could stop and have a decent view. I snapped a few picks. I wanted to push on but I needed to get back to catch my night bus. So I managed to navigate my way back down realizing these paths must have been by goats or from run off streams. When I got back to the road I realized there was a sigh for the path not in the direction I went. Haha.oops
I made the long walk back through town to the bus stop I stopped at a pharmacy to get some alcohol hand wipes because I thought there was poison ivy amongst the brush. I caught he 5 pm bus back to cordoba that was meant to arrive 6:30om but we didn't get back till 7:30, so many stops and some traffic. Anyway I ran back to the hostel hung out a bit gathered my things then headed to the bus station. Which was chaotic. Luckily I over heard a another guy travel needing the bus to Mendoza he explained the bus could be anywhere between gate 1 - 10 we had to listen for it. Thankfully he knew that cause I was just standing at gate 1. He helped me find the bus and we were sorted. I was on the upper deck which included a small crappy dinner and we watched some weird Burt Renyolds movie. The bus made a few stops over night thankfully one was long enough for me to run down and grab my puff and 1/2 pants because the air was on and it was freezing.
Jan 8 th
We finally made it to mendoza I thanked the guy and we parted ways. I then walk to my hostel. but wasn't allowed to check in yet. They allowed me to hang out and shower. I also inquired about the provided activities which was everything from trekking, rappelling, white water rafting, horse riding , mt biking, city tours, ancient inca tours, to spaiing. If that's a word. I tried asking about multi day rafting but she didn't know of any. So after I got my room/bed I walked around town. Which I must add I really like. I realized the past 2 days I really dislike large cities. I feel lost and don't know what to do. But Mendoza has tree lined street and no sky risers, tons of restaurants, cafes, and shops. I walked around to some camping stores to try and find a cover formy camelback mouth piece but no luck. One guys sent me what felt like out of town to only find out stores close between 1pm and 5 pm. So I then headed to the plaza to rest my legs and just chill till 5. I didn't go back to the shop though now I was now on a mission to find a over night rafting trip. However there was no such luck. I found one company that would do a kayak course but it was very expensive. I checked out a few more and finally when I was about to give up there was a company that has a 3 day course for 200. So I'm going to do that Monday to Wednesday.
That a sorted I went to buy food to make dinner as food is not cheap here or as cheap as it was years ago. When I got back met some of my roomates a few Israeli guys and a group of us kids on break from a year Nols course in patagonia. The hostel was supposed to have free dinner but apparently he manager ended it last week. So I had to make my cheap raviolis. The Israeli guys appeared to be making a delicious dinner. After I finished my pasta I was told I could have some free pizza so I sat down with 2 Argentina kids and had a broken Spanish conversation with for about a hour or so over my second dinner. It was getting pretty late so I showered and was gonna head to bed but the girls from the Nols course were hanging in our small room so I stayed up all night talking to them and hearing about their course and viewing their pics. It was really amazing they had some beautiful photos and crazy storms with 80 mph winds and a storm they were in their tents for 5 days. They said other classes were tent bound for 8 days I think one was 12 crazy must have been so cold and boring. But they all said they liked it hanging out taking playing stupid games and whatnot. Seemed pretty amazing but don't know if I'd like that. I'd only hike in the snow to then snowboard back down.
Jan 9th
Well I wanted go do the high Andes tour of the inca ruins and what not today but it was fully booked. And unfortunately it was raining so the horse back riding for the sunset was canceled as well. I didn't want to sit around all day so I rented a bike and headed to the "city park" It was decent I biked around abit and got lost so I went back to the lake to finally start this blog plus the bike was so crap. The front brakes didn't work, the seat was so frigging hard and the handle bars kept falling down. Can't believe it's 6 bucks for 4 hours it's a POS. I'll be lucky if I dont crash. I can't even shop today with because it's Sunday and I think everything is closed. I headed back to the hostel made some lunch the went get a few more groceries/ condiments.
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Lynton Smith
non-member comment
Aconcagua
Sounds like you are enjoying yourelf. Havent met you in person but Im Shells dad so enough said. Make sure you give yourself time to hike Aconcagua. The bus trip from Mendoza to Valparaiso was awesome and well worth a few pics to do it in the day time. Cheers Oh and the best white water rafting IN THE WORLD is found AT FUTALEUFU South of Bariloche. Check it out