To Mendoza and Back!! Hmm..Don´t forget your passport!

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Well I have had a fantastic time in Mendoza filled with lots of amazing experiences. I am being shown time and time and time again how wonderful the people of South America are.

I caught the bus (12 hours overnight) from BA. It was a great bus journey with a seat that folds back to 180 degrees. We even played Bingo which was great practise for me with my spanish numbers. We were served cold food, hot food, wine and champagne and then coffee and breakfast in the morning. This is certainly nothing like National Express coaches!!

I met a really nice Argentinian guy on the bus who I was sitting next to. I was practising my spanish on him and he his English on me. It is crazy to think of the different lives that people have. He was coming back from a holiday in BA and on his way home. His home is in the Andes at about 4500m! He was saying that he still had a bit of a journey ahead of him. Following our bus journey he had to catch another bus for about 3 hours and then had to walk 36km up the mountain with his backpack to get home! It would take about 10 hours but it was the only way!! He loves his life up there though and wouldn´t swap it for anything. People here are so much less reserved than where we live. He was listening to his music and wanted to share it with me so got out a gadget that let us both plug our earphones in and we reclined our seats and layed listening to sultry tango going though the Argentinian countryside.

The hostel I am staying at here is amazing (Hostel Lao). It attracts a really nice mixed group of people and has great communal areas and outdoor areas. I have also managed to see quite a bit. A group of us got together and went cycling around various wineries and did tours and of course tastings.

Then to recover the next day me and a swedish girl caught a local bus to the foot of the Andes and visited this park where there are lots of baths filled with thermal waters - it was so great!

Then I went on a hike the next day (Christmas Eve) in the Andes. I climbed to 3500 metres. The air was so crisp and cool and clear (in Mendoza it has been a min of 33 everyday without a cloud in the sky) and I can honsestly say that I don´t think I have ever had such an uniterrupted vision of beauty in front of me before. Everything that my eyes could see was natural and amazing. Comng down the mountain was fun as we kind of did dry slope skiing down all of the rocks.

So after all of this activity it was nice to just hang out in the hammocks and by the pool on Christmas day at the hostel. A group of us organised a BBQ so I was on salad duty and we were a very satisified bunch.

On boxing day I finally said goodbye to everyone to continue my journey north. A couple of friends from the hostel walked me to the bus station and saw me onto my bus to Salta (a mere 18 hour journey north).

I sat on the bus next to a nun and a local guy and about 2 hours into the journey I was listening to my (lovely) ipod congratulating myself on how good I had become at packing as I now know how to space everything out and not have anything that is valuable in a place where it can just be grabbed by someone when I had a horrible realisation! I had left my passport in the hostel safe in Mendoza!!

I think I swore loudly a few times and pulled out my earplugs and grabbed my pack frantically searching for it but I knew where it was. The poor nun was worried about me and trying to console me in Spanish and the guy next to me said he would help me get my bag back off the bus guys at the first stop (2.5 hours in) and help me if he could.

We arrived in a place called San Juan at about 10.30pm. One of the things I am always careful about travelling on my own is that I do not arrive anywhere new at night. This time I had no choice. The guys from the bus had not given me a receipt when I had initially given them my bag (I have since learnt I am supposed to tip them when I give it in) and were saying that they would not give me my bag. I was getting into a bit of a state and on the point of tears. I was in a strange place, not knowing where I would stay with no passport and the bus company wouldn´t give me my bag. Lots of other passangers started getting involved and I eventually got my bag back. This one guy who live in San Juan and spoke good English had come over to help me as he could see I was distressed and was getting me to take deep breaths and tell him what happened.

I had my lonely planet with one hostel listed for this town so I thought I should be able to get a cab. I took myself into the station and was taking a few breaths when the guy who helped me at the bus came over and was insistant that he wanted to help me as it was not safe for me to be wondering around on my own. I looked a bit hesitant and he said he was with his wife and sisters and took me over to introduce me. He told me he thought the hostel I was looking at was closed but he and his wife would drive me around and find me another one.

In these type of situations you have to weigh eveything up quickly and use your judgement. It may seem risky going off in a car with them but he and his whole family seemed really nice and it was safer than me being on my own and trying to navigate my way around. I cannot believe how much they went out of their way for me. They took me to the first hostel which was indeed closed and then they found me another and took me in and explained to them what had happened so that I could check in without my passport. He then gave me his business card with his phone number so that if I needed anymore help I could just call him. It turned out he was a doctor.

Once I was in this hostel I was relived and tired and ready for bed but then the owner came to speak to me to invite me out for the night. It turned out that there was a huge national salsa competition on in this town on this night only and people were staying at this hostel from all over Argentina who were performing. So 10 mins later I´m in a van in my combats and walking boots (my staple travelling clothes) with all of these glamourous salsa dancers driving off into the night. It was all feeling very surreal by this point.

We stayed out until about 4.30am (early for Argentina) and watched some amazing dancers. There was a fantastic Tango dancer who was performing and afterwards she came up to introduce herself to me and said if there was anything at all that I needed while I was in San Juan including a tango lesson just to let her know. That is so typical of Argentinians. When you are out they all make such an effort with you and they are all apologising for speaking such bad English. It really should be me apologising but they will not have any of it.

The next day after a long lie in the owner drove me back to the bus station and brought a couple of guys who were staying at the hostel for the trip. He helped me buy a ticket and they all helped me with my bags and then waited 30 mins wïth me and put me back on a bus to Mendoza.

By the time I got back to my original hostel = after my night out in San Juan all = all of the beds had been taked so I slept in a hammock in the garden last night and am going for the bus again tonight.

I will try once more and hope to be in Salta in the next few days.

Anyway = thats what has been happening to me. Hope you have all had a great Christmas = write and let me know what you have been up to.

Sorry for the spelling and terrible use of punctution = these keyboards drive me madªª

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Photos

Thermal Waters In Cachueta
Perfect day spent in naturally hot waters with the Andes as a back drop!

Yeah - I made it to the top!
3500 meters. I did start at 2000m but it is the highest I have ever climbed. Going down was heaps of fun too!