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The lake district
This is not Mendoza but Puerto Varas and it is beautiful. Yes, that is a volcano in the back. First off I would like to ask you, the reader, to please leave me some feedback. I would really like to see who is reading this and what you think of it. Even if all you say is hello or your blog sucks or keep up the good work or you really need to stop... Whatever it is, I would be really interested in hearing it. Not all comments can be seen by others, so if you want me to keep them hidden just let me know. Also, you can subscribe to the blog. If you do this you will be alerted whenever I post. Cheers!
Dylan and I have spent the last few days in Mendoza, Argentina but I am currently writing to you from Puerto Varas, Chile. Mendoza is a small city that is surrounded by small vineyards Beyond the vineyards it is also an adventure base camp. You can trek, white watter raft, repel, rock climb, paraglide, mountain bike, rode bike, and drive around in the high andies mountains. Whatever your outdoor fancy is, you can find it there.
First day in Mendoza we decided to see the city. There are several pedestrian streets, several cafes,
Good morning Mendoza!
A little sunrise from a moving bus for your morning pleasure. and a couple beautiful parks and plazas. The city was not too big so we walked around for a large portion of the day and we pretty much saw everything. The largest and probably the best thing to see in the city is San Martin park. The park is practically bigger than the city center and is really quite beautiful. The park is completely artificial and what I mean by that is that each tree was artificially implanted. The city needs to pump water in from an outside source to keep the wildlife alive. The region looks very similar to Salt Lake City. The area is dry with large, beautiful mountains in site. What really makes it feel like Salt Lake City is that the primary rock in the mountain range is granite and there is even some red rock. Strange to see because it really takes me back home.
For our big adventure we signed up for a tour with the agenda to go trekking, repelling, and soaking in a natural hot springs. The tour was a great experience for the adventure and even more for the social aspect. If you have been repelling before with a descent
Mendoza Trekking
Hello beautiful granite filled mountains. size group you know there is more waiting than repelling. Our group was 9 people and all were very interesting. We spent most of the day and the night with these people. The trek was only 1 hour and we gained about 1000 feet. Although the trek was short the scenery was beautiful. There were 3 repels (7m, 14m, and 45m). Not very large but still fun. I have gone repelling previously so I knew what to expect. Dylan on the other hand had not. He was scared out of his mind. I think he may have even wet himself. Well, not really but lets just say I did not hear him talk for a while. The hot springs was more like a small theme park than what you would expect out of a natural hot springs in Argentina. There were multiple pools filled with tons of people and even some slides and a kid pool with water flying everywhere. My favorite part was the novelty fake cactuses that were spouting water. The water was hot and the experience was relaxing. A little too relaxing. Shortly after I got out I fell asleep slouched over a table. It may not
Dylan is a repelling expert
He is probably crying he is so scared right now. sound like too much of an adventure but like I said before, the experience was in meeting different people. There was an adventurous traveling couple who were traveling on English passports but living in Australia. The guy was a scuba dive master and the girl graduated from oxford in experimental psychology. Another Australian who has been traveling for 6 months and has been sober for about 1 week total. An Italian lady who loved to dance and loved great pick up lines. An Argentinian man who was extremely nice and was really good at giving great pick up lines. An English couple who looked like they were ready to roll. The guy had gloves on and asked to go down face first. Another older Australian lady, who like the other Australian couldn´t remember the last time she slept or was sober. Good old Auzzies! Then last but not least there was a girl from Norway. A little quite and shy but a very fun girl. That was the gang and a sentence for each of them is severely insufficient.
If the day was an adventure then the night is what you would call epic. The hostel was throwing an
Breakfast of champs
A casual breakfast along the pedestrian street the day before their independence. all you can eat BBQ. Most hostels in town were invited and 80 people signed up to come. After a herd of cows were consumed by the hungry travelers the tables made way for a dance floor and a bar. The bar tenders started performing what you would see in Tiaquana. The bar tenders would tip a person backwards and pour tequila freely (maybe what you would expect from a hostel party). This was a real kick off to the night. I spent most my night dancing but the others seemed to go for the drinking. Needless to say the night was interesting. Dylan and I both survived and were ready to see more the next morning. Sorry for not a lot of information but I would like to keep this PG (but I´m not saying our actions went above PG 😉 ).
Our attempt at seeing the vineyards and more of the city was heavily hindered by it being Sunday and a holiday. We were forced into ultimate relaxation where we did nothing other than suffer the attempt of being robbed. Long story short we were not robbed and we are now a bit weary because of it.
What did Dylan do this time?
Dylan is always getting us into trouble! Dylan has told this story in detail so see his blog if you are interested in the details (search his name Dylan Turner). To sum up our experience in Mendoza is to say that we went to a town of vineyards without taking a single sip of wine. Very sad but the truth of traveling is you cannot see and experience everything within a constrained time limit. We did manage to buy a bottle of wine and we hope to enjoy that soon.
After Mendoza we took a bus ride to Santiago, Chile where we spent 2 hours before our next bus left for Osono. Another 30 minutes in Osono then another bus to Puerto Varas This is where we are now but more information to come. Winter is setting and if we don´t go south now we will not be able to go at all.
Our spirits are high despite the ridiculous amount of travel we just endured. I am really excited to see this region because it is really really beautiful. Just outside the hostel and around the corner there is a view of a lake with a volcano behind it. It is jaw dropping beautiful!
A little roadside trouble?
The pass from Mendoza to Santiago can be a little dangerous. For more photos go to my facebook profile or http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2069767&id=29003845&l=c6f97afbc5
Cheers
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Kristina
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Awesome Blog
Waaaayyyy better than Dylan's. haha ;)