Paragliding por Navidad

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After a couple of introductory days for Matt in Santiago we headed over The Andes to Mendoza, known as the wine country of Argentina. Unfortunately due to bad timing with Sundays and public holidays over the Christmas break we actually did not get a chance to visit any wineries, although we did get a chance to sample a few of the local wines.



One night we decided to utilise the kitchen of the apartment that we were staying in and cook dinner. I had been using the stovetop and after we had sat down to eat there was this massive cracking noise and then glass from the stove shattered over the kitchen. It had turned out that there was a glass cover on the stovetop and because my Spanish skills are not advanced to the point of reading warnings on said glass I had no idea and cooked on top of it rather than lifting it. As the heat was turned off and the temperature of the glass rapidly decreased the glass cover smashed all over the kitchen. I then faced the dilemma of whether to tell the owner before or after Christmas. Luckily it had not damaged anything else on the oven so it was $150 to have it replaced. Could have been a lot worse I guess. Ergh



On Christmas Eve as an early Christmas present Matt and I went paragliding. A 'pilot' from Kahuak Turismo came and picked us up and drove us out to what looked like an abandoned decrepit building - good way to install confidence in your clients before you take off! We then drove up the mountain with reggaton pumping on the stereo along a very steep and windy dirt road from which we could have driven over the edge at the slightest false move by the driver. At the top of the mountain they strapped me in and gave me the following very detailed safety briefing: "When I tell you to run, run. When I tell you to sit, sit." 30 seconds later he told me to run and that was it. It was amazing though and I am looking forward to doing it again in Rio where I will be able to see the mountains, city and the beach.



In South America they celebrate Christmas on the night of Christmas Eve rather than on Christmas Day. Most of the population are Catholic so it usually involves going to church and then heading out to dinner at 11-12pm with friends and family. The owner of our apartment had booked us into a restaurant where it was 3 courses and all alcohol included. During the day it had been a cool 45 degrease so it was absolutely boiling when we headed out. As soon as midnight hit we could hear fireworks going off all around us. Fireworks are not illegal over here so as we headed back to the relief of an air conditioned apartment we were entertained by bursts of colour randomly filling the sky.



The Spanish in Argentina was certainly a lot easier to understand than that in Chile. I am really hopeful that this will be the case in all of the other countries that I visit and that my Spanish skills will get a chance to improve if I can actually make out the individual words that they are saying. I also noticed that the Argentinians spoke a little more English too. I am not sure if this is because Mendoza gets more tourists, or if it is an increased knowledge set, but although I will always try to speak to people in Spanish, it does help if they can interject with some English when I am clearly failing.

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