Advertisement
Published: August 7th 2007
Hola from Mendoza, the wine capital of Argentina!
I've had a top week out here, with so much to see and do - Mendoza is awesome! The town itself is very pleasant, with giant sycamore trees lining the wide avenues, lots of nice plazas and a brilliant 420 hectare park. There are dozens of wineries in the surrounding area, and with it's close proximity to The Andes, day trips to the mountains and loads of outdoor pursuits are easy peasy.
It was nice to arrive here suitably recovered from that nasty cold I had in Cordoba. I really wanted to make up for lost time in terms of getting out and doing things, so when I arrived at my hostel (nice place out of town called Chimbas), I immediately organised loads of trips through Claudio, the owner of the hostel.
First day I took it quite easy though. The only other person staying at the hostel was a cool German guy called Chris. He was a good bloke and we soon found we shared a similar sense of humour. If there is a myth about German travellers, I like to explode it - all the Germans I've met
while I've been away are a great laugh!!! We ended up having a tour around Mendoza, taking in the main plazas and a lap of the San Martin Parque, ending the day with a few beers and the inevitable steak and chips in a nearby parilla.
On my second day it was time to start getting out on some excursions. First up was a hiking trip to a place called Chaceuta that involved something called rappelling. I had never heard of this word before but as I'm game for anything nowadays, I thought I'd give it a go. There was a nice bunch of people on the trip - Andy, Mike and Julie-Anne from the UK (all trainee lawyers...say no more!), Elgar from Argentina and two guides, Pepe and Jorge. It was only when I started chatting to the guys that I realised that "rappelling" was actually the Spanish word for "abseilling"! Oh well - I'll try anything once! Poor Julie-Anne was a bit nervous and was getting terrible stick from her two male buddies! "The worse that could happen is a broken back" and "I'm sure your medical insurance includes a helicopter call out" were some of the
comments being bandied around!
We had good old chat on the two hour hike to where we would begin our descent. After my fun and games at Santiago airport with dodgy taxi drivers, it was painful to hear Julie-Anne's story after arriving there from Sydney three days ago. She ended up getting completely rinsed by a driver who charged her 150,000 chilean pesos from the airport to her hotel. She had the same jet lag problem as me when I arrived, but instead of coming to her senses at the last minute before any damage was done, she got in the taxi and paid him the cash. It was only when she paid for one nights accomodation at her hotel (8,000 pesos) that it dawned on her she had paid 150 quid for a 12 quid taxi ride. Ouch. Those guys are like vultures preying on woozy tourists disembarking from a 14 hour flight with not much sleep. They must rake it in, as trying to calculate a new exchange rate when you are almost sleeping standing up isn't easy. Any travellers going from Sydney or Auckland to Santiago be warned - get your hotel to organise a taxi
for you! Seeing your name scribbled on some fat taxi drivers scrap of cardboard will seem like Nirvana after your flight!!!! I should start charging for this advice I reckon!!
The views from the top of the mountain we climbed were superb - you could really see for miles. Unfortunately you could also see for what seemed like miles to the bottom of the cliff we were about to go down too! There were three seperate abseils down the mountain - one 10 metres, one 20 metres and one 42 metres. Pepe joked that we have two practice descents before we do the main one! They all looked pretty main to me! In the end it was quite easy and safe. We had a safety wire attached to us in case the main rope snapped, and our guides were top blokes who knew what they were doing. The most difficult part of abseilling is having the confidence in your harness to hold you in place while you descend. It's weird at first leaning back over the edge of a big drop and transferring all you weight onto the harness - it's a bit of a leap of faith! You
then release the rope along a pulley a little bit at a time while you are walking horizontally down the cliff face. Once you get the hang of it, its a doddle!
After the abseilling we were taken to the local natural hot springs for an afternoon of relaxation. After 4 hours of jumping in and out of various pools of differing temperatures, my fingers had gone very wrinkly!! Very nice place though - especially the small outdoor pool which was piping hot. We all made a massive "Aaaahhhh..." sound when we slipped into the water!!
That evening Chris and I visited a local pizzeria who laughed in our faces when we said we wanted one each. We were both starving, but when our pizzas arrived I thought our table was going to collapse under the weight! We struggled manfully through and managed to devour three quarters each before having to give up. I felt like Mister Creasote from Monty Pythons "The Meaning of Life"!!!
The day after I went on a wine tasting tour. It was quite funny after saying goodbye to Andy, Mike and Julie-Anne at the end of the abseilling day, because they were
all on this tour as well!! It was a fun day, involving being driven out to the main winery area and then jumping on bicycles for a gentle ride on level ground to 3 nearby vineyards and a chocolatiers. The wineries were all good. The first one (Fecha Cecchin) only made organic wines. The Malbec (or Merlot as it's otherwise known) and the Cabernet Sauvignon were both both good, but the Cabernet Blanc had this amazing gooseberry flavour which I really liked. When I asked how it was for a bottle and was told "12 pesos" (or 2 quid) I couldn't get my wallet out fast enough! The second winery was okay (sorry can't remember the name of that one), but the last one we visited (Felipe Rutini) was really cool with a wine museum as well as a tour of the winery itself. It was interesting seeing this huge ox hide attached to beams which people used to clamber inside to tread the grapes with their feet. There was even a hole in the tail for the juice to drip into the waiting buckets! The wines were also very good at this place but they obviously were not catering
for cyclists as you could only buy the wine in boxes of six! The chocolatiers was quite funny at the end, with the owner of the place talking energetically for quite a while about the history of the place and the processes, and the different chocolates they make, when all everybody wanted to do was eat all his chocolate!! The sweet (but very alcoholic) liquors also went down well, with yours truly particularly taken with the dulce de leche (toffee) flavour with banana and chocolate chips! Yummy!
I took it easy the following day, going for a stroll around San Martin Parque by myself. There was an okay zoo in the park that I had a wander around, meeting a very nice young Argentine couple from Buenos Aires called Auriel and Sabrina along the way. They were both trainee lawayers keen to practice their English, and as I wanted to practice my Spanish, it made for an interesting bilingual conversation as we walked around the toucans, pumas and jaguars!
After the zoo I climbed up to the top of the famous Cerro de la Gloria in the centre of the park - a big hill with a huge
monument at it's summit dedicated to General San Martin and his liberation of Argentina. As statues go (and I've seen a lot of them in Argentina!) it was pretty impressive.
That evening I found an Irish Pub (they really are everywhere - I'm not kidding) showing the second leg of the final of The Copa Libertadores (the equivelent of the Champions League in South America). My new favourite team Boca Juniors beat Brazilians Gremio 2-0 in Brazil to win 5 - 0 on aggregate. Riquelme, Boca's inspirational midfielder scored twice - the first one was a blinder! Great game and a great atmosphere in the pub! Don't take my word for it though - read the slightly amusing, modest (!) match report on Boca's website! http://www.bocajuniors.com.ar/english/2007/06/19/801.php
The next day was another excursion, this time up into The Andes mountains. Another good bunch of people came on this trip - Jane from Belgium, Camilla from Norway, Rodriguez and Denise from Brazil, Mark from Australia and Gil from Israel. It was a long drive from Mendoza up to the mountains near the border with Chile. The ears popped as we ascended up the winding road that gradually became more snow
laden the higher we went. The number of articulated lorries on the road were incredible, but then this is the main thoroughfare between Argentina and Santiago. The road had been closed with heavy snow recently, and there were still hundreds of lorries parked in the hard shoulder as we drove past. Our first stop was Cerro Aconcagua - the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere at 6962 metres tall. The view of the mountain in the dazzling sunlight and azure blue skies was amazing, even though we were still quite a long way away. The snow there was also seriously deep, and everyone was eyeing my gators with great envy as they ended up with very soggy trousers!! We stopped at a ski resort for lunch which was fun. The ski season is only just starting out here, and even though I have never skied before, the virgin snow on thesurrounding hills looked very enticing. We finished the day with a visit to Puente Del Inca, one of Argentinas most striking natural wonders. It is a natural stone bridge that has a bizarre orange colour as a result of the sulphuric springs that bubble underneath it. With lots of stalagnites
hanging down from the rock, and the snow all around, it looked like something from a fairy story. There was once an old spa here where people used to be able to bath, but a flood here a few years back has destroyed it, leaving just it's ruins that are slowly being eaten away by the sulphuric build up. After that it was back to Mendoza via a two and a half hour drive with everyone snoozing in the van. It was great to get up in the mountains again though and gulp down that fresh air!
I've had a fun day today. After many false starts, I finally tried my hand at para gliding! I was worried as I was meant to go yesterday, but it got called off again at the last minute because of the weather. Luckily today was perfect weather conditions! It was just me and my instructor (yikes...can't remember his name!) on the trip, and it was a bumpy, rocky journey up the snake path track to the summit of Cerro Arco, around 10km out of Mendoza. It was absolutely freezing at the top of this hill - the wind was whipping in like
nobodies business, and the woolly hat and gloves soon came out! The views were astounding however, and I staggered around in the artic wind taking photos as my instructor unravelled the parachute on the ground. Eventually we were ready. He called me over, harnessed me up, attached the two of us together and we were ready to go. I wasn't sure how much in the way of instructions I was expecting, but when he just said "When I say go, run as fast as you can off the edge of the mountain", I was hoping for a bit more! Anyway I did as he said, and before I knew it we were whizzing up into the sky on the strong air currents whipping around the mountain top. It was bloody brilliant! I would even say as much fun as proper parachuting (says the veteran of one skydive in New Zealand!). I just had to sit there as my instructor maneuvered the parachute to catch the wind currents, whizzing from left to right to the bottom of the mountain. The views of Mendoza far below, and the Andes in the distance were fantastic. Twenty minutes later we were hurtling in to
land. A similar in-depth talk-through followed - "The minute we land, start running!", so I hit the ground running, literally, and the next thing I knew it was all over! Well worth the wait though, and I was well pleased that I did it. I have attempted to attach a video of me in action (taken with my all-singing all-dancing Sony CyberShot- thanks again for the leaving pressie Grosvenor people!) - hope you can view it okay!!
Well, tomorrow morning I am off on a bus to Santiago again, where I start out in South America over two months ago. Time certainly flies when you are having fun. I'm hoping the mountain pass between Mendoza and Santiago is going to be okay and not snowed under. I have a flight on Tuesday to Lima!!! Looking forward to Peru and Bolivia now. They are meant to be very different from the more westernised Chile and Argentina.
Will try and send another update before I go on the Inca Trail in Cuzco in just over a weeks time. It's all go for us international jet setters you know!!!
Ciao for now chicas!
Doogs
Advertisement
Tot: 0.304s; Tpl: 0.02s; cc: 22; qc: 93; dbt: 0.2325s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.4mb
Terry
non-member comment
All i got was a print!
A real Puma, all i got was a one legged 'puma' print.