Blogs from Mendoza, Argentina, South America - page 95

So, where were we? Really rugged rock faces here as the valley gets narrower and the road climbs higher, tortuous, angry old mountains, great cracks and crevices, agonised twists in the layers of colours, yellows, browns, reds even green, and a quick sighting of Mount Aconagua, nearly 7,000 metres!!, snow capped, proudly standing out as the highest peak outside the Himalyas (across the border I meet a couple of German guys who are going to climb it) then into some serious going up bits, one section has 27 hairpin switchbacks in an almost vertical rise, mind boggling dimensions to the scene, the brain can’t comprehend this enormous vista of the mountains and valleys, then the near-vertical walls of bitumen at each turn, dodging giant trucks labouring under brakes, overloaded and hanging on by the skin of ... read more

So after the not so great city of cordoba we have travelled to mendoza, home of argentina´s wine industry. arriving first thing in the morning in the middle of argentina´s tourist season, hotels can be a bit hard to come by, however upon arriving we utilized a full fledged tourist information booth including the service to book hotels. the onus was off me. yeah. so we finnaly got a 3 star hotel that had twin bed´s, but on our arrival, pushed them together and made a double just for Debbie and myself. what can i say about the service sometimes. another casual observation about argentine service, is that no one in particular is in a hurry. at the internet cafe, of a cafe ordering coffee to a restaraunt and bar, you´ll get your service, eventually. good ... read more

From Santiago we decided to make a side trip to Mendoza, Argentina to escape the high prices of Chile. Our budget has suffered a lot during our stay in Chile so a week in a cheaper place was more than welcome. We took a bus from Santiago to Mendoza, which was quite a pleasant experience except for the crossing of the border. The bus was as nice as a bus can be and they even offered some snacks and drinks. Crossing the Andes was quite an experience, the road climbs to over 3000 meters and then crosses a tunnel to the Argentina side. The views are amazing. The border formalities were the only unpleasant thing about this trip. There were atleast 10 buses before us so we had to wait in the bus for two hours ... read more

So what have I done? Another year over and a new one just begun. I spent my christmas and new year's eve in that small dusty beach town called La Paloma in Uruguay. It was so low-key and relaxing. It was perfect. A sweet antidote to the usual drunken, debauched, foul-mouthed, thumping-music and untenable hungover times of years gone by. And so here we are... 2006. Buenos Aires: I travelled here, by super-fast ferry, from Colonia in Uruguay with Patrick the old Irish-American guy from La Paloma. I cannot say for a second that I particularly liked Buenos Aires; staying in the centre meant staying in the centre of the incredible din whipped up by the voluminous traffic, the hordes and hordes of flashy Porteños going about their daily business, the dirty streets and plazas and ... read more