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Published: February 5th 2007
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25th December to 30th December We arrived in Mendoza on Christmas Eve. The hostel is really nice with a pool and garden and a great big BBQ! However its bloody hot here and the rooms never seem to cool down.
Nessie, Kate and I wander in town for a look around. Mendoza has a good feel to it with wide streets lined with trees. We stopped for lunch in a cafe where Kate orders a plate of snacks. From the menu it looks quite small but plates and plates of food keep arriving - sandwiches with the crusts cut off, ham and spam, different types of cheeses and even cheese and pineapple on cocktail sticks. However, Kate is gutted as the speciality of pigs in blankets doesn´t arrive - the one food that is supposed to make us feel Christmassy and they´ve literally just run out of it and served the last plate to Sarah!
We wander around the plazas and tree lines streets and then return to the hostel. On the way back Kate has an ice cream and eats it as we wander past the same restaurant in which we had lunch. The waiters give us
strange looks and we reckon that they´re thinking Kate is a little piggie as she had such a large lunch and it now scoffing an ice cream!
We spend the afternoon wrapping presents and then have a dip in the pool. We bought some sherry and discover that Nessie has never had any so force feed her some as it has to be done at Christmas!
In the evening we have a traditional Christmas dinner. South American´s celebrate Christmas on 24th December so the hostel has organised a BBQ for us. It doesn´t start until 10pm (typical South American eating time) so we´re slightly tipsy on sherry by the time we actually eat. The foot is brilliant - we have barbecued goat and veal. Mmmmmmm, fantastic. The wine is also included so we spend a lot of time hiding full wine bottles under the table and asking for more! At midnight we´re also given a glass of champers as well! Drunkards the lot of us. There are some fireworks at midnight and everyone is very jovial! We end up partying into the early hours of the morning until we stumble off to bed.
Christmas day comes and
we both feel quite bad! Its a really hot day and doesn´t feel at all like Christmas, although Kate and I have managed to organise a stocking for each other - I seem to get rather a lot of llama orientated presents and some dice made of salt.
We wander into town to try and find an internet cafe to call home but everywhere is closed. Feeling quite hungover we wander the streets for what feels like ages until we eventually find somewhere. I phone home and its just the tonic (without the gin) I need to get rid of my hangover. Its great talking to everyone but makes both Kate and I realise how much we miss home at this time of year.
Back at the hostel we have some wine tasting. Everyone has bought a bottle of wine and we have to taste each others with some good cheese of course! We´ve also organised a Secret Santa (played by Dave - he´s very anti Christmas but secretly I think he loves it as he revels in his role of Santa). Everyone actually gets some pretty cool gifts - mine again seem to be llama related plus
2 toilets rolls (an essential item!).
We swap presents with Nessie and Vicky and get some good stuff - finally Kate gets a hammock so can stop wanting one. Kate and I swap pressies too and I get some great gifts - lots of Artisan's stuff and some jewellery. At which point its time for the traditional Christmas nap!
In the evening we went out for a group dinner and had some lovely Argentinian steak. Good but there wasn´t any turkey anywhere!
On Boxing Day we meet up with a friend from home. We went to see him in his hostel and I have to say I have never ever seen someone so hungover! We got there at about 6pm and he still had the shakes from the night before! Needless to say we felt a bit bad about dropping in unannounced so soon left him so he could get some sleep!
In the evening Kate and I go out for dinner for a romantic evening! We have a brilliant night with lots of good food and wine and excellent company of course! We return back to the hostel and sit up until the early hours
of the morning watching a movie - it has to be done at Christmas I guess.
On 27th December we head back into Chile to Santiago. This is our final trip on Rita and we feel a bit sad but we´re also looking forward to the next stage of our journey. We have a nightmare border crossing that takes 5 hours, where the border staff seem to want to search everything. We finally arrive in Santiago and say a fond farewell to the truck.
We have a couple of mad days in Santiago trying to arrange things for the next leg of our trip from flights and buses and hotels and a car to booking on the Navimag ferry for a 4 day crossing through the Chilean fjords. We´ve also got lots of stuff to send home.
Santiago is actually a very nice city and surprises me with how green it is but we don´t get to see much of it as we running around like lunatics planning the next stage.
We have a final group dinner at a curry house. On 29th December we say goodbye to the rest of the group and wish them
well for the rest of their travels. Its sad saying goodbye and we´ll miss people but we´re also glad to finish the trip and spend some time on our own and organising our own travels.
When we wake in the hotel on 30th December its a really weird feeling knowing that everyone else has left. We get a lunchtime bus to Valparaiso and check into our hotel. We´re starting to feel a bit better now and are excited about the next stage of our trip.
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Mum & Dad A
non-member comment
Opening pressies
Ah you look as though you enjoyed opening your christmas pressies girls !!!!!