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Published: August 4th 2006
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Country manor anyone!? After the worst bus journey to date (due to the amount of red wine consumed) we arrived a little worse for wear in Mendoza. We had nowhere to stay and got roped into staying at a "party" hostel by a guy called mad max (although we prefer the smaller, quieter hostels as we like to sleep occasionally). However, as soon as he said "we have a snes with mariocart" we were sold!! The next morning we moved out. The music was blaring till 6am and then started up again at 8. We aren´t boring.... we know how to party..... just not to shakira and black eyed peas continually. So, we made our way to a smaller quieter hostel (the ones we prefer!). Hostel Lao was run by an English guy, his argentinian girlfriend and a big black German Shepherd called Astor. Astor liked to play.... 24 hours a day!!
Mendoza is famous for its wine and has many good nearby vineyards. Theres a company called bikes and wine, a bit of a dangerous combination, which literally hires the bikes and gives you a map then off you go! Pretty self explanitory really!! We hadn´t riden a bike since we were
Cart-horse
Come on... put some effort in it! kids but it was all good fun. We spent the whole day cycling around and sampling wines. I´d love to tell you that one of us fell off (Gray mostly) but we were far too pro for that! ; )
The next day we took a road trip! We hired a car (sadly forgot to name this one!) to visit a natural sulphur bridge that supposedly glows orange. We never made it. Weather wise it has to have been the most perculiar day EVER! The morning started with brilliant sunshine and no less than 20km down the road the wind started to pick up. We had chosen the scenic route which was a road winding up a mountain with sheer drops and 365 turns.... aptly named the road of the year. Genius!! It was there that we feared for our lives. The wind had seriously picked up now, throwing rocks in our path and violently shaking the car. There was no turning back, not through choice, the road was far too thin!! With the help off Nicks superb driving skills (yes, he did pay me) we made it to the top unscathed. Thank god we filmed it as I
The Road of the Year
Looks half as scary as what it was. Just wait for the vid! had my eyes closed through most of it! At the top we were supposed to be greeted by Mt. Aconcaguar, the highest peak of the Andes but it was covered in cloud. Oh well, I´m sure it would have looked the same as every other mountain we have seen.
Next stop was a town called Uspallata which had been invaded by approx 1500 big trucks. A weird sight indeed! The road from Uspallata crosses the Argentine/Chile border way up high in the Andes and often closes in winter when the weather gets bad. The trucks just sit and wait for the crossing to open, sometimes for weeks! We weren´t going as far as the border so we carried on. Soon after Uspallata (where the weather was fine) we hit heavy rain again causing rocks to fall into the road. This time it was Sally´s driving skills that saw us safe. God am i glad I don´t drive!! After sometime the rain turned into snow..... heavy snow. It became clear why the road was closed. Remember in our last blog (Las Leñas) there was hardly any snow on the slopes? Well the day we left it started snowing and didn´t
6
I cant think what to call this one....tree!? Gray made me put it on! stop for days and days and days..... typical!! So, basically we didn´t make it to our destination. We had to stop at a little ski resort, there were no lifts running just loads of people sledging. We coudn´t join in as we couldn´t have been more inappropriately dressed! Mendoza, 150kms away, was 20degrees when we left. To finish off the strangest weather day of our lives, when we got back to Mendoza the strong winds had got worse, blowing down trees and filling the city with dust. Even stranger the wind was a warm wind and the temp was around 30 degrees!!
All that remained for us in Mendoza was a farewell meal with Nick and Sally as we went our seperate ways the next morning. Boo to them! ; P
Also... I tried snails!! You could see their long dangling eye things and everything. Whoever would have thought it having once come from a strict diet of chicken and chips. Although, I won´t be doing that again!!
Lynny x
I drove some of the way back ..... I hit one of the large rocks that had rolled in the road! ooops! that could have made
More camera tricks
in a wine factory. it a very expensive day, if the hire company found the nice dent I put in the car .... they didnt! Not even Sally and Nick noticed it! haha
Gray x
Amy ..... do you want us to send these to you in advance so you can proof read?? ; )
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amy
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nope...
I want you to send me a plane ticket so I can join you! Then i can write the blogs for you ;) I'll write back to your e-mail later. And if you spill the beans about where i'm taking Lee J this weekend i'll beat you up! xxxxxxxxx