Mendoza, Argentina

The first couple of days here weren´t the best. H and I had food poisoning and it put us on our arse for the best part of 24 hours. We tried to work out where we had got it from. I was the first to get ill and fill the bathroom sinck with vomit, and I thought it was from the raw egg in my Spanish Omelette that I had for lunch on the 19th. It was only when H did the same a few hours later that we thought it must be something different. It had to be from the meal we were given on the Cama bus here, or from some rather dodgy Carne Empanada´s we had got in the local supermarket. Either way, we spent the night of the 19th being very very ill. I had never experienced pain like it. And we were bed-ridden for all of the 20th. We are staying in a hotel called Hotel Petit, cleverly called so because everything is so small. Claustrophobia was setting in.

We made it out of the hotel on Friday (the 21st), but didn´t go too far. We spent some time trying to find a double room in a hostel as it is difficult to meet people in hotels, and the activities they offer aren´t very good, but we didn´t have much luck. We did manage to reserve somewhere though, from the 24th, but only until the 27th. We did find out a lot of information though about the different activities you can do here, and in the Andes, such as wine tours, white-water rafting, paragliding and horseriding.

We still hadn´t fully recovered by the Friday night so it was another evening spent in going stir-crazy, in a tiny bedroom, staring at the TV in the corner of the room. There is only so much Spanish cable you can take. On Saturday (22nd) we felt a lot better and booked ourselves onto three trips over the next few days; white-water rafting, paragliding and horse-riding. Our spirits were on the up even though cabin-fever had meant we had nearly killed each other. We walked to the local park, Parque General San Martin, which is huge. For those gardeners out there it is 420-hectares (is that bigger than acres?). Because it was so big we hopped on a bus and got taken on a tour of the park. Now the thing about Mendoza is that it is on the foot on the Andes, slap bang in the middle of a desert. Because of this thousands of giant sycamores have been introduced on every street to keep the locals cool and out of the sun.

For example, here.....

Here.....















And here.....















Personally I think they have overdone it. Even in the park. When I arrived and looked at a map I was surprised, and somewhat glad to see, that a football stadium is in the center of the park. I was even more excited to read that it was purpose built for the 1978 World Cup. It was sure to be massive, and I was hoping I´d get a glimpse. It was obviously going to be the highlight of the park for me. So we boarded the bus and it wound it´s way through the park to the view point at the back of the park, on top of a hill. Unfortunately the view over Mendoza and the football stadium in the park was blocked by trees!!















But I did mangage to snap this as we came down from the hill in the bus, impressive eh!















There weren´t many trees at the back of the park so the view of the Andes was pretty spectacular.





























We leave for Santiago on Thursday, our last bus ride of the trip but the one I have been most looking forward too...over the Andes. And from there we fly to Sydney on Sunday.....