Mendoza,
Argentina
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Woke up at 6:30am this morning to get the bus to Mendoza. Once again our fellow hostel mates were making one hell of a noise right outside our room (where the communal area is), so I didn't get to sleep until about 3am again! This hostel sucks. Actually the hostel is OK, but the location of our room sucks. We got to the bus station with plenty of time to spare, got our bags on and tried to board... We were told that we needed the entry card to Chile that we were given at the airport, but we had no idea if we had one, and if so, where it was! The bus driver clearly had no sympathy and would have left without us, had we not rummaged around all our papers in a hurry and found it! What a relief! The bus journey had been hyped up by all and sundry, and it was with good reason. We went straight over snow covered mountains, with the taller peaks towering above us. Amazing scenery and crazy roads. Thinking that we are about to climb way higher than even the tallest peaks we saw was quite frightening, but now I am really psyched to get on the hike. The Hostel Confluentia in which we now find ourselves is very nice indeed, more like a hotel. I don't think we are going to be kept awake all night here. Mendoza is awesome; wide roads lined with trees, cafes along the streets and loads of locals. It does not seem very touristy at all! People here are obsessed with ice cream and there are ice-cream stores everywhere, so I have already tried one of them and it is truly delicious, and cheap - US$1 for a 2 scoop waffle cone. Argentina is super-cheap actually...we went out for dinner, my salad was US$1, Marks steak US$3 and a litre of beer about US$1,50....perfect.
The sun only sets after 9pm so people are milling about the streets, markets and parks until then. It is so hot here! I am not sure what the actual temperature is but it feels hotter than Cayman, maybe because the sun is harsher and there is no air-con anywhere, I think Jenks is going to die. However I am not complaining cos the temperature on the hire at the moment seems to be below -12 degrees!!!!!
