Mendoza

  Mendoza, Argentina
Saturday, May 12, 2007

Mendoza... Argentina

We left Valparaiso and got the bus across and sometimes actually through the Andes Mountains. The scenery along the way was absolutely spectacular.... with snow capped peaks all along the way. The border crossing was a bit of a pain in the backside. The border control dudes empty all the buses and everything is searched and while they are doing that the people basically just hang about. WeŽll remember this bus journey because of the bus driver!!

04 Well...bus journeys do get very boring !!

They have 2 bus drivers on board, one drives while the other takes a snooze, or in this case... talks to the foreigners on board! The spare bus driver, as weŽll call him, befriended us. He talked to us for easily 2 hours, which eventually became a bit of a pain! He told us all about his family and within seconds he had whipped out his mobile phone and started showing us all the photos and videos that he has on his mobile phone. We actually began to get a bit scared when there was videos of him walking around in a stringy vest... "uh oh... I just hope that his wife doesnŽt appear wearing a stringy vest!". Possibly the funniest video that the chap had on his phone was him riding a horse and cart down the main street in Valparaiso with all the traffic behind him!! The horse was his own... he kept him in a "spare" (not the one he uses) swimming pool at the end of his garden, he even had pictures to prove this!! Strange people in this world I tell ye folks!!!!!

Anyway! Mendoza is a really really cool town. Every single street is lined with trees... big trees at that... not the shrubby kind of tree... but ones that would be prime for tree-house building!! There are bucket loads of restaurants and bars and the shopping is also deadly.

Time for a nice story

09 Sarah, Claire & Trevor...met new friends

When we were in Quito, Ecuador back in March we met an English couple called Trevor and Claire. We subsequently bumped into them in a few other places in Ecuador. Our final encounter with them in Ecuador saw Trevor in a sling... he had just bust his collarbone after falling off his bike doing a downhill mountain bike trip. He was told that he had to have surgery. That meant that both Trevor and Claire had to go home, 6 weeks into a year away from home... they had to go home! What a feckin balls!!

Now for the nice bit.... on our second day in Mendoza, we were strolling along, admiring the lovely shrubbery in the town, when who did we bump into to.... yup... Trevor and Claire! They had returned to Engerland, it turned out he didnŽt need the surgery, spent a few weeks at home and then resumed their travels... with the insurance company footing all the bills!!
So.... we had to celebrate... and we had a good old celebration too!! Sarah and Claire giving us a memorable rendition of "Joseph and His Technicolour Dreamcoat" whilst sitting on the street in this lovely town!!!

Finally, this is the town where we were able to buy our tickets to the Argentina vs Ireland rugby game on the 26th May. We walked past an electrical store and saw that they were selling the tickets inside. Instead of paying €40 for a ticket via the interingnet, we actually got the tickets for only €7.50... superb or wha!!

Bring on the rest of Argentina!