Mountains and Wine
Trip Start
Sep 29, 2008
1
18
19
Trip End
Nov 04, 2008
Mendoza,
Cuyo,
Argentina
Friday, October 31, 2008
Arrived in Mendoza about 8:00 after not such a great trip. Last time we traveled on the bus it was a Super Cama, this was a semi Cama. The difference was that the Super is a full size type of lay dowm bed, semi Camas are seats which slope back quite a way, but not horizontal. Slight mistake on our part. Any way we dropped our gear at the hotel and wandered around Mendoza. Got back to the htel at 14:00 for a trip around the wineries. Not very exciting - did go to an organic winery, not sure whether it was organic because of philosophy or because the horse is cheaper than the tractor to plough the vineyard.
Tuesday 28th
The following day was full on. Up at 6:30, quick grab of breakfast and off on a tour of the "mountains" at 07:00. The tour finished at 20:00, so we had been going for 13 hours. Really great trip and gave me a chance to show Dru the mountain that I didn't climb in 1996. On that trip only got to 5200 mts, we camped there for 3 days, but the weather was bad so the whole party, returned to base camp. We stopped for lunch at 16:00 and found out that 2 of our travelling companions were English teachers from 100km the city of BsAs. So we got the low down on the state of play and pay for Argentinian teachers. He told us that teachers get only 70% of their finally salary as a pension. What he then went on to point out was that their salary is made up of extras and their basic salary is the one that is used to calculate the pension.. This means that they may only finish up with 40% or less. Anyway, teachers strikes seem to be prevalent.
Just a thought, but what are the odds on 2 watches getting flat batteries at the same time. Mine packed up 2 wks into the trip and Dru's, 3 wks.
