It seems that I´m about as bad at this blogging thing as I thought I would be. Obviously it´s been a while since I´ve written anything. We´re currently in Bariloche, and we leave this afternoon on an overnight bus to Mendoza and from there we´re hoping to jump on a bus to Salta.. it´s gonna be a long ride, but we´ve heard great thinga about Salta so hopefully it´ll be worth it when we get there!
Let´s go back to Punta Del Diablo...
Punta Del Diablo is this amazing little surf town on the eastern coast of Uruguay (close to Brazil). Beaches are nice, water is pretty warm, and the people there are great. We stayed at a hostel a few blocks away from the beach. The weather wasn´t great while we were there.. there were some big storms that washed away parts of raoads etc. so we spent most of our time drinking (too bad)! We spent most of our time with some Aussies, a deaf english drug dealer, a very flamboyant Brazilian, some Americans who were living in Buenos Aires and a Canadian couple from the Youkon who happened to know Scott and Di (not helping the àll canadians know each other stereotype).We spent most of our time between the hostel and beach, had a great bbq one night and a game of football (the american kind) on the beach one day. Sarah and I were the only two girls brave enough to play, and the Captains. Of course, my team won and of course, I didn´t do a damn thing to help them win... ,mostly just ran around in circles and couldn´t catch the ball. There were these cool little blue jellyfish everywhere that apparantly get poisonus when they´re big but look like little blue sunshines when they´re little. One day we went to check out a Turtle rehabilitation project just outside of town and had lunch on the beach. The pickup that we rode in the back of didn´t have a tailgate, and there were quite a few of us shoved inside, so we were hanging on pretty tight so we wouldn´t fall out! It hurts the face a little when it´s raining and you´re going highway speeds in the back of a truck, but we made it, and had lunch on the beach after checking out the turtles! Then, of course the truck breakes down and we have to find a bus that will take us back to town. After we made it back we found out that there´s a club that opens on weekends about 20 minutes down the road from our hostel. it´s kind of in the middle of nowhere but you still have to pay cover! So of course we started to have some drinks and headed down to this club around 230 or 300... only to find out that it´s empty because we´re so ´¨early¨ .. good thing we were drunk enough that we didn´t care, and we danced the night away anyways. On the walk home we watched the sun rise and then went to have a nap before heading to the beach to have another nap.. or so I thought. Turns out that Gary, who never went to bed, is more interested in dragging Nina aound the beach by our heels than letting us sleep.
We had to book another night here because of an impromptu decision to have a <toga party for one of the staff´s birthdays. so we put on our sheets and started all over again. One guy broke his leg that day trying to learn how to skimboard, and he still managed to make it back in time for the toga party.. what a trooper. Around 200 we decided that it was too early to head to the club so we went to check out this bar down the same road and then made our way to the club. Headed home around 800 for a quick nap before we had to catch our bus at 11. It was a close one.. my alarm didn´t go off but luckily we woke up and made it to the bus in time! Then when we arrived at the ferry terminal we almost weren´t allowed back into Argentina. The customs lady was asking me for a peice of paper, and I had no idea what she was talking about, so she showed me the paper. I was sure that I didn´t have one, but I dug though my whole pack and found this paper somewhere at the bottom. When we came to Uruguay no one told us that we needed to keep this peice of paper that they gave us or we wouldn´t be allowed out.. it just happened that I hadn´t emptied any garbage out of my pack so it was there. Gary, who we were travelling with wasn´t so lucky, and he doesn´t think that he even got the paper in the first place. After lots of waiting and some arguing they let him pay a bunch of money to get into Argentina. So we ran for our ferry and just made it on. Back in Buenos Aires we said our goodbyes to Gary and walked to the bus station to try to find a ticket to Mendoza. After wandeing forever through this massive bus/train station we finally found the place to buy tickets and booked a bus to Mendoza!
Mendoza was very nice.. the first night we were there there was a tequilla party with free shots.. the only catch is that you have to lean backwards over the bar while they pour the tequilla into your mouth for as long as they feel like. The next day we signed up for a bikes and wine tour in Maipu, one of the wine reigons just outside of Mendoza. Some americans that we met on the bus signed up with us. After 3 Winey (Bodega) tours the group was leaving, but we decided that we wanted more wine so we ditched our tour and continued on our own. We tasted some more wine and walked to a liquor and chocolate factory for a tasting. We bought some delicious wine and liquor, and then went to find a bus back to Mendoza! On the way back to or place we found a little diner and had lunch and more wine for about 10 pesos (2.50). The rest of Mendoza isn´t this cheap.. you usually have to wander away from the tourist areas to find good prices like this.
The following day we went on a tour in the Andes. We saw some really cool old inca bridges and went to the ounta del inca (the furthest south that the incas settled). We went to Aconcagua national park and saw Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the world outside the himalayas (6900 m or something close to that). Back at the hostel we met a guy from Poland who had just come back from guiding an expedition up Aconcagua, who was shocked that we would come to mendoza and not climb it! (hah). Later that night there was some festival going on in town so we grabbed a bottle of wine and headed to the park to check it out. The festival reminded me a lot of somethign that you would find at home.. a stage with a band, some people dancing and lots of food vendors.
Our last day in Mendoza we decided to have a relaxing day. We bought some wine and strawberries and headed to the park to lie in the shade and enjoy our wine. While we were drinking in the park these two girls were riding their bikes by and hollering the sound of music out, when they stopped and wanted to take a picture. We offered to take one for them and chatted for a while, then they lent us their bikes for a few minutes. Turns out that one of the girls is the manager of Loki hostel in Mancora (Peru). I promised that I would go visit. At the end of the afternoon we packed up our things and headed to the bus station to head to Bariloche!
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