#8 Chow Chow Mendoza

They say that travellers either come to Mendoza to visit the many nearby vineyards or to do some serious hiking around (or even up) Mt Acongagua. In reality I think that it is simply the next stop on the tourist trail from Salta in the North to Bariloche where we will head next. We figured one of our photos must be Mt Acongagua and as hiking such a large mountain is really only the activity of serious climbers, there was no need to take a bus out there just to see it, so to the wineries we went instead.

We had befriended a group of travellers visiting from Whistler, Canada (two Aussies, one Belgium) and invited ourselves along to the vineyards for bicycle tour with them. We skipped the actual wine tasting vineyard tour experience in favour of simply enjoying some vino's in the sun. It was well over 30 degrees and simply too hot be trying red wines in the middle of the day. Certainly as the day progressed staying upright on the bicycle became more of a challenge but it was a really good day and it was nice to have a group of people to go with.

The main purpose of our visit to Mendoza was to learn some much needed Spanish. Learning a language is difficult. Enough said. I cannot help thinking that it must be easier for others and that i am missing the bilingual gene. Fortunately (well, I should say unfortunately) Reece feels the same. For the past two weeks we have attended classes from 8.30am to 1pm at a school just round the corner from our hostel. (Our choice of language school coming down to a 45 or 5 minute walk per day). It is full emersion, though we have pushed our teachers – some who have beem more willing than others – to cheat a little. I guess you could say we're better than when we started but I'm not sure by how much. It is a framework to work from, we will not be fluent after two weeks, and we just have to keep reminding ourselves of that.

Reece at San Martin Parque which we visited with our new friends

After one week of classes we were desperate for a break so left the city to go camping in Cacheuta, a tiny town not too far from Mendoza whose claim to fame is its thermal springs. The campsite was basic but had its own charm – we had some fun trying to explain to the owner, the mirror image of French actor Gerard Depardiu, that the toilets were leaking and met a lovely older couple. Our desire to learn Spanish was renewed after yet another conversation ended once pleasantries were exchanged, places of origin learnt, and apologies provided for the All Blacks ending the Pumas world cup chances.

Reece hiked to this monument in Cachueta while I
blogged back at the campsite

We spent a lovel day at the thermal springs subathing, eating empanadas, and attempting to eaves drop on conversations to see what we could translate. When we first arrived we found a hot spa at the pools which we had only been sitting for about two minutes before being approached by a lifeguard pointing towards my boardshorts. I acted as if I did not understand him (though the week prior in class we had actually learnt clothing vocabulary) and walked away. Not much later another lifeguard, a guy who could speak English, approached me saying I could not swim in my boardshorts. When I asked him why I was told it was simply the rule but even when pressed he could not explain why it was a rule. By this stage about three attendants were gawking at me which I was having a hard time understanding given just about every other girl at the pool wore only g-string bottoms!