Lets get the heck out of dodge

Anna had already caught her plane back to NYC. And I think after two mornings of seeing the sunrise Paul decided he needed to get back to his real job of running his hostel and stop hanging out with us delinquents. It also happened to be the week before Semana Santa (Easter) which meant I got an extra two days off from school. Joanna and I figured this meant it was perfect timing for a road-trip.

The only question left was where. I wanted to find some wineries. Joanna wanted to find a mountain. Luckily Mendoza turned out to be the perfect spot to combine the two. Mendoza is a lovely little city near the Chilean border, in the desert right before the Andes start. Whenever I asked any Argentineans about Mendoza they all said the same thing ¨que linda!¨ which I took as a very good sign.

The desert climate, excellent irrigation and lack of rain make it perfect grape growing region. And Mount Anoncagua, the highest peak in the world outside of the Himalayas is only a 3 hour bus ride from the city. Mendoza it was. After making a few very confusing phone calls I managed to find us a bus heading to Mendoza in a few short hours. It was a 15 hour trek, which sounded not at all appealing.

¨Don´t worry¨ Joanna told me ¨we´ll be asleep through most of it, so it´s only like a 5 hour bus ride¨ I´ve always suspected that women live in a world with different rules regarding space and time, I took this as further evidence of that fact. But actually the bus ride wasn´t bad at all, the seats were about as comfortable as 1st Class airplane seats, they brought around wine and whiskey, the food was ok and they even played two terrible movies.

Before we knew it morning was upon us and we were pulling into the bus terminal in Mendoza. We consulted our trusty (or not so trusty, depending on your point of view) Lonely Planet guide and found a few hostels. The first one was booked, but the second one had room. An hour later we found a tour operator with a 3-day trek to Mount Anoncagua leaving early the next morning.

I came to Latin America with the intention of spending time hanging out at the beach and doing some dancing. And it turns out sleeping bags, fleeces and camping equipment weren´t required for any of that, and thus did not get packed. But luckily there was a store in town that will rent you whatever you might need. I got geared up and we decided to take it easy with the drinking and partying that night. There was a mountain calling our name and we were leaving bright and early in the morning. The wineries would just have to wait 3 more days.