So having been a bit relaxed on updating my blog...I may now blast you with information. Apologies for that!
Argentina. A lovely country, very European, cheap, hospitable and lots of...erm...rules! I get told off almost daily in this country (in fact there have only been 3 days I haven't been told off for something or other!) It ranges from not having a tidy enough dorm room to the military police boarding our bus yesterday and telling us off for not carrying our passports (but that was all we got, a telling off I mean! It could have been much worse!)
Buenos Aires was great, very European and looked like Madrid. I know that that should have been mighty exciting, and although I liked it, I felt a city is a city really and 5 days there was more than enough. I was so happy to leave and get on another 16 hour coach (which doubled as a sauna) to Mendoza, in the foot of the Andes (at the end of my armies....ha ha ha)
Mendoza has been incredible. First I faced my fears and went horse riding. After tears and having an elderly gaucho (argentinian cowboy) lead me by the hand to stroke the terrifying monster (Sebastian the Horse) in front of me, i finally got on him. And we went for a stroll in the Andes. He was lovely and now I want to do it all over again!
Then we had a BBQ (or a plate of tomatoes - yep I ate them out of politeness) we then found a tarantula and chased that around for a while! Great stuff!
Yesterday I think could have been my favourite day of the trip so far. We took the bus to Puente del Incas (part of the Inca trail) and then walked up the hill towards base camp of Mount Aconcagua (the highest mountain in the Americas!) Whilst the other girls puffed, panted and wheezed due to the altitude, I felt smug as I was running and dancing around. I am going to attribute this to usually having less breath than everyone else (asthma) and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Note-this was not the reason this was my favourite day....just being smug about breathing! So after worrying that we were inadvertantly wandering into Chile without our passports (and having been told off once already!) we finally found the track to walk to base camp. We cam arounf the corner and behind already huge mountains there was Aconcagua, looming over the valley, somewhat how I would imagine Everest looks out over Nepal. Snow capped and foreboding, I set off running with Sheryl in pour excitement (and had to stop out of breath after 10 metres.)
All in all a stunning place. Breathtakingly beautiful and reinforcing how lucky I truely am to be here. I would not change this for the world.
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