Where are the Andes? At the end of your armies!

Mendoza: No update yesterday – was suffering technical difficulties with the PC in the hostel, which I've now overcome in a rather round-a-bout way. Anyway, the update from two days ago would have been rather short, as it was just a 22 hour bus journey out of Patagonia to Mendoza. If i'm having a slow day in the future. I'll write more about the Argentine bus experience, but for now i'll leave it at the novely having worn off!

After coming off 22 hours on a bus we were pretty keen to get moving, so on Tuesday evening signed up for some hiking on the Wednesday, not really knowing where we were going or what kind of trek it was. Turned out to be a fantastic day, just the two of us (another girl who I met down in Puerto Madryn came to Mendoza with me) and our sprightly Peruvian guide. After about 45 minutes in a van along the pass between Mendoza and Santiago, we got off and hiked up about an hour to some fantastic views. The hiking was pretty tough going – steep and a rocky path. Not like the well marked and pristine Wanderwege in Switzerland!

View on the way up

Lunch at the top!

At the top we stopped for lunch, and having been given a bag with some fruit and a cereal bar at the beginning, we assumed this was the snack break. Turns out our guide had the other part of our lunch with him, which was a pretty impressive selection of salad, cheese, meats and bread, which was a very welcome surprise. (note to Argentine bus companies: also shows the quality of packed lunch that can be produced pretty easily!)

Large bird (very large). Maybe someone will be able to remind me what it's called. The river is where we hiked back down to.

The hike down was around 3 hours on rather difficult path, but did involve a stop-off to a waterfall before being picked up by the van again and driven back to Mendoza. The evening was fairly uneventful, with us wandering around Mendoza, which was not particularly impressive, even if the tour guides say we should be charmed by the town's numerous plazas and green spaces. I suppose the Lonely Planet is permitted some poetic licence when describing South American towns, as so far my experience is that most of the are very similar, rather dull, and not at all pedestrian friendly. Luckily the scenery makes up for the lack of character in the towns!