Mendoza and Las Leñas

Our last post (a while ago now, sorry) saw us on the way to Mendoza where we stayed a few days at hostel Empedrado on the advice of Gaya our mate from Aldea Luna. Determined to make some new friends we provisioned ourselves with cheese and crackers and walked into the common room to tempt other backpackers. Our plan was not in vain and we were soon talking to three British girls (Abbey, Lucy and Bronia) and not long after we were all participating in a wine tasting put on by the hostel. During our wine tasting we made plans to go on a self guided bicycle tour of some nearby wineries the next day.

As Sarah is prone to sleeping in we had to have a quick breakfast before the seven of us (we were joined by another couple - Sarah and  Bradley) started walking across town to catch a bus. An hour later saw us shaking hands with the broadly grinning "Mr Hugo" whose  bikes we were hiring for the afternoon. Having determined the brakes mostly worked, the gears didn't and the helmets were able to stay on our heads we powered onto our first destination a local wine shop.

We sampled five wines and some snacks and found a link between Bradley and Abbey (rowing). We then partied on at Trapiche which is one of the biggest wine producers in Argentina and account for almost 10% of all exports. Our tour took us around the winery with explanations of machinery both new and old before they finally started the tasting. Our next stop we tried sobering up at an oil and choclate tasting, until they brought out the spirits and were told to try the absinthe. Having tasted food we hungered for more and decided to head for a well recommended winery Mibi. We now discovered that the map was not to scale, what seemed like a 5 min ride (based on prior experience) turned into a half hour ride, uphill, against the wind. While riding we noticed a car trailing us, when it beeped I stopped and turned around to see a cop waving us on (why did they beep us?); meanwhile a local dog had taken offense to my location and leapt forward and bit me! The final 5 minutes of riding I spent contemplating rabies and what I would look like with froth foaming from my mouth. Having taken a poll at the dinner table I dispatched messages to two doctors and started cleaning the wound ferociously - my primary concern was that it might impact on our upcoming ski adventure. Still none the wiser about my future we headed back after dinner to return the bikes to Mr Hugo and found the police had decided to tail us back (for our safety). Thankfully a quick call with Dr Garsia saved us a trip to the hospital as he reassured us only some precautionary antibiotics were needed.

That night at 2.30 we boarded a bus headed for Las Lenas, one of Argentina's best ski fields. The hotels being well out of our price range we had managed to secure a weeks accommodation in the workers residential area which not only was right on the snow but exposed us to some awesome cultural experiences, but first, the snow...

While undoubtedly excited to be skiing the Andes we were somewhat disappointed by the snow which was strikingly similar to the early part of an Aussie season. We enjoyed it nonetheless until midweek when we got a huge dump of snow over two days. We were in heaven. All our skiing until now had been on piste but emboldened by the level of powder ready to catch us and encouraged by reports that we were at one of the world's best off piste resorts we struck out! And fell flat on our faces. Many times. But it is honestly the best fun we have ever had on snow! While the snow started disappearing quite quickly we often skied till last lifts (if Sarah didn't get drunk at lunch time) as it's not every day you ski the Andes! Our Spanish were put to the test on the chairlifts and one conversation bears remembering as we were told by one skiier that he hoped to travel to Australia soon to collect some cow semen (ours is among the best in the world?).

One lift, called Martes,  deserves special mention. This lift was a favorite of our professional ski housemates (as in they record their skiing to make badass videos) which took us to the highest point of the resort and gave access to a 7km run! It also deserves mention for it's steepness (imagine sheer cliffs with jagged peaks just waiting to smash  your body when you fell) and it's recent history which involved it being taken out by an avalanche. The hard core skiiers became sick of waiting for the resort to fix it and as soon as the broken pylon was propped up, they started jumping and hanging off the chairs to bend them back into shape. A comforting story for those of us scared of heights.

Without a doubt this week was a cultural highlight as well as a sporting one. Firstly we were lucky enough to watch the final of the soccer world cup alongside hundreds of passionate Argentines on a huge screen that was on the snow near the ski lifts. It was the most exciting game to date with the entire crowd shouting and cheering right until the goal in extra time by Germany when the entire mountain went silent as we anticipated our loss.  In addition to the football game our hosts invited us to asados (bbqs that are cooked slowly over hot coals often with every type of meat lying on the grill) three times throughout the week where we sampled meat right off the grill while sipping local wine. Deciding we should contribute we went to the local supermarket where we bought... wait for it... A five litre Swap-N-Go bottle of wine! For $10! It was pretty good too! We did not represent Australia very well at these parties as we went to bed well before midnight every night but it was nonetheless an amazing experience thanks to our hosts Yaya, Adri and Aymar and our Aussie/Norwegian mates,  Alison and Jason (and their child Petra), with whom we could hold entirely coherent conversations (I think they were some of the only English speakers in the resort!)

Back in Mendoza we spent a lazy afternoon in the city's park which, despite being massive, was fully utilised with hundreds of families almost all with soccer balls or sharing matè. The next day we caught a bus to Santiago in which we crossed the Andes and while we didn't take photos, the shades of brown and red in the rocks contrasted with the white snow and the pink sky will remain etched in our minds forever. We spent a couple of nights in Santiago, where we re-explored the museum of memories, before farwelling the south of South America and catching a plane into Quito where our next adventure awaits us.

Love to all at home.

PS the car photo is the winner of our "wouldn't make rego in Australia" comp!

PPS a video of our shenanigans in the snow is on the youtube channel.

Ged and Rah