Tuesday, October 21, 2008

The bus journey to Mendoza through the Andes Mountains was 8 hours long but the scenery was so spectacular that it felt like half the time. The boys were real troopers with Dan managing a little snooze and Josh being Mr Helpful himself insisting on carrying his own Bob the Builder backpack. It was strange going overland through a border and the Chilean / Argentine border was a bit surreal consisting of a big warehouse full of customs officials in the middle of the mountains. The whole process was a little intimidating because not speaking the lingo we weren´t sure what was going on but we just followed our fellow passengers lead. Well over an hour later after passport and luggage checks we were all herded back on the bus. An hour was quite quick as our Santiago tour guide told us that if we were to travel on a Friday or a public holiday it can take up to 8 hours to get through the border. It was another four hours to Mendoza and the first thing that hit us getting off the bus was the heat and how busy the place way. It was Saturday afternoon and the streets were teeming with people. Our hotel was average with the bonus being the boys room was separate to ours so it was kind of like being in a very small apartment. Gave us all a little breather from each other. That night the city was alive with music and people either out strolling, sitting outside cafes drinking beer or eating icecreams. The latter two being mine and Paul´s favourite. Sunday morning in Mendoza was like stepping out into a beautiful ghost town after th hub bub of the previous night all the locals were lying in. We have never seen a city with so many trees it was really beautiful. We spent a lot of time around the Plaza Independencia watching the street life which the boys charged round. We also visited this bizzare little aquarium which was a bigger hit with the boys than seaworld with it´s giant turtle and albino frogs. We desperately needed to do some laundry and buy some nappies but apart from food and wine bars everywhere was shut. Hence we improvised with a folded up towel for Dan that night instead of a nappy. He though he was quite cool and waddled around looking like a baby sumo. The next morning we headed off for the laundromats and looked a sight walking the streets with Josh pushing a stroller loaded with a huge bag of laundry. After dropping the washing off we visited Parque General San Martin which had a fabulous rose garden, lake and view of the mountains. The boys wound up having an unexpected swim in a massive puddle. They were having so much fun we left them to it even though we only had a change of tops with us. Dan had to go back to the hotel in his nappy and Josh had to sit in his stroller with Dan´s sheet draped over his lap. Good job English is not widely spoken or all the Mendozians would have heard on the way back to hotel was "Josh would you leave it alone!" I was sad to leave Mendoza but we had done our dash and sampled the wine if not the wineries so today we boarded the bus to San Luis. Four hours inland through scrubby desert with the odd small village dotted along the way.Paul and I were both struck by how poor parts of the country are much more so than we expected and pulling into San Luis with its crumbling buildings, graffiti and broken pavements wasn´t great but we are learning that you need to give places a chance. Once we´d off loaded our bags we wandered into the Plaza de Pringles which is postcard pretty. The boys were in their element running around singing songs and a Spanish Barney even came over and said hello to them. After a pretty basic dinner we went for icecream and then wandered through an evening market. We both felt a bit brighter by the time we got back to the hotel. Well I had better go and check on my boys I left Paul with them watching a DVD xox

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