With Marcos, our guide from the school.
With Pablo, a friend of Marcos´ from Mendosa,
with the third highest mountain peak in the world in the background.
At 12,000 feet, with a mighty (and cold!) wind,
This building and the view behind it are in Chilé.
On the way down the mountain, the note the church in the background.
Okay, let me give a bit more explanation to the pictures. These are presented in the order in which they were taken, the first (with Marcos) about halfway up into the mountains at a beautiful photo-op stop. I took a neat video of the panoramic view with my camera here.
The second picture is of Pablo, an employee of the hostle where we stayed. Behind us is the world´s third highest mountain peak, situated on the border between Chilé and Argentina. Note the glacier on the face of the peak.
The third picture is of me at 12,000 feet. It was SO COLD, and if I were a smaller man, I would have worried about being blown off the mountain. Literally! We spent only a few minutes at this altitude, having climbed 1 kilometer in 8 kilometer´s distance on the last part of our journey -- on a narrow dirt road in a small bus, with lots of oncoming traffic. Needless to say, it was both beautiful AND a religeous experience, all at the same time!
The fourth picture is of the Chilean side of the border (here, only a dirt road with no guard, since there is literally NO WAY to go in either direction without returning to Argentina down the one road). The mountains in the background, like the building, are in Chilé.
The final picture is of a public restroom on the way down the mountain. It is across a natural bridge, and at this time of year, a spring is running, depositing sulpher all around the restroom. It emits poisenous gas! So, to say the least, the bathrooms and the natural bridge connecting to them are not open to the public. Note the church in the background. It is only accessible when the spring is not running. Also, in the 1930s, when an avelanch destroyed the village, the church was the only building spared.
The Ándes were beautiful! I am excited for the time I will get to live in close proximity to them in Santiago, Chilé (3 weeks starting this Sunday) and the time I´ll live in them at 9,200 feet the three weeks following, when I´m in Quito, Ecuador.
Let me review briefly our trip to Mendosa. A dozen of us from the school, including our leader-guide, Marcos, left the school on Thursday night, taking a "bus cama" (or sleeper bus) from Buenos Aires to Mendosa, the capitol of Mendosa provence. There are 110,000 people in the city and 800,000 in the provence. The bus ride was remarkable. The trip took 12+ hours each way, and we passed our time watching DVDs in English with Spanish subtitles -- a surprisingly effective way to expand one´s vocabulary. We were also fed a hot meal in the evening and a cold meal for breakfast, all included in the trip (with wine, water, coffee, tea, and or soda, as you wished). The bus is HUGE -- two stories tall, with three wide and comfortable seats per row, each unfolding to make a nice "bed" of the somewhat sitting-up fashion. They also have a bathroom, but one can deposit no "solids," if you catch my drift. "Liquids only!" That was, perhaps, the most uncomfortable part of the non-stop trip.
We stayed in a hostle, and while I like the idea of hostles very much, the reality was not so plesant. On Friday night there was a loud ping-pong game right outside our bedroom window, repleat with loud music and lots of shouting. If I´d wanted, I could have reached out and poked them -- they were that close! The party ended at 4:30 in the morning, and we had to leave the hostle for the Ándes at 7:30. NOBODY in our hostle or the one nextdoor got any sleep. Later, we learned from Pablo that there is actually a policy that loud noises have to stop at 1 or 1:30 a.m. However, the next night, there was no problem.
Friday was a tour of Mendosa province wineries, with all of their old-world charm. Saturday was the above mentioned journey up into the mountains. Sunday was a rafting trip down the Mendosa river, with class 3 1/2 (out of 5 possible) rapids. I was placed as one of the two lead paddlers in the boat because of my boating experience. To my disappointment, and that of my fellow students, we were all placed in English-speaking rafts due to the large number of English speaking rafters. In the end, that probably turned out alright. After all, if you´re heading, head-first, into a rapid nicknamed "Throat of the Devil," it´s good to be able to understand and respond to commands without having to translate! Everybody in my boat did fine, and we had no problems. Ours was boat number 2. Boat number 3, the native Spanish speaker, and one man thrown overboard. I happened to turn just in time to see him fly feet-over-head, the full length of the boat and into the rapids. This rafting company has a rescue kayak acompany each trip, so he was back in the boat in no time, and his paddle, soon rescued as well.
After rafting and a tranquil lunch by the river, we returned by bus to Mendosa and our hostle, and quickly got our belongings and took a taxi to the bus terminal. Within an hour we were on the "Bus Cama" and headed for Buenos Aires, watching "The Guardian" -- as my seat partner from England described it, before falling asleep, "What a bunch of rah, rah American military rubbish that is!" I gotta say, I rather liked it, and expanded one particular part of my Spanish vocabulary (the non-pastoral, shall we say...) rather significantly.
This morning I saw the most remarkable sunrise while on the bus. We arrived in Buenos Aires too late to make it to our classes on time, but I managed to make it up the 56 stairs to the "second floor" in time for the first break of the day. On Friday I complete my studies in Buenos Aires, and on Sunday, move on to Chilé.
Finally, today, I went to the computer place and paid for my computer´s repair. However, when I checked it, the same problem occurred! It has a 3 month guarantee, so they are keeping it and will work on it today and tomorrow. HOPEFULLY, I´ll get it back Wednesday. However, if they can´t fix it, I´ll have to get a refund and take it to a shop in Chilé. Oh, joy!
Enough! I need to head over to the school. Tonight, we´re having a BBQ up on the roof of the school and a party following. I´m not quite sure WHY, on a Monday, but still -- it should be fun. Though part of me is so tired, I feel like going home. So perhaps that is what I will do. We shall see!
Also, I´ve found that when I am extremely tired, I can´t think well in either language. How curious an experience that is!
Much love to all of you. Please continue to hold me in your prayers. They´re both needed and appreciated!
-- Bill
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