Am in Mendoza. It's a beautiful city nestling at the roots of the Andes, surrounded by green fields and wineries and seems very lush after the arid landscape of the Pampas. It's actually in a desert, but a very old and expansive system of river-fed aqueducts has changed the area.
I took the bus from BA bus station, which is as big as a medium sized international airport (not of the Reykjavík and Kathmandu scale), last night. There have been major reductions in long-distance train service in Argentina so it's either taking the bus or flying - and since I'm a foreigner it costs way more for me to fly than if I were an Argentine resident (how can a resident/tourist price difference be justified? Aerolineas Argentinas and Icelandair are on my top ten list of most hated companies. What have consumer's associations got to say about this?). The bus system is great and the long-distance nightbuses have huge comfy business-class style seats that would put many airlines to shame. A person twice my size would be comfortable in these buses. Meals are included, served by handsome co-drivers and the blankets provided are warm and nice, not the flimsy Icelandair handkerchief size type (yes, I really have a grugde against Icelandair!). Well, nothing's perfect, at 7 am when only 4 hours were left of the 14 hrs. trip accross the country the bus broke down and we had to wait for 5 hrs. for another bus to continue. I didn't mind the least, slept some more, read, listened to music and sunbathed, all things I thoroughly enjoy doing and couldn't have cared less if I did it in Mendoza or in the middle of nowhere in gaucho land.
This afternoon I met a guy who runs a hostel here in Mendoza, is a guide and runs a travel agency. Adventure travel is the thing here, everything from paragliding to climbing Cerro Aconcagua (South Amerca's highest mountain) can be arranged. But I'm a wuss, so I'm gonna start with rafting tomorrow, then I'll see.
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Warning: a mushy entry.
I realized last night (you see, I re-invent the wheel on a regular basis) as I sat in the bus and watched the starry sky what a fortunate person I am - and the world is nearly perfect. Sigh.
3 comments:
Sure we could do with less poverty and pain, but all in all the world is a pretty good place. True, somehow the sighs are more frequent when travelling than in the routine of daily life. But when travelling we see and learn something new so the sentiments bag is being poked at, shopping groceries etc. only brings out weary sighs.
Ok, ég las Hús andanna fyrir skemmstu og horfði á mótorhjóladagbækur Che fyrir stuttu og MIG LANGAR TIL Suður-Amemríku.
Verð að láta mér það nægja að upplifa SA í gegnum bloggið þitt í bili.
kær kveðja
Kristján
Ef thú ert heppinn thá druslast ég kannski til ad senda thér póstkort. Ég maeli hiklaust med Eva Luna, hefur alltaf haft meira uppáhald á theirri bók en Húsi andanna.
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