january 14 - 18

sunny weather with the typical patagonian chilly wind made us leaving light hearted. we said good-bye to everybody and cycled the six kilometers to the bus station. it was as the rest of bariloche very busy. we finally spotted our "via bariloche" bus and after a small discussion and some exra pesos we could convince the master of the luggage to take our bikes. it was the nicest bus so far, only three seats in a row, perfect air-condition, blankets and pillows, well it was not only going to neuquen but all the way to buenos aires, that's why. the bus terminal in neuquen was brand new and looked more like an airport... we had to spent two hours there and of cause to pay more for our bikes... but already in neuquen the heat was soring, "me aso" erk explained using his new vocabulary :-) andesmar greated us with the two top seats (just above the driver) and a nice dinner. we slept little and reached mendoza around eight the next morning.

hot, incredible how different the climate is in this huge country. (and going by bus 18 hours means more or less covering a distance of 1500kms... i tend to forget that.) well there we were with all our stuff, sunday morning, the whole city still asleep. we decided to have a coffee somewhere and to search our hostal, the aguaclara, afterwards. and it was right what we heard about mendoza. it is a very untypical argentine city. there must be millions of trees lining the streets which makes the temperature bearable, nice. but we were not able to find the hostal. a friendly owner of another hostal helped us and we were told that in the three different parts of the city a lot of streets with the same name co-exist... the hostal we had picked just was in another part of town. as we reached the house we weren't sure if it was the hostal, there was no sign no nothing. i rang the bell and a woman opened the door and let us in. she told us that he hostal was brand new and it didn't look like a hostal at all. more like a family home. anyways, we had a shower. slept for a good siesta, took a walk to town, where we met a swiss couple (what else?) and said we should meet again the other day to exchange books.

after that we were very tired again so we just walked back and enjoyed the nice rooftop terrace.we had asked if we could store our bikes and the extra luggage there for about four weeks and she had said there would be no problem. ok, the next day we moved to another hostal, the lagares (i wanted to stay there for three days but they were booked for sunday night that's why it all became a little complicated) but i didn't like it at all. (reto had written a nice review but it just depends on your view...). our room had no window, just a door to the terrace and it was damn hot in there and you couldn't leave the door open during the night cause everyone was sitting outside in the patio having a party.

next morning erk awoke with about 40 to 50 ugly bumps from some kind of insectstiches. a guy from the us, who found a whole army of ants in his underpants this morning, said it looked more like bites from sandflies, but sandflies in a hostel. i think the beds had flees. well.

there we were wondering how to make it to the anconcagua national park (the aconcagua is with about 7000m height above sealevel the highest mountain, which is not in asia). there seemed to be no other possibility (affordable for us at least) than making a day trip by bus. so we settled on that and payed 70 pesos each (later we found out that you could buy the tickets for 50 at the tourist office.) and the trip was a real dump.

not my cup of coffee. the bus was late and we were rushed all day, get in get out, take a picture, get in and now we have lunch but of course you have to pay extra for it and no, we are not going to the nicest part of the tour the statue of christo redentor (which argentina and chile put on the old pass road between mendoza and santiago in 1904 as a sign of agreement. they had been fighting for frontiers a long time), it is not possible.

well now we know that as well. on the next day we wanted to move back to the aguaclara to store the luggage and pack for our "mochilla" tour. but the woman suddenly said that we weren't able to leave the luggage and so on. well, than there was no sense in staying there. we found another hostel "la uva" and there we are now. in a dorm with 7 other people. but at least they have aircon and agreed to store our stuff. i don't know if it is secure there but we have to trust... what else should we do? in the afternoon we just strolled to the big park san martin at the west end of the city and spend some hours there reading and writing. we were supposed to meet the couple from switzerland for diner but they didn't show up so we just had it on our own and i feel i'm getting tired of all the red meat we had during the last four weeks. no more bife de chorizo, please!!!