Dr. Strangelove

What I was going for...

What actually happened...

Needs improvement

Colonia, Uruguay

Last weekend I took a 3 hour ferry to Uruguay and checked out the old town of Colonia. Colonia is a very quiet town and there was not much going on. With in a few hours I had combed the entirety of the town’s views and plazas.

The weather was perfect for the majority of the day, but good thing it took such a short amount of time - as I approached the dock to wait for my ferry, it began to torrentially downpour.

I safely made it to a nearby café and ordered a humongous desert. I have never really had a sweet tooth, but something about South America has changed my eating habits to that of a pregnant lady in her 2nd trimester.

Malbec and Mendoza

A follow-up to my previous blog – A full day was spent biking around the vineyards of Mendoza. After renting bikes from “Mr. Hugo”, we continued to 4 wineries (La Rural, Tempus Alba, Viña el Cerno and Familia di Tommaso). Additionally we stopped at a little place that made liquor and chocolate (a good combo) and lastly an olive oil plant.

Many glasses of Malbec were consumed and a few other Pinots and Cab’s – I lost count after 6 or 7.

After the 10 hour day of drinking in between bike treks, Mr Hugo insisted we promptly open another bottle of wine as tourists rolled in, returning their bikes. We sat around and talked with folks from Canada and Wales until the bottle and sunlight was gone.
What seems to be the Occifer problem?

Andes and Aconcogua

It’s the midpoint of our assessment and the workload has lulled for the time being. Time for more adventures... Por la provencia de Mendoza. Mendoza is a laidback little city with a population of several hundred thousand, located about 1000 kilometers / 600 miles due west of Buenos Aires. A true antithesis of Buenos Aires, the clean streets and quite boulevards of Mendoza were a refreshing contrast to the hullabaloo that is BA. Our first day was spent touring the surrounding Pampas and Andes Mountain region.

The day started at the ripe hour of 7am on the Pan American Highway towards Chile. Soon enough we were in the foothills watching a beautiful sunrise light up the Andes. The day was effectively progressing, but soon after sunrise the driver pulled over and opened the hood as steam poured out of the engine. After a haphazard attempt to repair the bus, the guide instructed us to “sit tight” while he headed to the nearest town to call us a new van. I couldn’t help but observe the parallels with several recent horror films, “Turistas”, “Hostel”, the list goes on…

We anxiously watched bus after empty bus pass us by. In a purgatory state, we waited one hour… then two... then three. Finally, just as we were seriously considering hitchhiking back to town, a new bus pulled over and whisked us away.
Since we had lost three hours, most of the stops were reduced to the bus driver slowing down, saying "foto, foto, foto" and pointing left, then all of us jumping to that side, throwing open windows and frantically snapping pictures. Finally we made it to Aconcagua which is 15 kilometers from the Chilean - Argentine border.

There we had a nice hike around the national park at about 2500 meters or 8000ft. The peak of Aconcagua is 6,962 meters and is the highest mountain outside of Asia. Similarly to peaks located in the Himalayans, Aconcagua has a relatively ‘young’ and rugged appearance. However, unlike the Himalayans, there are supposedly some fairly simple, non-technical ascents that you can do if you are fit and acclimatized.Our last stop was Punta del Inca which is a natural land bridge created over time by sulfuric hot springs. The springs run down over the bridge and riverbank, covering the rocks with extraordinarily colorful mineral deposits.