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Friday 25th June
Finally got on the bus to Los Penitentes, which was a good job as the hangover was well and truly kicking in and needed to sleep! However as soon as we got on and got comfy, they started to play Die Hard 4 in Spanish very very loudly, for those of you who have not seen the film, there is a lot of gun shooting and general noise, so wasn't the best of films to be blasting in your ears when trying to sleep. Anyway we managed to fall asleep until the bus arrived in Uspallata a small town on route to Los Penitentes. As we went further, we drove through the mountains that we once saw from a distances were now majorly close. They were amazing and it was so odd to think we were in the famous Andes of South America, as we got closer to Los Penitentes the mountains were covered in more and more snow, they looked incredible.
Finally the bus came to a stop and we were left at the side of the road in pitch black, looking at the snow all around in the moonlight. Los Penitentes is really small, basically just a couple of hotels, hostels and restaurants at each side of the road, surrounded by mountains. There is one ski lift and a few runs but they were not opening until a week later when the season began so it was pretty quiet. We went into a nearby restaurant to ask for directions, the man we spoke to said there wasn't a Hostelling International around but pointed in the direction he thought it could be, we started to panic a little, but thought he was just being a bit dodgy and trying to get us to stay at his hostel instead. We wandered across the road in the snow to find another hostel and an Argentinian guy who looked as lost as we did. He said he had booked into the same hostel as us, but it seemed to be being renovated and was closed! We looked inside and it was nothing but an empty room with building stuff everywhere! We began to panic! Thank god we found this Mateas (The Argentinian lad) as he had a working phone and called the Hostel International in Mendoza, who told us the lady who owns the hostel is expecting all of us and that we must be at the wrong place and to try walking round the corner. We trudged through the snow with our backpacks while Mateas carried his huge suitcase over his head, when we were greeted by a lady running through the snow waving her arms shouting "Chicas, Chicos!" we no longer had the fear of having to sleep in a self made igloo. Lol!
We went inside and it was a small cute log cabin style hostel, we had our own room with wooden beds it was really cosy, but bloody freezing! We unpacked and put on more layers of clothing to keep us warm. Went downstairs and chatted with Mateas who was slightly older than us from Buenos Aires but spoke amazing English. We sat chatting for a while about the usual get to know each other stuff, he works in Tourism and loves Frank Sinatra so we all had stuff to chat about! The lady who ran the hostel, called "Fanny" (highly amusing) made us some dinner and we enjoyed a glass of vino tinto (as we are now wine connoisseurs), chatted some more and went to bed, again putting more layers on as it was freezing!!!
Saturday 26th June
Woke up after a well needed nights sleep, still feeling slightly groggy from the wine tour and late night on Thursday, we had breakfast and decided just to have a chilled day. Both of us not being the active type weren't up for attempting to Snowboard or go trekking up a mountain, so left Mateas to go walking alone and decided to go back to bed. Once we woke up and showered, which was surprisingly hot considering how cold it was everywhere else, we went out in all of our clothes including thick socks, gloves and hats. Tiff had to fashion a headband out of her scarf to keep her ears warm and her mixture of clothes made her look like a major fashion victim! Anyway walked around the little village, the sun was shining so it wasn't too cold either. We needed to go to the shop for essentials, fags and as it was the "time of the month" for both of us we needed to stock up, however in this very small village where everyone knows everyone and there is a maxi kiosk where you have to ask for most things from behind the counter, this situation became highly embarrassing. The first place we went to we were greeted by a lady who understood what we were on about but shouted to the other three members of male staff who told her they didn't have any and to try next door. Dying of shame we went next door but this time greeted by two men behind the counter, we hesitated a little before Tiff asked "Do you sell feminine products?" with this he answered "Ah Si!" and pulled out a grab size bag of Crisps! In hysterics and going redder and redder, we finally got across we wanted tampons which didn't go unnoticed by the family eating in the restaurant and all the other members of staff in this shop! Highly embarrassed by the whole village now knowing our predicament with the only saving grace being that it may warn off any young males interested in us, we went to get some lunch at a further away restaurant with a nice glass of wine! After lunch we went back to the snow, where we messed around on the adventure playground which was very dangerous, Tiff made a snow angel and we made a snowman called d*** outside the hostel. We thought this name was fairly appropriate as he could be known as "d*** at Fanny's" (Yes, we are very immature!)
We went to chill in the hostel and after finally thawing through, Tiff napped and Beth read her book, later we decided to be sociable and sat downstairs with Mateas watched some TV and chatted. There isn't much to do in Los Penitentes at night and it was far too cold to even go out anyway, we were joined by two other travellers from Bristol who seemed a bit disappointed in the whole no ski season thing, so went to bed early. We sat with Mateas and Fanny and watched King Kong and Mamma Mia, think Fanny was quite a fan of Abba as she was humming along nicely! It was just really nice to watch something English and have a laugh without it being forced. It was also crazy to look outside and be surrounded by mountains, we thought about how lucky we were to be there and reminisced on our trip so far and all the different landscapes we have witnessed.
Sunday 27th June
Woke up early, had breakfast with our new found friends in the freezing cold (where you could actually see your breath -inside!) Packed up and watched the England match at the hostel, was nice to be with other England supporters to shout and cheer, although we didn't do much cheering and were also outraged by the disallowed goal! We were just imagining what it would be like at home! Disappointed by England being out of the World Cup, we dried our tears and thought at least we will not miss any more good old get together`s at home, as we feel like we are being phased out! (Private Joke) Went back to the same restaurant where we had the whole feminine product saga yesterday to have lunch and waste some time, and we decided rather than stay in Mendoza an extra night we would get the overnight bus to Buenos Aires instead, booked a hostel in Palermo and checked bus times. Got our stuff from the hostel and said goodbye to Fanny, waited at the bus stop and got the bus back through the mountains, giving us time to reflect on our journey so far! Cant believe there's only 3 weeks left!
As we went back to Mendoza we saw all the Argentinians in the street cheering as Argentina had won against Mexico, they are crazy! Really hope they win now! Finally arriving back to Mendoza we had an hour or so to wait, so bought our ticket and got some dinner as usually the stuff they give you on the bus is disgusting. We saw Sebastian we had met previously, it was a very odd feeling to see people who you know, just like we would do in Warrington. He told us to get in touch and we could meet up on B.A, as did Mateas so we have lots of people to show us round.
Got on the bus and settled in, had front seats so lots of leg room, true to form they bought us round food, yep you guessed it, ham and cheese swiss roll!! Cold omelette and veg, with chicken and pasta and a chocolate flan for dessert, we hardly ate any but enjoyed the free wine and sweets! They played "Taking of Pelham 1,2 3" which was in English so that was good news and was quite canny that it contained John Travolta yet again!
Monday 28th June
Bus journey in general was good, we managed to sleep through most of it, despite it being far to hot and us having to strip off our layers of clothing we had been wearing in the snow. Finally arrived in B.A, its quite overwhelmingly big but looks fairly interesting and its nice that we have a whole week here to settle in and see the sights. Got the train to our accommodation and are now waiting to check in! Not sure on our plans for this evening but hopefully doing some laundry as we are absolutely minging and in fact everything we own bar our beach dresses are dirty, so we may just hide out in our rooms and try to feel clean again!
Hope you are enjoying our little adventure as much as we are, cant wait to catch up with everyone and we do miss you all millions!
We will update soon and the pics should be following this..............
Miss You and Love You
T&B
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