Patagonia I'm on the way!
Trip Start
May 20, 2007
1
31
36
Trip End
Nov 21, 2007
Where I stayed
Mendoza, Argentina
Friday, October 5, 2007
It is where 80% of Argentinas vine comes from, so guess why I'm here for. ;-)
I was picked up by the hostel staff (a recommendation of Javier, thanks a lot) and suddenly I felt my left shoulderstrap move. Bang, shit shit shit! A buckle broke. Thanks to Vaude, the german packpack profi. I have to admit the backpack is quite well designed and maybee they have choosen a bad supplier for this part.
The hostel, Andeshostel ( http://www.andeshostel.com.ar/ ) was very helpfull to point me in the right area to find a shop who got stuff like this in stock. I was lucky that it did not have happend a couple of days later, when I will go trekking. After I had the buckles (I have 2 for reserve now!) i found a shoemaker (don't know if this is the right translation?) who was willing to try to attach the buckle. After a hardcoretest the seams seem to be strong enough. Im still not too happy and the test in the field will show if it will last or if i have to drag it behind me in the mountains.
Tomorrow I will go to the Aconcagua Nationalpark to have a look on South Americas highest peak!
I went to the park in the morning, somehow missed the first bus and got finally there in the at about 12am. I drove with the bus to Puente de Inca, a "natural wonder" and a small village. More a abandoned trainstation and tourist stop. I found out there that the park is closed until 15th of November. I was quite mad after i heared that! I did not sock up on food for nothing! Thanks, Thanks to the Hostel International Uspallata who does not know nothing!
If there is a major attraction in your area you should at least know a bit about it. (at least when in the year it is closed and opened). However i dropped my big backpack at a hostal and went up about 5km to the park entrace and had a look at Aconcagua, with close ot 7000m the biggest peak outside Himalaya. At about 2850m there was still a lot of snow in the parque so there was no way to go much further as 3000m. And e.g. French Basecamp is at about 4200m. So I run back to the village, to catch a bus back to Mendoza and i arrived there late at night.
Today I watched the Pumas (the argentinian rugby team) at the worldcup against Scotland.
They won, so more games while I am here. Tomorrow I will finally go to a vinetour and afterwards take a nightbus to Bariloche.
