Just Drink It

we know, we know !

the rate of blogging on international women of mayhem has dropped considerably !

in fact, looking at the side bar, its almost non existant since we got to argentina.

i have to say .. its not our fault .. its argentinas.
now that we are hanging with nico and pappy and maretha and driving around, we should be able to catch up a little as nico has his laptop with him.

its so much fun here. thats about all i have to say.

stop . Tango time

amazing .. we made it out of mendoza alive !
we left mendoza on a saturday morning (after having been very very good the night before) and it was sad.
we arrived in buenos aires and as we flew in i saw huge buildings that seemed to spread for miles away from the chocolate brown sea.
people from BsAs call that sea part of the river - its the sedoment from the Rio del la Plata that makes it brown.

we checked into our hostel - Punta del Sur - and then went out for lunch.
not 3 hours in BsAs and we saw someone we knew - keiran who we had met in mendoza.

we were also arranging to meet charlie that night for dinner. oh no. this would normally spell trouble.
after a siesta and a couple of beers, charlie took us to the equivaent of Facundos in mendoza - a restaurant called Don Erneston in San Telmo.
the steaks were cheaper and the wine was good !
we got a little silly after drinking 5 bottles of the San Felippe Malbec (from mendoza of course !).

sunday rolled around - ugh - and we took of into san telmo to check out the markets and what was going on in the street.
charlie also told us about the hostel that he was staying in. as nell and i had to change hostels and we didnt know which one we were going to go to next.
so a little plug for Brisas del Mar in San Telmo - 35 pesos for a double bed, private room and cable TV. nell and i got a room each !!


we then walked into La Boca for a look at the colourful buildings - and after a dodgey stroll through the ass end of la boca, we were rewarded with Caminito.

full of artisans, musicians and tango - as welll as the buildings that charlie and i had wanted to see. and some crazy assed gringos.

well charlie was soon to leave us again. thats twice now Charles !!!

nell and i decided it was time to get out of the city again as we still had a few more days before her dad and his wife Maretha arrived. so before the next trip - which is to be to Iguazu Falls - we decided to take a side line trip to Mar del Plata on the coast.

Mendoza - Week Two

we didnt just spent one week in mendoza .. we actually ended up staying for two.
once we moved hostels into break point, we pretty much were stuck there and couldnt tear ourselves away.
after the pain of charlie and rory and lana leaving, nell and i decided that the best way to handle it was to carry on the way we had started.

so heres another summary.

we went white water rafting on the mendoza river. well the river is rather brown so it was like chocolate milk rafting. we dont have any photos from that as i had sent my camera housing home after the galapagos .. but suffice to say it was loads and loads of fun and i want to do it again !
we went with a company called rios andinos and i would totally recommend them !

we met patsy and brel from canada. brel is 10 and he speaks 3 languages - english, french and spanish. he was telling us that his dad is a chilean cowboy and that he hasnt riden in ages. so we organised a little treat.

they celebrate saint nicholas day .. and on saint nicholas day you get oranges or chocolate in your shoes (not my shoes .. eewwwww !!)

so we organised with his mom and with enrique to take him out riding and then to have an asado.
the night before, we took them for dinner at facundos and brel ate 1/2 a bife de chorizo which is about 500 grams of steak. nell made a bet with him that if he finished it he could push her in the pool in her clothes so ....

we went out to enriques on a beautiful day and went for a ride.
brel wasnt quite the horseman that he made out and we cut the ride short as he was tired, hot, thirsty, hungry and sore ..

but nell kept her end of the deal ..


and enrique was great, getting out his bow and arrow and showing brel how to use it.


we had another asado prepared by break point (go Break Point Hostel !). this time it was dario at the grill as pablo has buggered off to Punta del Este in Uruguay.
we all ate so much meat. even more than at my birthday i think.
and there was much singing.
and much drinking.
and i had such a great time.
this is harry from scotland.
i blame it all on him. and nell. and the fact we have been without parental supervision for so long.

the following day i did nada. thats nothing. zero.
i had a 4 hour siesta. i ate a little pizza for dinner. i think i had one beer.
and then next morning we got up at 5am and got ready to fly to buenos aires.

MENDOZA .. WE WILL BE BACK !!!!

Birthday Mayhem in Mendoza

we had always planned to take a little break in mendoza - lay low for a little, do some wine tasting and some horse riding.

i dont think that either of us were really expecting the last week or so that we have had here in mendoza.

firstly - the weather is wonderful ! it is hot, it hardly ever rains and our new hostel (Break Point) has a swimming pool.

when we arrived we were staying in a hostel over the other side of the Plaza and San Martin. we only spent a couple of nights there but it was enough time to meet Matt and Shaun from Australia and enjoy a few steaks and a wine tour with them. we also met Charlie and Kimi on the wine tour and had a great night out again eating steak and drinking wine and we all went along to a Tango Show.

the first wine tasting tour we went on was only a half day tour. but aside from tasting wine ...

... we also went to an olive oil factory and learnt how extra virgin olive oil is made. and i thought that was really interesting.
the day that kimi went back tosantiago, we went for a walk in the park first and then Charlie and Nell and I walked to the zoo (which was MILES away)

when Nell and I moved to Break Point we met Pablo (photo below on the left). Pablo worked at the hostel and was really really great to us. he organised for us to go riding with Enrique (on the right) who shall forever be known as Hot Horse Guy.

Nell has some more photos of that day which hopefully she will post too - not only did we have a great ride but Enrique followed it up with an awesome BBQ and loads of wine.

Enriques ranch is just outside of Mendoza city. Not only does he have great horses but also a pool !

My birthday was on the 28th of Nov, and so the night before we all got rather pissed and decided to go and play pool. At midnight, I had Happy Birthday sung in Afrikaans, Swedish, English and goodness only knows what else !

and then the tradition of the 4am swim was born !

thats Rory and Nell in the pool. Rorys wife Lana is Australian and Rory is Scottish. They were staying at Break Point with us and Charlie and it just turned into debauchery.

Rory was either the first to suggest a beer (maybe at lunch depending what time we got out of bed from the night before) or the first to agree that yes a beer was a good idea.

On the actual night of my birthday, Pablo organised an amazing BBQ. Basically all the food and wine we could consume ... so consume we did !

and as Charlie had a reputation as the Tango King, Pablo proceeded to give lessons by the pool and Rory bought sexy back.

The day after wasnt pretty. Thank god for the pool (we didnt seem to get out of our bikinis and boardies for very long) but the day after my birthday was Lanas birthday.

Nell had been told about a lovely bar on the 10th floor of a building in Mendoza where we could have a quiet drink and watch the sun go down. So we went there and it was lovely.

and then it was Lanas Birthday !

we had a pretty chilled out day, we went to the Aquarium and to the Serpentaria (or the Snake Pit) but we started the day with a glass of bubbles just to make sure we didnt break tradition !

i guess you are thinking that we have really been rather lazy. and you would be right. but aside from the drinking and the swimming and the eating - there was table football to conquer ...

and crazy conversations had that would lead on to silly photos and a group of people just cracking up laughing in the streets of Mendoza ...

and then there were the bicycles.

Charlie and Rory and Lana left on Sunday so before their bus we took taxis out to Maipu and rented bicycles to ride around the wineries.

a lot of the wineries were closed but we found a couple that were open and just enjoyed some nice tastings (and some not so nice) and a lovely day in the tree lined lanes.

but thats not Mendoza over for us.

tomorrow we are going rafting and then on Wednesday, Nell and I are going riding again.

can you guess who with ???? ...

oh yes ! Hot Horse Guy

Would you like some ice with that?

We stayed at El Calafate for one night after driving there from El Chalten.
I didn´t think much of El Calafate, it was expensive and situated in the middle of nowhere. We still had to drive 80km to get to the Perito Moreno Glacier.

The drive there was just amazing though. Why could they not have put the town closer?

We got to the glacier, and luckily, since it was only a day since the killer El Chalten hike, we could park right by the viewing platforms.

I have to say that I was just expecting more ice, something like the Glacier Torre, big, but nothing too special.

I was wrong.
We spent more than an hour just staring and watching this massive, huge, enormous hunk of moving ice.

I don´t know what is so thrilling about seeing chunks of ice falling into the water, but I can tell you without a doubt that it is very, very exciting. People would squeal and cheer. I think I even did once or twice.
It was hard to turn away and walk up, or down, the stairs for fear of missing something. The glacier would groan and crack and everyone would look to see if there was going to be another bit falling.


It is one of the coolest things I have ever seen.
Not only the glacier, but people´s reaction to it. It is heart warming to know that, in this day and age, people can still get excited about something like that.


It was impossible to undertand how large it was. It didn´t look that big until one of two things happened:
1. a bit of ice would break off and fall into the water. It took so long for the sound to reach us after the ice hit the water, you couldn´t help but know how large it is.
2. A boat would get close to view it. Here´s a picture with a boat near it. That is not a small little dingy...

Here are some facts for you:

Once we dragged ourselves away, we headed back to the main road, but stopped at this restaurant for lunch. What a view, and what food.

What a life!

Indi-Nella Jones and the trail of hell

We arrived in El Chalten at about 9 in the morning, to the sight of our first glacier.

We found a hostel, a trek and snacks all in record time. Then set off for one of the most beautiful walks I have ever been on.

The sceneray was just fantastic.

We headed for Lago Torre, which is a glacial lake with Glacier Torre streaming into it. The walk there is estimated to be 3hrs, which is pretty much exactly the time it took us. With a few breaks and photo stops.

We couldn´t make it to the glacier because you need a guide, a permit and the right equipment...

We refilled our water bottles with fresh glacier river water. (All the water in the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares is drinkable.)

Then we walked back. Aftter an hour, the trail headed off to the west and I decided, in my ?????? induced hystaria, that I would take this extra 2 hour trail. I said goodbye to Tara, who still had two hours of her own to finish, and headed off jauntily.

There are no pictures of the first hour of my detour because it was all, yes ALL, uphill.

Most of the second hour back to the main trail was stunning.

Then I was back on the main trail and I was still 2 hours away from town.

I nearly died.

My left hip was really sore and my feet were killing me (I don´t have the right shoes for this kind of walk.) I only managed to get back to town by jogging - yes you heard me jogging - the last half hour downhill. It was the only thing my hip could take.
Then I realised I still had a 15 minute walk through town to our hostel.

I limped into the hostel 20 minutes later feeling like I could lie down for a century.
So I did.
For an hour.

I have to say that I did not get much sympathy from Tara. She was, according to her, in almost as much pain as I was.
She was not, according to me in the same city, let alone ballpark.
But we were both limping slightly for a few days.

It was a kind of hell at the end, but everything before the pain was so worth it.
And funny enough, I now have a taste for trekking.