So the 2 weeks of winter sun are truly done and dusted. Finally shook off the (yes it was only a) tummy bug with the second charming vomit in the hotel room sink. Oh yes, and over the bathmat, sorry Senora Cleaner. And that one was actually caused by me trying to take a tablet to knock it on the head – not sure the idea is for the tablet to make you lose your lack-of-lunch but guess it worked even if that wasn't in the small print on the box..<\/p>\n
And as the holiday picked up, with us now in Mendoza, the land of flowing red wine and Hawksey's nightly Malbec dreams.<\/p>\n
Managed to intersperse our endless visits to 8, yes joy of joys, EIGHT I kid you not, vineyards with some more Scotty type stuff. <\/p>\n
We've been:<\/p>\n
- horse riding with Cesar the gaucho (took us a while at one point to look over our shoulders and discover he'd stopped a mile previously to chat to some other chaps-wearing cowboy dude) through the Mendoza valleys and olive groves<\/p>\n
– rafting down the chilly brown Rio Mendoza (no drowning this time, though why I wore my sunglasses I don't know – couldn't see jack doodah the entire way)<\/p>\n
– sploshing about and covering ourselves in the statutory mud in the natural thermal baths up in the Andes with a bunch of south american octogenarians (ah to look young for once..)<\/p>\n
– walking in stunning scenery to the Aconcagua mountain viewpoint (best of luck to Bowles and Carter who are apparently climbing it for their 40ths next year – its huge and rather vertical - all yours!)<\/p>\n
– zip lining up in the foothills, the longest set I've ever done, with the final wire being 450metres long about 200 feet up, right across the river, eeeeeeeee<\/p>\n
– arguing as to whether getting to the 'Welcome to Chile' sign up on the border actually counts as being in Chile (I say no, H claiming yes, so no magnetic peg on my map for that one, sigh)<\/p>\n
- and generally driving, pottering and looking at stuff, as you do when in Buenos Aires and
Mendoza<\/p>\n
Far more excitingly, we are currently (Editor – or were, when I wrote this!) sitting on the monster ferry going across to Montevideo yes, bagging Uruguay officially as we have a night there and a day tomorrow in little Colonia too. Just annoying that I can't post this till we return, iPad, crappy LatAm wifi and typepad are still not playing nicely together.<\/p>\n
Anyway, just a few days to go, till we head home and into all the Xmas shenanigans. Very odd seeing Crimbo decorations here glinting in the 35 degree sun….<\/p>\n
And with any luck, by then my giant red nose will have subsided several shades of ridiculousness… Lesson to self, never walk in the mountains on the day you forget to pack your sun cream. Ouch!<\/p>\n
(And even more annoying, having turned into Rudolph and having some old trout in a car park who we didn't know, shouting across 'what happened to your nose?', cheeky witch – to find that H did indeed have the P20 in his rucksack after all… Marital bliss!<\/p>\n
S x<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So the 2 weeks of winter sun are truly done and dusted. Finally shook off the (yes it was only a) tummy bug with the second charming vomit in the hotel room sink. Oh yes, and over the bathmat, sorry Senora Cleaner. And that one was actually caused by me trying to take a tablet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n