And sometimes I miss the States...

Sometimes I miss the snow, bagels, good vegetarian food, ethnic food (of an variety), helmets, the ocean, christmas decorations, boys that are more subtle...

My spanish is improving, I found that after a day of climbing (and speaking only spanish) with an argentine boy, I could joke in spanish. Being able to retain even a small part of your personability is really important, and nearly impossible when you are learning a second language. I have realized my naitivity in thinking I could be highly converstant in 4 weeks of spanish classes, I have so much to learn still it´s daunting.

I will be home in 6 days. And my life here hasn´t really changed, I went paragliding. I played in a underwater hockey tournament against Chile and have been studying. But it´s been the same, study, eat, swim, climb, sleep. I´ve found the rhythm and anti-socialness relaxing. I´m going to miss it.

I´m in CT for 10 days but fly back to BsAs on the 3rd and then down to Bariloche and Chalten to climb for January and February.

Life in Mendoza

Mendoza is like suburbia. A lot like Greenwich in fact. But really, if Buenos Aires is like the NYC of Argentina then Mendoza is like Boston. It thinks it is a city, it sometimes tries hard but really... it ain´t nothing special. It is quiet, there is only one street of bars and they close at 2am and the clubs close at 5:30am.

There are a few muesems, a few good resturants (even 2 veggies ones!), and a couple neat parks. Mendoza is really all about what is around it - aconcagua, rafting, paragliding, vineyards, etc. I swear there isn´t a building over 5 stories tall. And when I asked for ethnic food I got 1 mexican resturant and 2 Italian resturants... when I asked specifically for Indian I got: Indian? What type of food do they eat? Chinese? Bueno.

I am living with a family - Mother Estella, Father Hector, youngest child 21 yr old Santiago. Another exchange student, Brett of Oregon, is also in my house. It´s a nice house, complete with pool. sweet.

I am also studying spanish and today listened to college radio for 2 hours and cursed whoever thought talking over music was a good idea.

I found a climbing gym... equally as poor in quality and safety as the one in Buenos Aires. I also found a swim team to train with and might have even found a underwater hockey league (yuhs!!)

My plan is to not make friends, study a lot and go on sweet adventures on the weekend. (stay tuned for boring pictures of the park near my house)

And it was an epic trip (Aconcogua)

Despues de drunkbiking, Kate and I decided to go trek in Aconcagua National Park for 6 days. This was both a brilliant and absolutely awful idea. The good part: This is where Brad Pitt filmed 7 years in Tibet. (go figure) The bad part: It was incredibly difficult. Below is a quick recap... photos will be posted around christmas time.

First night was Campo Criminal (as dubbed by Kate) - a poached site nestled a 15min hike inbetween both the road and the ranger station... The next day we hiked up to Confluenzia, which looked like a space station and stands at around 11,200feet. Kate got altitude sick. awesome.

We cook an absolutely horrendous lentil meal and headed to bed, and set up to head to Plaza Francia, the base camp for the 4 most technical routes - on a good year, 2 teams attempt the south face. Most of the time, they are french. Plaza Francia was sick, and also a 9 hour day hike. ouch.

Day 4 we headed up to Plaza de Mulas - named for the endless mule trains that bring wealthy older white American/European´s gear up the long trek. To summit the 21,700foot mountain you need at least 14days. But almost anyone can do it - we met all sorts of people. The extremes being a 19year old German boy who decided to solo the ascent bringing only 20 kilos of pasta and a 65+ year old man and his son from Italy going with a guide company.

Day 4 was death... imagine 15mile an hour head winds, a slight incline on a rocky beach for 4 hours. And then you are told you have 6 more hours to go. By the end of the ascent Kate was practically in tears. The last 1/4mile took over 1.5hrs and we were walking at about 3 seconds a step, straight up the side of a mountain. brutal. It was Camp Collapse for me. After crying in the Medical Office, I spent 14 hours in the fetal position while Kate made us dinner (I ate 2 spoons and went back to sleep).

We both slept for 12 hours before deciding NOT to summit Cerro Bonete (at 16,400feet) but instead to hike another 9 hours all the way back down to Campo Criminal. Liz nearly cried at the last part of Day 5. And we both drank soup broth for dinner before collapsing for another 12 hour sleep.

In other news, we were slightly early to the bus on Day 6 and got to see the Puente Del Inca (bridge of the Incas). There used to be a spa in the rocks, but the crazy bright yellow minerals are eating the building. sick!

Anyway, the non-ascent of Aconcagua was probably the most epic trek either I or Kate have done. I have decided I love the color green and hate high altitude mountaineering.

bunkdriking

Mendoza is the wine capital of Argentina... you can rent a bike for $45 (about $15) and bike around the vineyards for a day getting free samples at each stop. Kate Huyett (my first official visitor from the US!) and I biked around the dusty streets and the town of Maipu on our way through a small family run, organic vineyard, a large industrialized vineyard, a chocolate factory and a vineyard with a winemaking muesem. It was delicious. Fine family fun. (except for the lack of helmets and the free alcohol part.)



*pics will be posted when I get home and get access to a computer again*