Mendoza City of Action
We landed in Mendoza about 2pm, we were greeted by Mathew one of the guides who will be climbing with us. Drove for about 20min to the hotel. So many flash backs from the last time I was here. From the shops, restaurants, main street even the room. I stayed in a room very similar to the one 2 years ago.
At 4pm we met the whole group, mostly from the US, and one from the UK and one Austrian. We had our gear check, basically took out all our gear and lay them on the ground to make sure we are not missing anything and not to over pack. As we will be carrying all the loads base camp and above.
our group dinner we at 8pm, so we had some time to kill. Walking around town checking out the small shops at main street was very interesting. Closer to 8pm we felt really tired so decided to load up on caffeine. picking a nice cafe, we sat and were discussing what are our missing gear. As soon as Ziad went to grad something from the counter leaving his phone and my camera on our table our waiter told us that there were a lot of pick pockets in the area to be careful. Anis quickly took the Camera and phone and kept them in his pocket. When Ziad came back Anis gave him my camera and his phone, Ziad straight away put the phone in his pocket. leaving the Camera on the table just for a few seconds. A kid wearing Barcelona’s jersey came up to us trying to sell some kids books, it took him 5 seconds and left, our waiter came back and checked that all our stuff are with us. We assured him that everything is fine until we realized that the camera is gone! that kid was fast Ziad, Anis, and the waiter tried to chase him. With no luck in finding him.
Whats a mountain with no action
We headed to dinner the same restaurant we went to 2 years ago, had an amazing dinner. We bonded with the group more who will be our new family for the next few weeks. then headed back to hotel to call it a night.
the next day 22/12/12 we woke up 5:30am to begin re sorting out gear and dividing whats going where. Headed for breakfast at 8am, then to get out park passes. You have to get a park pass to be able to climb the mountain.
Luckily this time we were the first people there, and didn’t have to wait in line.
We leave Mendoza to Los Penitentes at 1pm, we are just wating for Raed to arrive, get his pass then we will be off. The drive will be about 3-4hrs to a very modest hotel where we will spend the night before heading to the gate tomorrow. Before arriving to our hotel, we will drop our loads that will be carried by the mules. We will only see our gear again when we reach camp.
Lots of excitement in the air, we try to write again tomorrow otherwise I will be doing the voice blog.
Moe