Since arriving in Mendoza, I’ve been aching to get into the
mountains. From the city, they appear as dark blue forms jutting into the
horizon, their huge outlines hinting at their majesty but also the fact that
they’re just out of my reach. On a clear day, you can see slightly clearer the
rocks and brush that adorn their faces, but for the most part they just sit and
tantalize me, using the sun as a sort of finger beckoning me towards them as it
crosses the sky.
If there’s one thing I can say I’ve gained over this past
week or so, it’s confidence. When I arrived in Buenos Aires, the thought of
talking to local Argentines was simply terrifying (I mean they would respond in
Spanish for Pete’s sake!) but since then, I’ve talked to all sorts of cashiers,
bus drivers, professors, and total strangers when lost. It’s not so much that
my Spanish has improved, it’s just that I have the confidence now to try, even
though I still speak like a confused fourth grader. I may speak poorly, but now
I’ve embraced that I speak poorly. It’s not like they’d ever confuse me for a
local anyway. Lol
So where all this is leading is I decided to go to a local
tour group and excursion place in the city and chat with them about the many
trips they offer. I’d researched the company ahead of time and had lots of
questions, and luckily the lady at the store was very sweet. Once I got the
spiel on how excursions work, it didn’t take me another minute to sign up for
mountain biking for that weekend “level = difficult” and got two of my guy
friends to go with me. Finally my dreams of venturing into the Andes were to
come true!
9am on Sunday morning, I was picked up from my house by
the tour van and taken westward to their park in the mountains. As the dark
blue forms creeped closer, I noticed larger, grander forms behind them, white
capped and scraping the sky. Los Andes. Seems the dark blue forms I’d been
seeing were only the foothills.
As we continued upwards (gaining elevation fairly quickly
much to the exhaustion of our minivan) the terrain continued to become more
grandiose. I’ve decided it’s sort of like Arizona meets Colorado. The foothills
are covered in low brush and cactus (Cuyo and Mendoza are considered arid
desert) but then the larger peaks are snow covered and so enormous it makes me
think of home instantly. But these mountains are not to be trifled with. My
14ners at home that I love so much are a weensy bit small in comparison to these
monsters. The range we biked under hosted a few 16,000 foot peaks and not far
yonder sat an 18,000 footer who would calmly look down 4,000 feet at my
mountains if it were located in Colorado.
Ya, they’re a tad bit large.
Biking in this scenery was absolutely incredible. Each time
I looked up I had to remember to look back down in order to come home with both
front teeth still intact. The clouds too have this incredible ribbon-like
quality that made the sky look like a water color painting. It’s like the tops
of the mountains were running their jagged fingers through the clouds and separating
them into strands. So beautiful.
The biking itself was, well, interesting. We dubbed it “river
biking” because most of the time we were in a dried up river bed. At other
times, it was not so dried up. Haha! Needless to say I got very good at biking
in sand and learning how to correct when your bike is fishtailing or refusing
to go where you want (the solution is to pedal faster). Ryan, Alexander, and I
had a great time and couldn’t have been happier, regardless of the sand, and
water, and mud.
Once we returned to the excursion park we decided to indulge
in an asado (Argentine BBQ) on the restaurant deck overlooking the reservoir
and the mountains. $20US per person got us salamis, empanadas, cheeses, bread,
salad, meat that melted in our mouths, and dessert plus a bottle of local wine
to share. We were very happy river bikers.
Needless to say, I can’t wait to go back and love the Andes immensely.
It was a huge factor in my coming here and it’s living up to its acclaim!
-Lisa en Argentina
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