MUNGO EATS Latin America

Yeah, finally, we get to start having some more fun.  We have been so busy making miles and making van repairs, that we have forgotten to have some adventures.  Today, we remedied this.  We actually thought we could go whitewater rafting, but we were told that the water was too low and too cold, so we opted to visit a cave instead, the cavern of the witches!!  Sounds good and spooky. 

Before we went to the cave, we got to stop at a waterfall.  The fall was not terribly impressive, I guess it has been a low snow year, so there was not much water going over the fall.

Even though there was little water, there were a TON of fossils to see.  They were mostly ammonite and trilobites, but there were EVERYWHERE!

Very, very cool.

After the waterfall, it was off to the cave.  Super, super cool!!!  Or as Sean would say, pwnage!!!(pronounced pownage, for all you folks out there without 9 year old boys, it is the ultimate expression of cool).

You enter the cave into a very large chamber, but shortly after you pass through the large chamber, things get a little squishy. 

Sometimes it takes a little thought to figure out how to get through the spaces.  Sometimes the ceiling is low and you have to duck, sometimes you shoot through legs first.

There were ladders to climb and go down as well.

There were plenty of cool crystal formations, some that looked like icicles and some that looked like curtains.

We all had a lot of fun, and would gladly do a little more caving if the opportunity arose!!

We leave Malargue tomorrow to continue south.  There may be only driving for the next few days, but hopefully we get to pack some fun in soon again.  It was a great day!

We have spent the last couple of days on the outskirts of Mendosa.  I would like to tell you that we visited all the sites in the town, but that would be a big fat lie.  We DID visit the Walmart Supercenter, the first one we have seen since Mexico.  Our intention was to stay 2 nights at the campsite.  The first afternoon evening were just for resting up and relaxing.  The second day we were going to try to hit the Walmart in the morning and then catch a cab to the main square in the evening, have a look around and have dinner in town. 

It takes a long time to shop a Walmart Supercenter, and it was almost 2 pm before we got back to the campsite.  Also, our adventure to Walmart made us realize that we were no where NEAR the center of Mendosa, in fact we were only in one of the small towns surrounding it.  A cab ride would take us about 30 minutes, provided we could find a cab, and we doubted we would be able to, since we saw exactly zero cabs on our whole walk to Walmart!

So, we did not see the city center.  The  campsite was very nice, filled with beautiful shade trees.  There was even a fig tree that we could pick figs off of in the morning.  There was a rope swing in one large tree and I am pretty sure Sean spent about 6 or 7 hours a day swinging back and forth.  There were even a couple of other kids in the campsite to play with.  What more could you ask for. 

This morning we left Mendosa, on our way to San Rafael.  This is another “wine town”, and like in Mendosa, malbec is the favorite varietal.  Tasty…it’s nice to be in wine country.  As we drove today, we could see Mt Aconcagua, the  highest mountain in the Americas (North, Central and South).  This is it in the background.

Pretty nice.  Tomorrow, we are driving a short distance to Malargue, which is a smaller mountain town.  We hope to indulge in a little adventure there.  We need a break from driving.

We have been racking up the miles lately…well, for a westy, all in an effort to reach south, before the winter hits and the south freezes up. 

Two nights ago we were in Cafayate.  This is a little town in the heart of wine country.  It was a very nice little town.  It was clean and neat and there were some nice little shops to check out.  We stayed in a very clean campsite, which was a bit noisy, but otherwise quite nice.  There were only 3 campers in the campsite, and they were all Volkswagen vans of different vintages.  There was the really old “hippie” bus.

Then there was our vanagon, and finally, there was a new generation Eurovan.

After supper we walked into town and checked out some of the shops.  Sean managed to lose his sandals after ONLY nine months of trying, and so we bought him a pair of flip-flops to pad around in.  The kids found some incredibly cool kaleidoscopes.  The best one had little testtubes of sparkles and beads threaded through them, but we ended up settling for the slightly more plain variety, in favour of getting them home in one piece.  The drive to Cafayate was very cool, through MORE cool rocks.

When we left Cafayate, we drove through miles and miles of vineyards. 

Unfortunately, after leaving wine country, the road took us DOWN, below 1000m of sea level, for the first time in a VERY long time.  With the low altitude, came the heat, and driving was a bit uncomfortable for a few hours. 

We managed to climb up a little bit, before finding a campsite for the night.  The campsite was private, we had it all to ourselves, but it was a fair bit run down, and if we had had other options, we likely would have stayed elsewhere.  One night was bearable, but just. 

Tonight we are in La Rioja, camped in a huge city park.  The heat was pretty bad today, but luckily there is a large pool in the park that we could cool off in.  Sean spent hours in the pool, and seem to gather a little bit of a fan club.  Mostly, the local kids were clambering around him, trying to learn and speak a little English.  Sean did not seem to mind the attention much.   This evening, it is cooler and there is a pretty nice breeze, so I think sleeping will be okay. 

Tomorrow, thankfully, we start climbing back into the hills again.  Hopefully it will be a little cooler up there. 

Hello everyone.  We are still alive.  We are actually doing very well.  Argentina has great campgrounds in almost every town, so we are camping almost exclusively.  This has the benefit of allowing us to travel very cheaply, and we get to cook our own food, so we are much happier.  The only BIG downside is that we have not been able to find any wi-fi and even internet is sometimes hard to get to because sometimes the campgrounds are slightly out of town.  In any case, we are fine.  I am recording all, and eventually, you will be able to read all about it!!  Sorry about that guys….patience, patience!!

Right now, we are in a little town called San Antonio de Valle Fe´rtil.  Tomorrow we hope to be in San Juan and Mendosa in a few days.  Take care.  I will try to keep in touch!

We have been in Argentina for almost a week and have only travelled about 500km, but in that time, we have seen a lot of different scenery. 

Shortly after crossing into the country, we passed through a gorge, which started at about Humahuaca.  The gorge was home to some pretty cool hills.  The rocks were shades of red, orange, yellow, black and grey. 

After leaving the gorge, and before reaching Salta, we passed through a cloud  forest.  This was so refreshingly green, that I found myself smiling the whole time we were driving. 

Today, we left Salta, heading towards the small town of Cachi.  We went from about 1200m to 3300m.  As we did, we passed through a beautiful green valley, with red cliffs topping out the hills.

After reaching, our high point of just over 3300m, we dropped back down the other side of the mountains, apparently into a rain shadow, because the scenery changed to this:

Yep, those are cacti you see, and not a lot else! 

Tonight we are in Cachi, and tomorrow we will continue down the valley to the town of Cafayate.  It is supposed to be a very scenic drive.  Somehow, I don’t think this country can disappoint me when it comes to scenery.