MUNGO EATS Latin America

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!