I think we've earned a lie-in, but maybe we overdid it a little. The problem is that Argentina is big on its sports, and the TVs in our suite have channels that are showing last week's Heineken Cup rugby matches. Since Jeremy and I are both huge rugby fans, we watch those until it's almost too late for breakfast.
Then the morning gets a bit complicated. Grajales have booked us in for one night, and we have to make arrangements for the others, but it turns out that the hotel is full tonight. They offer to put us up in another hotel, a little way across town, for tonight, and hold our bags so that we can come back for Wednesday and Thursday nights. But that means packing up and getting out of the room right now, and Lito is coming in half an hour to help us take our rental gear back. Inevitably, we're late joining him, but he waits for us.
We drop off Yacob's boots first. At first the gear shop can't find any record of him having borrowed them, but I spot his handwriting as they are leafing through their file. Then they notice that the laces are missing from the boots, and Lito has to spend $7 buying some new ones. This is completely perplexing. None of us can think of any reason why he would have done that.
Then Nico, who runs the Grajales operation in Mendoza, arrives for a coffee and to discuss finances. Lito takes George to return his gear, and drops off Jeremy's boots, then rejoins us. In the meantime, we've established that we had been overcharged for our permits (possibly because Nico bought permits for the wrong route, but it's not completely clear), which we offset against what we owe the porters and settle up. Nico also promises to get us the Grajales rate for our remaining nights at the hotel, which turns out to be $85 per night if we pay in US$ cash. Not bad.
We also ask about what to do in Mendoza (as if that wasn't obvious) and Nico gives us the number for Caroline, who runs Uncorking Argentina and will put together a bespoke winery tour for us.
Business over, we check in to the new hotel and wander around the city for a bit. We pick up souvenirs in the form of polo shirts with a subtle Pumas logo [1] - sadly there are no "I climbed Aconcagua" ones in any of the shops - enjoy a beer sat outside a German cafe bar, blanche briefly at the proposed price of the wine tour (US$200), decide that it's much more reasonable when we realise it includes a 5 course lunch, and head out for dinner.
We've been told that there's only one street to go to for nightlife in Mendoza, and it's called Aristides. This turns out to be the street that we'd wandered along in search of a beer on New Year's Eve, only to find that everything was closed. Even the Irish Pub [2]. Tonight is a different story. The Irish Pub - named after a genuine Irishman who became a leading light in the Argentinian Navy [3] - is very much open, and we sit outside sampling the various beers and waiting for the sun to go down. There is a surprising variety of ales, including a porter [4], which is what I settle on. Our original plan was to go find somewhere else for dinner, but eventually we just order from the pub's menu and enjoy large steaks and another bottle of Malbec. The standard is again excellent, though it lacks the unexpected rightness of last night's experience.
[1] The Pumas are the Argentinian rugby team - riding impressively high in the world rankings despite Argentina not having a professional league of its own.
[2] This is surely against some fundamental law of the universe.
[3] I think that was his story. He was definitely Irish, and became some sort of big cheese in Argentina, and there was a ship in the background of the pictures of him, but to be honest it all got a bit hazy after a while.
[4] A cross between an ale and a stout. Very tasty. Traditionally a winter ale, but works surprisingly well chilled on a summer afternoon.
No comments:
Post a Comment