South America Days 39 & 40

We had two free days in Mendoza so booked some activities through our hostel, Lagares Hostel. 

Day 39 - We chose to go rock climbing today with Maria, Ana, James, Marcus and Jemima.  It was an hours drive from Mendoza to Cacheuta, a small town by a gorge thriving as a tourist outdoor activity area in the Andes mountains.  We met our two guides for the day and walked a short distance to the small crag where we were supposed to be climbing only to find a huge group already there. Our guides said we could either wait until the group finished or go to a harder climb.  We decided we'd try a harder climb rather than hang around, we were very surprised when they lead us to a stone bridge, we weren't expecting that.  There were not a lot of climbing options in the area!  We all had a go though at climbing the vertical bridge wall, it wasn't easy, only Nigel Marcus and Jemima made it to the top.

We stopped for lunch at a local restaurant then after lunch returned to the gritstone crag we were supposed to climb from.  There were two routes, one easier than the other, we all got a go climbing on a route.  It turned out a fun day, lots of laughs as most of us were beginners.  Back in Mendoza in the evening we had a wander around the town trying to find a nice restaurant for food but in the main bustling Friday evening shopping district we could only find fast food style eateries so ended up with a pizza.

Day 40 - Today seven of us, Maria, Ana, Katie, Daniel, Emily, James and I went to a spa for the day back in Cacheuta.  Nigel booked to go mountain biking with Chris and Curtis but drove out to the location sadly only to find out it was cancelled, it was a wet rainy day all day, it didn't affect us at the spa though.  The thermal pools at the spa were indoor and outdoor, the rain was actually quite refreshing and cooled us down in the hot water.  We had a great day spent hopping from one pool to another plus had lots of mud fun!  There was a mud bath.  Included in the day was a fantastic buffet lunch, loads of nice food, we had a few helpings, we were stuffed.  Nigel left to his own devices had a McDonald's for lunch!