Go to Argentina!

One of things that inspired me to travel in Argentina is the movie " motorcycle diary". Believe it or not, I saw the movie at a lake resort in Tibet last June when I was on a solo trip to Tibet ( I started with a friend and had the second half alone). I wanted to go to the same route as Che Guevara did. But probably not this time..... Our route is Mendoza, Acoucagua, Buena Aires, totalling about 8 days, that's all the time we have. Patagonia is south part of Argentina and there are a lot spactacular things to see. I have to leave it next time. But I'm quite excited about Aconcagua.

The taxi ride to Puerto Iguazu airport was a bit adventure. The cab is basically a 100 years' old running box without handles. You can't open the door from inside. The traffic stop on the way to the airport because of accident ahead. The cab driver left us in the car and ran crazy to the police, shouting at them something. We were locked in the damn hot car for a while till the driver came back. From his face, I could tell the victory and the police let us go through. I guess he somehow convinced the police that we need to catch flight and need to get out here. Little incident like this always interests me and makes me remember the trip. In a lot of cases, little incidents and unique people make travel very interesting, not the destination itself.

Got to Mendoza airport. My friend Bernado's friend (Islando) picked us up at the airport. I had never met him before. Apparently he had no problem recognizing me from the crowd since I was the only Asian at the airport, I guess.

Mendoza is an old medium town with a cool and pleasant atmosphere. It's a good place to chill out. It reminds me of Curitiba of Brazil. We met our friends at Martha's house. They just came back from Aconcagua backpacking trip. It was nice to meet hometown fellows here. That night we went to a local farmer's house for an authentic Argentine homemade BBQ dinner. The dinner was 1:00am in the morning at a farmer's front yard with 7 dogs, 5 cats running around and pigs, cows and goats running in the back yard. We had the dinner with some very cool local people. The meat is the best! The way they grill meat is very interesting.

What a day! My very first day in Argentina is just great! It's those cool people that made my day!