quiz time: spot ancocagua & get a postcard :-)

Bon Dia!
Our struggles with the local linga continue although with much patience from the lovely Mendocinians we seem to end up on top (mostly!) Last night Kaz somehow managed to procure 1/2 a kilo of cherries despite boldly walking up to a green grocer and asking if the green grocer would like some sausages... hmmmm...see below for gaffe of the week.

Top photo is a monument to the Argentinan army on top of a hill which overlooks Mendoza: photo below that.

QUIZ TIME....

A)

B)

C)

D)

To give our overloaded brains a break we did the gringo thing and did some sight seeing. We took a bus to venture into the Andes. Although barren, the mountains are massive and pretty awe inspiring like nothing in Oz. Anconcagua is the highest mountain outside the himalayas 6800-ish m and after seeing the length of the beards and the look of exhaustion on the faces of two hikers leaving the mountain we were pleased to be viewing it from the comforts (of a sort) of a minibus. Unfortunately, our bilingual guide was only bilingual in the sense that she spoke spanish in fast forward mode and in turbo fast forward mode. So we´ll have to turn to the trusty Lonely Planet guide for backup! So good to see some more comments on our blog!! Thought we´d make this week´s blog a little more interactive to gee the rest of you up. Your task: to figure out which of the above montañas A), B), C) or D) is Anconcagua. The coveted prize: a personal blog in the more conventional form of a post card. Whoo-Hoo we hear you cheer :-)

The above photos were from our trip into the Andes from top left - Handsome man contemplating monkeys while sitting by a picturesque river; polite chica not wanting to offend, partaking in the argentinian tradition of sipping mate: how they manage to do this without spilling the hot liquid in a moving bus is yet to be mastered; a hydroelectric dam (the things you photograph when playing tourist...)

The rest of the weekend was pretty much spent trying to organise some down time on the coast of Chile in a small coastal town. Plans are to eat fresh seafood, drink beer and sunbake. (Not our sort of thing usually but thought we´d give it a go). Hope you have fun trying to decipher Anconcagua. Glad to hear that NZ was a ripper Shell & Carl. TOF - glad that you think Kaz is staying on the wagon will try hard to maintain appearances through careful photo selection :-) TOF & poofteero - stay tuned for a google earth link in your inbox from kipper.mail. Anybody else who wants a google earth link let us know.

Love you and leave you with gaffe of the week, eats of the week and bargain of the week.

Kaz & Stu xx


Gaffe of the week:

Attempting to conjugate verbs in a spanish class Kaz asked the teacher to make love (a little less politely) to her work instead of correcting it - details, details as Marika would say :-) Guess it had to happen sooner or later....

Bargain of the week:

1) 1/2 kilo cherries for $1 (AUS)

2) Elvis like sunglasses for $4.50 (Aus) the value of which could be argued.......(see left)

Eats of the week: For the carnivors out there! All you can eat Asado (Recipe: take a field full of cows, chicken, pigs, lamb etc; butcher; bbq over a huge fire; repeat until all your customers have indigestion) Simple, effective and very tasty. All for 15 pesos a head (3 quid or $7-ish AU). On the other hand Stu is plucking up the courage to try some choice cuisine at "Mr Dog", which given neither "Mr" nor "Dog" is in the spanish lexicon it is bound to delight! (Kaz has wimped out of this one!)