Mendoza

ihana.com - big trip - diary - argentina - april 2003

Thursday 10 - Monday 14 April

Making good use of our time in Mendoza, we did the landy valve clearances, got hold of a new brake light switch and changed the oil too.

Evenings in Mendoza involved the difficult choice of where to go to party as there is an enormous amount of bars and clubs to choose from. The eventual discovery of Chimere solved those problems as it is one of the best places we've been to in the whole of latin america. Needless to say the girls of Mendoza are beautiful and like to have a good time.

Many Mendocinos spend their Sunday afternoons just outside town near the base of a small mountain. Madder folk like to drive their 4x4s up to the top and paraglide off, landing among the astonished bbq'ing locals below. Up there we met Carlos who uses his Unimog to take people to the top. Its the first time we've had a good look at these kings of off-roading. Over half a metre of ground clearance, front, centre and rear diff locks make it unstoppable off road but this one had a painfully slow 60kmh cruising speed.

David is also a fan of car racing but never seems to be the driver. No problem when you have Juan Manuel Basco (named after Juan Manuel Fangio), ex Argentinian car and motocross champ, and a properly sorted car. They race it in Chile as there is no class for it here in Argentina, the Chilenos aren't too pleased as it wins easily every time.

Basco and his equally Fangio-named son are car mad and have a backyard full of formula renault single seaters and other mad machinery. All those years of racing have taken their toll though, everything we say to the great man is repeated by at least two of his family as the grinning racing driver seems to have a few hundred horsepower permanently ringing in his ears!

The trip must go on and we managed to leave, saying goodbye to David and Silvia in his dental surgery where B had been treated to a couple of free fillings. Mendoza is definitely a place to come back to.

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