Flying West into the Andes

I know it’s been a while since I gave my last update. Sorry for not posting a blog in the last couple of weeks, I have been sick.

 A lot has been going on, like going to La Boca, doing some tango, getting sick, flying to another part of Argentina and going on a bus tour through the Andes.  Let me catch you up on what has been happening.

La Boca is a very famous suburb of Buenos Aires known for its colourful buildings and for being home to the famous Boca Juniors soccer club. The club was founded in 1905 by a group of Italian immigrants in Argentina and joined the Argentine Football Association League in 1913. La Boca was a little much for us because there were massive crowds and people everywhere. We did get to see the “Bombonera" stadium of La Boca, the stadium is also called the “chocolate box” because of its shape. The grounds were inaugurated on 25 May 1940, and is the Boca Juniors home ground. The “Bombonera" stadium stands on the same site that the previous wooden stadium stood, which operated from 1924 to 1938 then got demolished to make way for the new stadium which is greatly loved by soccer fans all over the world and is still in operation to this day. *Reference

We were staying at a property in Buenos Aires, and we became friends with the agent who was looking after the property. She ended up inviting us to a very famous tango club. It is so old; it’s almost the birthplace of tango. We met up with her at 11 pm and ended up staying at this tango place until 3 am. We were just people watching and it was really cool because there was a really happy atmosphere, and everyone was dancing. But we didn’t go dancing because we had only had our first ever tango class that day, by accident we joined an intermediate class - whoops! At this Tango club, you are only allowed to step on the dance floor if you have at least one year of tango experience. Your skill level needs to be such so you don’t bump into anyone. If you are not good enough, the other dancers won’t be very happy, and they will kick you of the dance floor. Although we did not dance it was an incredible experience.

The last two weeks I’ve been sick so that was not fun and not the greatest start to 2025 but that’s okay, I’m better now. For two weeks I had a headache and a fever – no covid but I wasn’t well. When we flew across the country, I still had a fever.

You might be wondering where we have flown to. Well, we have flown west to the Andes we are in Mendoza, known for being the wine region of Argentina where around 70% of their wine comes from.

We have been in Mendoza for around two weeks now and we have done a bus tour through the Andes. We drove up into the pre-Andes and we stopped at Embalse Potrerillos which is a beautiful lake. We went to this cool little stone bridge called the “Picheuta Bridge” and went to the beginning of the walking path to Aconcagua where you can see the mountain from. It is the largest mountain in north and south America as well as being the biggest mountain that is not in the Himalayas, it is in the heart of the Andes. We also visited the Inca Bridge Natural Monument site. It was very nice although I didn’t get to enjoy it as much as I would have liked because I was not feeling the best and I threw up, which is very rare for me since I never throw up – like the last time I threw up was when I was like 3 or 4 years old! Maybe my snack had some traces off nuts, the challenges of being an anaphalectic.

We were on our way back down from the Andes to Mendoza in our little tour bus. When we found out a landslide had occurred on the road we were going to take, and there was a police blockade. Our guide had a conversation with the police officer, they still denied us access to the road. The police where like: no, no, no, you cannot go on this road, you must go another way. Our bus driver looked at our guide and they were like, lets sneak past! They disobeyed the police and started driving. We thought our guides had gotten away with it, but then disaster struck! We heard sirens, and we were pulled over by the police who had chased us! The driver and our guide had to get out and talk to the police and probably talk their way out of a fine. But they ended up letting us go and continue on the same road (as it appears they were about to reopen it partially to traffic) so that was funny. I can now say I have been in a police chase in South America!!!

I hope you liked this update. Stay tuned for more of our adventures in Mendoza.