Mendoza

We took the bus through the stunning scenery of the Andes. What a gorgeous trip. In Mendoza we found a nice hotel where we got a full apartment to ourselves. We went out to Decimo, which is a nice restaurant on the 10th floor of a downtown building with a great rooftop patio and a great view of the city. We had Bife Lomo (filet mignon) We shared one and it came with 3 beautiful bacon wrapped filets and a vegetable stack that was delicious. Aodhan had salmon, and Ciaran had breaded lobster pieces. I would definitely include a visit to Decimo on any visit to Mendoza.

First thing in the morning, we found a place to go paragliding, or parapente as it is called here. Ciaran and Aodhan loved it. We drove in a 4x4 up into the mountains and then paraglided down with a guide. Absolutely cool. the wind rushing past you, the absolute feeling of freedom. Aodhan whooped with delight when he lifted off. What are these kids going to do for excitement as adults? For Greg, who has an absolute fear of open heights, this endeavor was extremely challenging. I can’t believe he walked off the edge of a cliff.

After the paragliding, we went to a different part of the mountains, and went white water rafting. Aodhan decided he didn’t want to paddle, so he sat up at the bow and held on with both hands. Ciaran sat at his spot and paddled well. There was a guide and another couple in our raft. The wife fell out at a precarious part of the river where the raft went almost vertical - almost flipped, but not quite. The kayak brought her back and I had to be the one to pull her out of the water back into the raft. She was a lot bigger than me, but I am strong! The white water rafting was exhilarating. The guides had been a little concerned, because they usually don’t take anyone under 12, but our boys were great and had no problems - they learned when they were months old to hold on and not fall out of a boat!

The boys noticed a zipline track over the river, and after the rafting the three of them begged to go. We went. It was a fairly short course - six zip lines, one of them over the rafting river. They wanted a guide to go tandem with our boys. Ciaran was not happy about that prospect and got them to let them do the first one alone as a test. They let the boys do all the zip lines alone. We are all getting quite good at zip-lining. I think Greg’s fear of open heights has been severely diminished on this trip!

On our last night Greg & I went out to a nice restaurant and ordered Bife Chorizo which is Sirloin Steak. We were not so hungry, so we ordered one to share, and some asparagus. The asparagus came, and it looked like a grayish mass of mush (very English) but the steak... oh my good god, I think they just cut the legs off and brought us a whole cow. Honestly this piece of beef was something that most Canadians would buy as a roast to feed 6 people. It was more than 6 inches long and 5 inches high and 5 inches wide. It was indeed sirloin, and done as we asked “crudo” which means rare. Greg and I shared almost half of it and took the rest back to make sandwiches. The lady at the next table ordered a filet mignon, and it was bigger than any porterhouse I have seen. The 4 men at the table across ordered the barbecue and they brought a small barbecue to the table with enough meat piled on it to feed 20 people. Any of you out there that are beef lovers, please go to Argentina on your next vacation. It is unreal. Dinner including drinks was $25.

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