Day 176 - Tuesday 14th March 2006

After being rudely awoken by some nasty little insects crawling over me while I was in my bed it was certain that I wasn’t going to oversleep and miss my bus whcih would be taking me to the day’s activities - white water rafting & mountain biking (not at the same time).

It was a two hour bus trip up into the mountains, to the rapids against which I would pitting my wits. Its funny but these kind of things always seem more ominous when I am handed a disclaimer form, and I read words to the effect of “if I am crippled, it is entirely my fault, and is in no way the responsibility of ‘The Company’.” After signing my life away we were given some rudimentary safety information; don’t take off your life jacket, don’t stand up if you fall in (apparently the currents are sometimes so strong that if you get your foot caught in a rock it can snap your shinbone). After the safety stuff we were kitted out in wetsuit, lifejackets and helmets, the raft was loaded onto a trailer and we were driven 15km upstream to the entry point of the water.

Here it was a quick run through of the different paddle strokes before we entered the water proper. As we were driving up to the starting point I was looking at the water thinking it wasn’t that fast, but as soon as we got into the middle of the river the current took us along pretty rapidly (excuse the pun!). Within about 2 minutes we were all soaked through and paddling away furiously trying no hit the best and quickest rapids. As we entered some of the major rapids we hit he water as i it were a wall and it very nearly threw me out a couple of times.

The 45 minutes went by like a shot, however by the end I was wanting some bigger and faster rapids. Next time I go I will go to a bigger river. Or maybe just head higher up into the mountains.

The mountain biking in the afternoon was pretty decent as well. It was me, a kiwi and the Argie guide. Generally whenever I start biking, for hte first 20 minutes I absolutely blow out of my arse, then I am ok and can continue for a fair while. The same happened on this occasion - probably as the first bit was all uphill! I found I’m alright at the off-road dirt track stuff, which basically meant that I didn’t fall off! We biked around for a few hours before getting a bus back to Mendoza where I changed my hostel and chilled out for the evening.