February 1, 2020 – February 2, 2020
We arrived in the city of Mendoza early in the morning. On our less than a luxurious bus, we hadn’t managed to get much sleep so bleary-eyed we stumbled from our seats to the door. We had pulled into the Mendoza bus terminal at 7 am, which was FAR too early for check-in at our hotel. Instead, we enjoyed a relaxed breakfast in a bakery attached to the bus station. After a few hours, we felt as if we were outstaying our welcome as we passed as much time as was reasonably allowable in the premises before making our way to what was my first birthday surprise in Mendoza. As you may have picked up from the title of the post, Mendoza was the city where I would be entering a new decade in my life, and Katy had organised a string of surprises for me!
We pulled up to the Park Hyatt Hotel in Mendoza, and I was taken aback by the presence of the building. The best maintained structure in the area and positioned overlooking a lush green park; this was one fancy pad! It was a shame that our attire did not suit the occasion as we walked through the main doors in our Pyjamas from the bus. We could be judged as riff-raff in the given setting!
At the desk, Katy started checking us in. Thankfully, since Katy was a loyalty scheme member for the hotel, we were given a complimentary early check-in. What a result! We were initially due to be checking in at 3 pm, and this would have meant we would’ve had to entertain ourselves around the hotel until we could go into our room. But now we had a license to chill from 10 am.
We sat in our palace room, complete with king-size bed, and sat back in our new luxury. As the hotel had a spa attached, we put bathrobes on and had a cheeky session in the hot tub/sauna. However, we only gave ourselves a 30-minute time slot as we had some backpacking admin to complete.
Unfortunately, we had run out of clean clothes. We had also run out of cash! We popped out into the centre of Mendoza to find a laundrette and Western Union. Given this was a Saturday, it turns out many of the shops in the town were closed, and panic started to set in that we were not going to be able to get our tasks done. Thankfully, we eventually found locations for money and laundry and celebrated with a chorizo sandwich for lunch.
After our little explore around the town, Katy informed me that the time had come for the first of my Birthday surprises. Katy had booked a treatment for me at the spa, so I had to make my way back to the hotel. Not sure what to expect, I was informed I had to be at the Spa reception for 4:45.
I sat down in the relaxation room and waited to be called by the treatment specialist. This was a very peaceful place to be in, and just as I could feel myself starting to drift away into a nap, I was summoned by the treatment staff to enter a room to the side.
I was greeted by the specialist who would be doing my treatment and told me that everything had to come off. She then also gestured to a pair of fabric pants that are the same material I imagine hospital wards use as disposable clothing. Very thin, Very one size fits all and Extremely unflattering. This was not my first rodeo when it came to things like massages, so I was used to this underwear. However, it still left me with a feeling of being somewhat undignified. Once changed, I jumped on the bed and lay face down, waiting to see what would happen.
The specialist came back in the room and explained that first of all, I would be exfoliated with a grape seed scrub. Without any other information, she started to rub the exfoliating mixture onto my legs. At this point, from my past experiences, the staff usually throw a towel over the nether regions to ensure nothing is visible through the wafer-thin pants mentioned prior. However this time was not the case, and so as I felt the cool breeze of the air conditioning unit fly up the pants, I was also very aware she was seeing far more of me than I had considered. I put this aside and enjoyed the feeling of the scrub cleansing my skin while also smelling fruity and fresh.
After the exfoliating scrub had been applied liberally to almost every part of me, I was told I had to shower the stuff off. I followed the orders and washed away all the grape seed and being honest here, my skin felt so much smoother than it had before. This beauty treatment was clearly doing something. I got back onto the bed and waited for the return of the beautician.
When she came back into the room, she told me the next stage of my experience would involve being covered in a red wine solution. This was like a red wine-based, thick lubricant. I wasn’t sure if I smelt like an alcoholic or a decadent roman, but the aroma was excellent. After an excellent massage and some time to relax to let the solution soak into my skin, I had to shower again. I was then brought back to the relaxation room and given a mint tea to complete the unwinding part of the treatment.
Fully relaxed, I nearly fell asleep again when suddenly Katy had messaged to let me know she was back at the hotel. I went back to the room, and Katy was already getting ready for surprise number two. Seeing how well she was dressed, I got the hint we were doing something classy, so I put on my best backpacking outfit, and we headed out for the evening. We passed back by the laundry and got all our washed clothes, picked up the cash from Western Union and headed out the 1884 restaurant.
We arrived for dinner with our laundry on our backs. A slightly odd look to have when walking into an upmarket dining establishment (we were breaking our record for most uncouth incidents in a day here). We were greeted and sat down at the bar while our table was being prepared. We browsed the cocktail menu and selected two fine-sounding drinks. To our amusement, the bartender appeared to be new to the role and was incredibly generous with the spirits. While fun, to begin with, the worry did step in that we would be too tipsy to enjoy our dinner.
Cocktails finished we were walked through the restaurant and to our table. Outside night had fallen, but we would be illuminated with a string of incandescent bulbs hung up along a rope. It made for a fantastic ambience to enjoy my last dinner of my 20’s.
Although the venue was chosen based on the reviews for the steak, the menu offered such a variance of delicious sounding meals that we both had to go off-piste. Katy ordered a dinner which contained roasted goat, while I jumped in on a very Argentine sounding dish of Lamb (admittedly not a meat I would like to Latin America) which had been slow-cooked in Malbec. When the food came out, it was fantastic. The richness and bold flavours greeted us both, and we tucked into this with a glass of Malbec.
The dinner view 
The last supper (of my 20’s)
Mains finished; we were both in the mood to grab some dessert. As had become a firm Karti favourite in our travels, we scanned the menu for anything containing Dulce de leche. In my case, this was a flan (which I understand as being a creme caramel), and Katy had Pancakes covered in dulce de leche ice cream. Suitably stuffed we sat back and took in the night air with the remainder of our wine. A cat passed by but was seemingly shy so didn’t stop for a pet.
Feeling satisfied, we ordered a taxi back to the hotel and being somewhat bloated and satisfied with the wine, we fell into the bed, setting the alarm for a disgustingly short amount of sleep.
We were picked up from reception first thing in the morning. Slightly hungover and with no time for breakfast, we were ushered into the back of a minibus for an adventure into the Andes. Thankfully we were one of the last couples to be picked up on the route, so we didn’t have a lot of faff of waiting for others to get on the bus. However, there was one more couple who were to join the tour, and these were people we were very excited to see.
At the next hotel, Alicia and Dale walked past the side of the bus. As Alicia boarded, she screamed with delight as a hello and came running down the aisle to give Katy and me a big hello hug. Alicia and Dale joined us on the back row of the bus, and we caught up on all the fin things that have happened since we last saw each other. This was interrupted occasionally by the tour guide on the bus who gave us all the fun stories of the local area. We learned about the water distribution in Mendoza (turns out the surrounding area is a desert) and made some fun stops along the route up the Andes.
Other highlights along the route included an abandoned thermal spring which used to be used by tourists until the ground nearby had become too unstable. There was also the disused railway which used to run from Mendoza to Chile along the same route as the road.
Our final stop was at Christ, the Redeemer of the Andes. This bronze statue commemorates the Argentine-Chilean peace and sits right on the border of the two countries. At an altitude of 3,832 m above sea level, the air was thin, and the temperature was low. We had to wear our down jackets (a first for our time in South America) to protect us from the chill and wind! It was such an impressive sight up here, and we had a hot chocolate to warm us up.
After all the photos were taken, we got the bus back down the winding road that brought us to the top. Interestingly we noticed all the cyclists were being driven back down which seemed like the wrong way to do the bike rides, downhill would be far more fun! We had lunch at the bottom and then made our long road trip back to Mendoza. We said goodbye to Alicia and Dale for the day and got dropped off back at our place.
The day trip over, Katy and I headed back to our room. I’m not sure if it was the high altitude experienced earlier, an extended hangover or the fact that I was running on such little sleep since being in Argentina, but I was shattered! It felt as if I was having an intense fever come on, and nothing I could do could stop the queasy feeling coming from within.
We went over the road to a nearby restaurant to the hotel and sat down for a quick meal. The for did nothing to help me feel any better, and so I left after finishing the food to take some painkillers in the hotel room. Katy idly tased at the resultant to finish her glass of wine and settle the bill. I in the meantime stuck on the Super Bowl and lay in bed, air-con on full blast and rested.
The game was a good one, with plenty of excitement and entertained us until the very end. At this point, I quickly fell asleep in a bid to shake off any illness that may be developing, as well as be ready for an active day coming up. The next day we would also be moving across to Dale and Alicia’s hotel on the outskirts of Mendoza!