...and back up again

A week in Mendoza has been well spent - about three days of letting my body recover, a few days of having the apartment to myself, and another three packing and getting ready for the next expedition.

I went running a bunch, including one three-hour day in the HOT sun - boy was I thirsty, but the run (OK, I walked up the hills) was good.  Into the desert

on tilted plains above Mendoza, mountains on one side, city down below.  Cooked real vegetarian food in the apartment kitchen, wandered around town a bit, and managed not to spend any money.  Places to go with that dinero...

Things I love about Mendoza (I won't presume to all of Argentina):

- People will randomly help you bring groceries in from a taxi, etc, just to be nice!

- I can go running without offending anyone, unlike many foreign cities (Delhi, Mexico City).

- Taxis and fresh summer fruit are cheap!

Things I hate about Mendoza:

- The checkers at the grocery store might be the slowest moving service people I have seen.  Ever.

- Absolutely everything involves meat.  Even Oreos - in the States, vegan.  Here, they have beef fat in them.  Seriously!

- And, yes, it was 103 degrees today (39 C).

But at least it is a dry heat (aside from the occasional thunderstorm), and the huge shade trees the city was built around make things bearable if you're near a ceiling fan.  The pace of life is slow, which makes burning a week here pretty manageable.  And the wine is good.

So really a good week all around, and it will be good to head back to the mountain.  A small group this time, one of whom I've climbed with before - should be good.   We're off to the mountain on Sunday, back in a couple weeks!  Track us - Team 10 -  at http://www.alpineascents.com/aconcagua-cybercast.asp 

Down from the mountain

An awfully cold, snowy mountain for being Aconcagua in the summertime!  We might have gotten snow on all but three or four days of a two-week trip.  Afternoon clouds frequently engulfed the summit and spread snow down to various lower reaches.  I don't think there was one truly hot day of the trip, including the usually-scorching three-day trek in.

Our group did great - mostly Americans, but an Aussie and a Brit thrown in for good measure, ages 25 - 64.  Our Aussie had to leave us at camp 3, but the other nine climbers made it to the summit in less-than-ideal visibility.  I stayed in the tent and slept off a fever and GI bug, but recovered by that evening and descended the next day without issue.  Hmm - I hope my various India bugs haven't decided to stick with me!  Dave and Lhawang were great to work with, some fun tent conversations and only a little kicking each other in our sleep.

Despite the lack of hot weather, there's no shortage of UV or just general harshness up there.  Part of the recovery process back in town is just letting my nose and face sort out their various burned and chapped layers.  Amazing how long it takes for this recovery - my muscles are ready to go, but it takes longer for this.

Now a week in Mendoza, where there is no shortage of heat.  Today it is 100 degrees (or 38 C), certainly too hot to run and sometimes too hot to move much!  Yikes!  It's supposed to finally cool off tomorrow - whew.  Hopefully some running, biking, reminding my body what it's like to move faster than 2 miles an hour...  

The next trip leaves tomorrow, so the other two guides and their living room full of food will be gone, and I'll have the apartment to myself for three days.   A little reading, a little cooking, a little relaxing - mmm.

Gone

The day I arrived in Mendoza we went to a Tibetan restaurant at the suggestion of Lhawang, an accomplished guide of Tibetan descent who lives in San Francisco.  The restaurant, Karma, is run by his friend who moved here with many others some years ago when they filmed Seven Years in Tibet in Argentina.  I very much enjoyed my Indian curry (vegetarian) in this Tibetan restaurant in Argentina listening to... Alanis Morissette.  Yep.  Sort of funny, all around...

After a few days of packing and adjusting to the late-night dinner schedule (parents with kids sitting down at 10:30pm), we're off to the mountain tomorrow morning.  Back in a couple weeks!  We're team 6 - cybercasts at: http://www.alpineascents.com/aconcagua-cybercast.asp 

Going, going...

... almost out of town. Haven't seen the sun for at least a week, and it's supposed to start raining in Mendoza the day I arrive in Argentina. You've got to be kidding.

And just in case you're curious, no, the UPS people don't know if they have a package for you, or where your last Christmas package is, or how the main roads are. And they're tired of

running up your un-shoveled walkway and getting the truck stuck in the snow and trying to work through a jam-packed

cargo area while answering these questions. Just hold

on and try to remember that Christmas will still be here whether you get your presents or not.

With all of the snow that must be falling in the mountains, I haven't actually gotten to go skiing, just working to recover financially from three months of playing! But I finally got around to waxing the skis and getting them ready to go for my return from down south - more ironing than I've done since... the last time I waxed skis. Priorities.

A huge thanks to those friends who have given me a place to live for the last month. But I'm definitely excited to get back to guiding work - being in town is really hard on me. The last time I was in one place for more than 10 days was two winters ago in Utah! Time to get out...

But it's getting better

This is what winter in Seattle offers for those of us who foolishly risk Seasonal Affective Disorder and Vitamin D deficiency - snow!  Mary and I went for my first foray into the mountains (yikes!) since Thanksgiving and were rewarded with a perfect day - quiet, fresh fluffy snow, and just enough of it to be fun.  

I finally made it to Annette Lake - the trail crosses some major avalanche paths so is unsafe and sometimes unfindable for much of the winter.  We brought snowshoes but didn't need to use them, preferring instead to enjoy the feeling of ankle-to-knee-deep powder.  Fun!  Plus I re-found a great hat I'd forgotten about, which added to the ridiculousness.

And now it's snowing in Seattle for the second time in a week!  Totally uncharacteristic - it's usually warm here next to the water with plenty of snow in the mountains - but nice because of that.  Won't be biking today - work is going to be interesting!

December in Seattle

Really isn't all it's cracked up to be.  And it's not cracked up to be much, so there you have it.  The nature of guiding and expedition work makes it highly subject to change, so instead of going to Argentina this month, I'm making ends meet here.  Fortunately I have incredibly generous with whom to stay whether they're in town or not, so have a roof over my head.  Thanks!!!

Got a job for the month with UPS during their busy holiday season, and signed up to do deliveries by bike in a small neighborhood in Madison Park.  Interesting, yes.  Fun?  Well, only when the weather's nice.  *grin*  I guess it's getting me used to cold and obnoxious weather again after some time in India.

But it's work, and I'm grateful for that!

"Desert"

Went to Phoenix for Thanksgiving week to visit a friend there and get some much-needed Vitamin D (ie sunshine).  Of our six days there, three were rainy.  Here's some pictures from when it wasn't raining...

Mary and I went for an overnight backpack into the Superstition Mountains - does range-naming get any better than that??  Being rainforest dwellers, we were fascinated by all the dry and pokey things.

It politely waited for us to be back in town before raining for three days.  But we went to Sedona anyway, where we felt right at home in the cold mud.  The top of Wilson mountain was less than vista-filled, but Kim assured us this was a rare treat - usually people are getting second-degree sunburns on this hike!

But the sun came out for our last day in Phoenix for one last dose of Vit D before heading back to Seattle - you guessed it, 48 degrees and misting.  Ah, the Northwest in fall.