October 8 - Mendoza

We were sleeping very long and had breakfast very late (from 11:30 to 12:00 => later wouldn't have been possible:-) ).
Then I was blogging til 13:30 before our BBQ started. Christoph had been very keen on attending the hostal-organized BBQ and because our excursion schedule was full too we had 2 events on that day: BBQ around lunchtime and horsebackriding in the afternoon and evening.
The BBQ was just great: very delicious meat, blood sausages and salad. We were standing in the garden of the hostal and talking with the other guys from the hostal. We met one Irish guy who had just finished a 5-day-riding trip in the Andes and a couple from Cologne, that spoke Spanish very well.
At 16:00 Christoph and I were picked up by Diego for the riding trip. We felt very full and had no idea how to eat a 2nd BBQ later on after the riding....
On the way to our starting point we picked up some more people, so in total we were 17: a group of 10 guys from Ireland, 3 from Australia, another couple from Germany and Christoph and I.
When we arrived at the starting point each of us got his/her horse and then we started for a 2 hours riding trip in the 1st mountain range of the Andes. As we were told the Andes consists of 3 mountain ranges, the first one is the lowest and oldest part.

the horses were already waiting for us

our group
awaiting instructions from our guides

our guides: X (I forgot his name:-)) and Diego

Me and the Australian guys

mounting "my horse" Domingo

waiting for the others to get ready

warming up

feeling like in the "Marlboro Country"

the Andes

riding:-)

We were riding each after the other one bounded by one guide at the beginning and one at the end of the group. After about one hour we could even gallop for a short distance: we were separated in groups of 5 and theses groups galloped a short distance together while all the other ones were waiting.
My horse was called Domingo and compared to the other ones pretty nervous. He didn't like to be passed and couldn't stand still, but I liked riding him.
Our tour was from 17:00 to 19:00 and then we arrived at our BBQ place. We dismounted our horses and then one Gaucho (= cowboy) joined the group of horses running back to their stables without riders.
Then we had another delicious BBQ in a small cottage in the Andes.

right after 2 BBQ's on one day!

there was still some room for a dessert:-)

After eating we were sitting together and first the gauchos played the guitar and sang folk-music for us.

Diego playing the guitar for us

Then the Irish guys sang English songs for us. It was a nice sitting, drinking and singing together.

At 23:30 we were droven back to our hostals and hotels by cars and one hour later Christoph and I were dropped off at our hostal. We were really tired and bedtime was finally at 1:15.