The team at the start of the day one trek

Climbing and food come hand in hand. You need to eat, you need energy to stay alive, more so when in the mountain. The meaty meals before the climb was filled with excitement and in anticipation, like in heaven. After the climb, it was more like a chore than anything else. The pig-out days in Mendoza (Argentina) still lingers in my mind – the streets filled with restaurants, the wine, the sparkling drinks and the slow moving human traffic. I am still pretty overdosed with the food (sorry, the MEAT), felt like I was a huge carnivore. My stomach is still learning to digest. My stools (excuse me, please) are still in some sort of like watery state, nothing solid. I haven’t eaten dinner for the past days since I returned to this lovely sunny island I called home (my lovely home, truly). The flight delay in Auckland airport was a torture to me, I declare that I never felt so homesick ever before. Seems like the Mendoza scavenging inked on me more than the climb did. Many people told me not to miss the steaks and the winery tour in Mendoza. I went for the steak, but not the wine tour, and not to mention the wine festival that I deliberately skipped.

Yummy steak before the climb

I ordered BBQ pork after the climb (more than half was not consumed, TOO MUCH)

The ribs for Klaus (the real carnivore :))

Seafood on Caesar Salad (Carmen’s fav, the one Alan didn’t get to eat)

It was raining in Mendoza by the time we return from the climb, and the weather has changed from hot & sunny to windy & chilly. When it poured, the streets turned into a running river. Who’s complaining about the floods in Orchard Road?

Heavy downpour floods the streets of Mendoza.

What else can we do in Mendoza? I supposed that we were just not adventurous enough. In order to try to burn some calories from the eating, we went cycling! It was fun, but I kept paddling on the wrong side of the road (left hand drive) and getting head on with other road users. The road was pretty much FLAT, technically nothing too strenuous for any serious fat-burning excursion. And a late lunch added to the scale.

Cycling excursion!

Another round of eating after the cycling excursion

Ahem. We never felt hungry when in Mendoza, oh, at least not for me. Glorious food we behold, we hunt down one of the highly recommended restaurants in Mendoza by Times magazine – Siete Continentes (the restaurant name, it means 7 continents). We ordered the 7 course dinner – Siete Cocinas de Argentina. BURP!!!!! That was our last evening in Mendoza.

The journey home was tedious, as we didn’t get to fly as scheduled. So the airport became our temporary home. Obviously, FOOD became our targets. We had burgers, fire wings (aka buffalo wings) and sushi!

The two mini burgers – I only managed the fries, burgers were adopted by the rest

The sushi spread we had, we bought it with the food vouchers given to us by the airline

The food vouchers – at first was one per pax, then 2nd voucher came, then more and more vouchers. We knew, the more we get, the longer we would have to wait. Sigh.

Overdose with food! I had enough!

Climbing stories another day.