02.26.08 - Mendoza Recovery

Parting Impressions

The first full day back in society was a litmus test of persona. We scrambled to get laundry entered in time so that it would be completed in one day, then set about town shopping for “street clothing”. Most of the crew had brought along all the necessary clothing to climb Mt. Aconcagua, but were now functional and fashionable “fish out of water” in the city life of Mendoza.

It seemed everyone had rented gear to return around town and coddled many overdue cravings left to sate. Personally, two differings vices have consistently followed me in world travel: icecream and a good massage. Unfortunately, in Mendoza, both were hardly mediocre at best.

By the time the expedition had reassembled, in the evening for a group dinner, other collective “itches had already been scratched” during the afternoon, with part of the crew stumbling drunk along the sidewalk cafes. Dinner was a traditional Argentinean barbeque of every different kind of meat and sausage cooked to a jaw jarring firmness. There was no chance of seminila poisoning here, but what made the evening was being together one last time. The hours were reinforcing of the character of relationships made on the mountain, as some fell into drunken cognitive dissonance and others kept a semblance of decorum. 

Don’t get me wrong, there is a time and place for a “well intended” party, but it was a little disturbing to see the rapid disintegration among some of the members. The group split into two with one headed back to the hotel after midnight and another headed to a transvestite bar and ultimately a brothel. In the morning, the stories of two guys with young children at home shacking up with prostitutes did nothing for the collective respect levels. The trip ended as it began, with outcome speculation, combined with direct and indirect chiding.