After arriving in Frankfurt I had plenty of time to get my luggage checked in (would that work? was it perhaps to heavy? was my Exped backpack to big for carry on the airplane?:)
After all everything was fine – although the cabin crew didn’t seem too happy, with me entering the airplane with such a big bag.
On time we left Frankfurt Airport and it was a classic “red eyed” flight to Sao Paolo. I had a interesting chit-chat with my Italian-Brazilian-Swiss neighbor (Carina) who told me how it was to live in the German and French part of Switzerland as a young person and entrepreneur.
The sleeping – although never comfortable in a chair – was surprisingly good and after around 6 hours of sleep breakfast was being served. After a couple of extra hours of flying we arrived at Sao Paulo airport.
We arrived there somewhere at around 4:00 local time and I was longing for a good cup of coffee. As I had approx. 1,5 hours of transfer time, that gave me plenty of opportunity to search for the best coffee in town/airport:) The trick that actually worked was: where do all the LATAM pilots and Cabin Crew go/drink the coffee. Observing this/doing my research brought me to a really nice place: Bauducco.
From there the journey continued and we flew miles & miles over land and rivers (what I assumed would be part of Brazil and later on the Argentinian Pampa)
After 4 hours flight we made it to Mendoza Airport. Part one of the journey was a succes.
Whilst getting out of the airplane I met a fellow climber (Prash) from the UK who was also on his way to Aconcagua (with Adventure Consultants) He was staying in the same hotel, so we could actually share a cab.
The rest of the day was spend walking through town, having empanadas, drinking some beers and exchanging experiences in the mountains in Europa and Asia. It’s nice to meet people you connect with well & understand each others drives/passions/ideas.
Later on Jurjen (part of the Mountain Network Expedition) joined us and we went out for dinner. Ofcourse we choose for some nice local wine (Malbec) for accompanying the Risotto.
