Our bus ride and the border crossing to Argentina went smoothly from Santiago. On the way we drove through the Andes mountains which was really stunning scenery. After them it was flat desert for a while then bright green vineyards on the last stretch. We had a very pleasant morning looking out the window! In Mendoza we are staying in the Monkey Hostel which is a block from the main square of town and is really funky. We did some grocery shopping in the afternoon and a quick walk around town then planned the various activities we want to do here!
November 20
Today we explored Mendoza. One of the tourist info offices has a rooftop terrace viewpoint that we really enjoyed. The city is very green with lots of trees planted along the streets. It's quite dry here so there are open channels running alongside the trees with water for them. It's also really hot here! 35 degrees from about 9am to 7 pm. A lot different from the temperatures we've had the past month from being at high altitude. After lunch we walked to San Martin park. San Martin is the general that led Argentinas army in their fight to be independent from Spain (that they won) so there are a lot of tributes to him around. The park was a lot bigger than we expected from the map so our little excursion turned into 4 hours of walking in the hot sun! The park was very beautiful though and had a nice lookout and a manmade lake which made it worth it. We also found an amazing gelato store a few blocks from our hostel that I'm sure we will visit daily! We made our own dinner, which we have nick-named Viajes Pasta or "travelling pasta" because we both agree its not something we would have thought to have at home! Pasta, pesto, onion, lime, tomatoes, avocado, cheese, cucumber and canned tuna is what usually goes in it! We'll try it on our families when we get home and see if its actually good or not ;) At night we went out to a bar with one of the staff members as they were having a free drink promotion night, and we found a couple friends from Santiago there too :)
November 21
Today was our biking wine tour. We ended up getting a private tour because no one else booked for that day. Our guide Damion, was really cool and we had a great day with him. We drove a half hour outside of Mendoza to Maipu which is the wine district that has 1200 different wineries. Our first stop after we had picked up our Mr. Hugo's bikes was a chocolate, liqueur, and olive oil factory. It was as good as it sounds! We got to taste test a few treats from each category. They also make absynth, 65% and 85%, but we thought 11am was too early to try any of that, so we got more nice flavoured liquor instead :) Next stop was a funky beer garden where we had home brewed blonde and red beers, chips, pizza and empanadas. Apparently you have to make a good "base" before you test wines. I was just full though!
After that we had a 15 minute bike ride to our first vineyard. We got a tour of the winery which was neat because its so old, they don't actually distill wine at that location anymore since it has been declared a Argentinian national historic site. The winery has been run by the same family since the 1800s. For our tasting we had sauvignon blanc, torrentes (my favorite), Malbec (the famous Argentinian wine) and a desert wine. I thought we would just get a sip of each but each of the wineries would give you half a glass! The next winery was much more modern and has only been open five years. Their vineyard looked different as the west side of all the rows of grapes were covered with mesh to protect them from the sun during the hottest part of the day, and from the hail. We were also told that instead of planting new trees every five years these guys cut the plant off at the root and transplant a piece of stem onto it. This way the plant uses the existing root system and it only takes a year to get a full grown plant. For the tasting we got to choose 3 of 8 wines to try so Court and I each chose different ones so we could try more. We both liked all the whites but not really the reds. We had to bike a little faster to our last winery as a storm was starting. This was another old family winery. Our favorite wine from here was a sparkling torrentes that we liked so much we bought two bottles! By the time we left it was really starting to storm and we could hear a lot of "booming" sounds. Our guide told us that when there is a storm the government pays to fly planes through the clouds and shoot bombs into them to try and disperse them. Wine making is the primary economic activity of the area so a hail storm would be devestating!
We got back to the hostel around 7 and decided it was a good night to go hunt down an Argentinian steak. We went to a fancy restaurant and had a lovely date of wine and steak. Argentinian steaks really are amazing! Definitely one of the best I've ever had!
November 22
Up early again this morning for our Andean mountain excursion. We started out just Court and I with our guide Jose again but at our first stop at a lake we were joined by a really nice couple from Seattle. It was nice to have more company for the long drive. After a two hour drive we stopped at the famous Incan Bridge which is a natural formation of salts over a river. Beautiful orange and red colors. We didn't stay long except to take some pictures and then headed to a nice buffet lunch. By this time we were back to only about a km away from the Chilean border. Our last stop, the one we booked the tour for, was Aconcagua National Park. Outside of the Himalayas, Aconcagua is the worlds tallest mountain. It certainly is impressive! All of the Andes mountains are though. Very jagged with beautiful red colors covered by just a thin layer of greenery. We hiked about two hours to get closer to the base of Aconcagua from where we could really see how massive it is. There is a huge glacier in the south side we were facing that hangs down 400m. It takes about 15 days to summit, but unfortunately quite a few trekkers do not make it. We visited the graveyard for mountain climbers at the entrance of the park. About 10 people die per year climbing Aconcagua; we were quite happy just seeing it from afar!
November 23
Today was a lazy day getting caught up with various things. At 4:30 we left to go to the soccer game (called futbol here). It was a second division game between the Mendoza team and an away team. We just went for the atmosphere though. The fans here are crazy! The stadium was buzzing with energy, singing, yelling, jumping and dancing the entire game. Even though the Mendoza team lost the fans kept cheering the whole 90 minutes! I think my favorite part was the musicality rather than the actual soccer! We got back to the hostel just in time to join in on the Asado they were hosting which is an Argetinian BBQ. I have never been so full in my life. The meal started off with bread and salad, followed by 6 courses of different cuts or types of meat and then a round of roasted vegetables. What a feast - each course was better and better! We tried blood sausage which has a nice flavor but the texture and appearance detects from it a bit! We went to bed very full and content.
November 24
This morning we did a bit of shopping then went out for a nice lunch before catching our bus to Buenos Aires in the early afternoon.
After such a busy pace of travelling it was nice to unpack our bags for a few days and get to know the city. Mendoza is a really beautiful city with lots of green space and nice plazas to spend time in. We also both really likes our hostel, mostly because of the really nice staff that we got to know. We could have easily stayed longer! But Buenos Aires is calling us :)
-Lisa
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