Beautiful Mendoza! When we planned this trip, Mendoza was one of the stops I was most looking forward to. It doesn’t have the shock value of Iguazu Falls or the Uyuni Salt Flats, but it is a nicely planned city with irrigated trees lining its streets and an abundance of really good wine. It is actually one of the nine cities in the world designated as Great Wine Capitals. The city sits along Ruta 7 which connects Buenos Aires to the east and Santiago de Chile to the west. People are drawn to the city to explore the hundreds of vineyards that make up most of the surrounding countryside. It is the largest producer of wine in South America and is very famous for its Malbec wines. As stated previously, I am not a big consumer of alcohol, but I do enjoy a glass of wine or a beer every once in a while. In general, I have always been a white wine drinker. I have been won over though. Argentinian Malbecs have converted me to loving red wine and man do they produce the good stuff. I should also point out that people enjoy this region for mountaineering (the city hugs the eastern side of the Andes), rafting (especially in San Rafael), and horseback-riding tours. We didn’t come for any of that. We came for the wine.
Reaching Mendoza was an adventure in itself. We were mentally comfortable with the short 8 hour bus ride from Santiago de Chile. What we weren’t prepared for was the nine hour pause at the Chilean border. Mendoza and Santiago de Chile sit on opposite sides of the Andes and the border crossing between Argentina and Chile is nicely perched high up in the mountains. Before even climbing in altitude, trucks hauling goods between the two countries and passenger vehicles sat with engines off for roughly 2 hours. The bus company announced that they were waiting to get word if the border would even be opening that day due to snow conditions. One woman sitting behind us informed us that she had attempted to cross the border 4 times already to visit her son and each time had been stuck on the bus for hours and eventually forced to turn back. Ugh! The word finally came that the border was open. This was delightful news, but the fact that our crossing happened to fall on a Chilean holiday was not. Due to the high volume of holiday goers and the fact that the border had been closed the day before it was an insane wait. What made it even worse was the fact that they made us get off the bus and stand in line in the freezing cold amongst the fumes of the buses for two hours. I won’t waste your time complaining about the absurdity of going between Argentina and Chile. We have done it several times now and it is silly. The process is easy itself, but both countries scan your luggage for fruits and plant products. Chile is strict and has sniffing dogs crawl over your bags in addition to putting them through a scanner. Argentina doesn’t care at all, but makes you scan your bag for the sake of bureaucracy. At one of these crossings the Argentinian scanner stopped working and the entire bus had to wait for an unenthusiastic employee to fix it. In the end I had a few apples I had forgotten about in my bag and nothing was said. Ergo, pointless.
Anyway, the flood of Chileans in town meant we had to switch hostels four times. So if you are in need of reviews of hostels in Mendoza, send me an email. The highlight of our time in town was meeting up with a very special Swiss couple. We met Martina and Raphael in a hostel in Sucre, Bolivia. Several weeks later while doing a free walking tour in Valparaiso, Chile, Nico leaned over and said, “We know them right?” There they were wandering the streets checking out the wall art. I said, “Hey, what hostel are you staying in?” Low and behold they were staying in the same hostel as us and also had plans to go to the hostel’s wine tasting that evening. We spent a nice night with them and said our goodbyes. We then proceeded to stay in the same hostel in Mendoza. They made our makeshift self-guided wine tour so much fun. We all rented really crummy bikes with sort of functioning brakes and hit the gravel roads. We visited three vineyards. After our first stop, Martina and I were already feeling the wine and were a bit more happy than normal. I kept thinking to myself that doing this on a bike might not be the best idea, but what the heck. When in Rome, do as all the other tourists do… is that how the saying goes? At one point Martina and I were a bit ahead of the guys. We spotted a large sign that read, MARTINA. This was very entertaining for our inebriated minds and thus we stopped to take photos to the amusement of our biking partners. On the way back to town the sky opened up and decided to dump buckets of hail. Having survived we made our final stop at a chocolate/olive oil/specialty liquor store. There was even dulce de leche liquor, which was too sweet for my liking, but the Malbec mustard was interesting. That evening they made us dinner- Thank you! I greatly appreciated their company and have serious plans to visit them this coming summer in Switzerland.
Nico and I also spent a day visiting a Rutini winery. Rutini makes one of our favorite wines Trumpeter, but the only winery they own open to visitors is their lowest ranked, San Felipe. It was interesting learning about how the Italians and French greatly altered the wine production of the region by bringing with them technological advances from Europe. The locals had previously smashed grapes with their feet in hanging cow skins (yes, like I Love Lucy), but this technique hadn’t been used in Europe for some time. They also introduced the use of cutting sheers to prevent the vine and grapes from being damaged during the picking process.
Also of note is the vegetarian restaurant Govinda. It was the first vegetarian restaurant I have found in Argentina that deserves serious praise. There were also many great vegan options. YUM.
Next up, a quick stop in Buenos Aires in route to Puerto Madryn.
P.S. Check out Martina and Raphael's blog at http://www.suedwaerts15.blogspot.com.ar/ it is in German, but you can use Google Translate.
Reaching Mendoza was an adventure in itself. We were mentally comfortable with the short 8 hour bus ride from Santiago de Chile. What we weren’t prepared for was the nine hour pause at the Chilean border. Mendoza and Santiago de Chile sit on opposite sides of the Andes and the border crossing between Argentina and Chile is nicely perched high up in the mountains. Before even climbing in altitude, trucks hauling goods between the two countries and passenger vehicles sat with engines off for roughly 2 hours. The bus company announced that they were waiting to get word if the border would even be opening that day due to snow conditions. One woman sitting behind us informed us that she had attempted to cross the border 4 times already to visit her son and each time had been stuck on the bus for hours and eventually forced to turn back. Ugh! The word finally came that the border was open. This was delightful news, but the fact that our crossing happened to fall on a Chilean holiday was not. Due to the high volume of holiday goers and the fact that the border had been closed the day before it was an insane wait. What made it even worse was the fact that they made us get off the bus and stand in line in the freezing cold amongst the fumes of the buses for two hours. I won’t waste your time complaining about the absurdity of going between Argentina and Chile. We have done it several times now and it is silly. The process is easy itself, but both countries scan your luggage for fruits and plant products. Chile is strict and has sniffing dogs crawl over your bags in addition to putting them through a scanner. Argentina doesn’t care at all, but makes you scan your bag for the sake of bureaucracy. At one of these crossings the Argentinian scanner stopped working and the entire bus had to wait for an unenthusiastic employee to fix it. In the end I had a few apples I had forgotten about in my bag and nothing was said. Ergo, pointless.
Anyway, the flood of Chileans in town meant we had to switch hostels four times. So if you are in need of reviews of hostels in Mendoza, send me an email. The highlight of our time in town was meeting up with a very special Swiss couple. We met Martina and Raphael in a hostel in Sucre, Bolivia. Several weeks later while doing a free walking tour in Valparaiso, Chile, Nico leaned over and said, “We know them right?” There they were wandering the streets checking out the wall art. I said, “Hey, what hostel are you staying in?” Low and behold they were staying in the same hostel as us and also had plans to go to the hostel’s wine tasting that evening. We spent a nice night with them and said our goodbyes. We then proceeded to stay in the same hostel in Mendoza. They made our makeshift self-guided wine tour so much fun. We all rented really crummy bikes with sort of functioning brakes and hit the gravel roads. We visited three vineyards. After our first stop, Martina and I were already feeling the wine and were a bit more happy than normal. I kept thinking to myself that doing this on a bike might not be the best idea, but what the heck. When in Rome, do as all the other tourists do… is that how the saying goes? At one point Martina and I were a bit ahead of the guys. We spotted a large sign that read, MARTINA. This was very entertaining for our inebriated minds and thus we stopped to take photos to the amusement of our biking partners. On the way back to town the sky opened up and decided to dump buckets of hail. Having survived we made our final stop at a chocolate/olive oil/specialty liquor store. There was even dulce de leche liquor, which was too sweet for my liking, but the Malbec mustard was interesting. That evening they made us dinner- Thank you! I greatly appreciated their company and have serious plans to visit them this coming summer in Switzerland.
Nico and I also spent a day visiting a Rutini winery. Rutini makes one of our favorite wines Trumpeter, but the only winery they own open to visitors is their lowest ranked, San Felipe. It was interesting learning about how the Italians and French greatly altered the wine production of the region by bringing with them technological advances from Europe. The locals had previously smashed grapes with their feet in hanging cow skins (yes, like I Love Lucy), but this technique hadn’t been used in Europe for some time. They also introduced the use of cutting sheers to prevent the vine and grapes from being damaged during the picking process.
Also of note is the vegetarian restaurant Govinda. It was the first vegetarian restaurant I have found in Argentina that deserves serious praise. There were also many great vegan options. YUM.
Next up, a quick stop in Buenos Aires in route to Puerto Madryn.
P.S. Check out Martina and Raphael's blog at http://www.suedwaerts15.blogspot.com.ar/ it is in German, but you can use Google Translate.
