When we landed at Mendoza most of the occupants of the plane seemed to vanish quickly, and there were only about six people waiting in the baggage hall. We were out of the terminal in about twenty minutes, and flagged down a taxi, whose driver, for once, recognised the address of our apartment and took us straight there. The city was, as expected, very attractive, with many wide tree-lined boulevards, and lots of parks and other public open spaces – a pleasant change from Córdoba.
The minimalist Airbnb apartment was in a small modern four story block. It had a living/dining/kitchen area; a bedroom; and a bathroom. We were met by out hostess Maria, who showed us around, gave us the keys, then departed. By this time, it was about 20:00 and we walked to a local supermarket for some provisions then returned to the apartment, had dinner, and watched TV before bed.
Wednesday 28 – Day 60 – Mendoza
We took our time getting up, having breakfast, and getting ready to go out. It was nice being in an apartment again – having breakfast in our pyjamas, and having more independence.
We set off towards the town centre -anxious to optimise our time in Mendoza, as we both felt that we had wasted time in Córdoba, so we were looking for tours to book, and really hoped to find one up for that very afternoon.
We walked through the University district, down a wide leafy avenue, lined with cafes, bars, and other student places. As we strolled towards the centre, the bars and cafes were mixed in with other shops and businesses, and everything gradually became more upmarket. People we had met recently had told us that Mendoza was a nice place, and they were right.
We got to the central Plaza Independencia and were delighted to find a large square leafy park surrounded by low rise buildings – with a mix of small hotels, offices, shops, cafés. There were no grand civic buildings – just a small theatre; and no big buildings at all – even the Hyatt Hotel was low rise where it faced the square. The whole square felt quiet and serene – it did not feel like the commercial centre of a large South American city with a population over one million.
We walked around looking for information about tours and after collecting lots of leaflets we returned the calm of the Hyatt to have a small lunch and consider our options – we opted for a cheap hop-on-hop-off bus service around the local wineries (for that afternoon); a full day tour of the high Andes between Mendoza and the Chilean border; and a full day posh wine tour visiting four wineries, and including a gastronomic 5 course lunch.
When the time came, 14:00, we headed towards the central tourist information office, from where the bus would depart, and waited. When it was definitely late, a guy appeared to say that there was a problem on the roads and it would be 30 minutes late and only visit two wineries. This still seemed good to us, and we headed over to a heladeria (ice cream shop) for an ice cream while we waited. In the heladeria we bumped into a guy who had also been waiting for the hop-on-hop-off and got chatting with him. He was from Barcelona, but had lived in London for 8 years.
Half an hour later, we got on the bus along with our new Spanish friend, a couple of female friends from midwest USA, a gay couple from New York, and, from South America, a pair of very glamorous women, and a middle-aged couple.
The first winery was Chandon, of Möet Chandon fame, which was extremely sophisticated and cool – with lost of shiny white and transparent surfaces. They focus on champagne type wines – that is white sparkling wines, made from Chardonay and Pinot Noir grapes, using the champenoise or charmat processes. (Don’t we sound expert already). We had a tour of the vines, the fermentation tanks, the ageing barrels, and the bottling area. It was all very high tech and high volume – in fact, they were cagey about admitting to the volumes, because South American wine is trying to throw off the reputation for focusing on quantity over quality.After a long and interesting tour at last, we came to the tasting. We tasted 3 wines, a very mature ‘complicated’ sparkling “champagne”; a younger ‘easy-to-drink’ golden champagne-like wine; and a very commercial ‘pop’ for mixing in cocktails. Barrie was able to taste the differences, my palate was not as disurnable all were good to me!
The second winery was Casarena – a much smaller-scale more typical winery where we compared red wines, we learned that not only the grapes and soil make a difference to the wine but the material the barrels are mode of. This was our first tasting of the famous Malbec of the region. Here Barrie really liked a Cabernet Franc.
After tasting 6 or 7 wines the hop-on-hop-off dropped us back and we walked home, stopping on the way to by tickets for an orchestral concert on the Saturday night.
Thursday 29 – Day 61 – Mendoza – Day at home
This was designated as a travel rest day and a day to do washing and admin. Travelling for 3 months with some of the schedule unbooked takes time to organize. Barrie was also in much need of a haircut so following Dr Google we identified a local hair dressers nearby – LeoCut – who was able to do Barrie’s hair in 20 minutes so we waited. While we were there, we heard multiple peals of loud thunder – we hadn’t brought jackets or umbrellas.
After Barrie’s smart new haircut, we went to find some lunch in town. I had found a place called Govinda’s and it appeared to be an Indian vegetarian buffet . In reality in was no Indian food, well not the sort we are used to but it certainly veggie and teetotal. Barrie was a little disappointed as he was looking forward to a good curry and beer.
We spent the afternoon afternoon, drying washing, doing admin, planning, and booking. Barrie also popped to the shops on my own to stock up a little – but had trouble convincing the lady in the greengrocers that he wanted two potatoes and not two kilos of potatoes!!
That evening, to compensate for his disappointment at lunchtime, we ent in search of steak and beer for Barrie, I was not hungry to stuck to cocktails and nibbles.
Friday 30 – Day 62 – Mendoza – Day in the mountains
We had an early start, so set an alarm but as usual were awake long before it went off. I got ready and made breakfast. We were due to be picked up between 07:30 and 07:50, but they turned up about 08:10 in a huge red ‘truck’. We were that last to be picked up due to our location, and we ended up on the back seat with a family of Argentinian mother and daughter, and daughter’s American boyfriend. It turned out that American boyfriend, and us were the only non-Spanish speakers on the bus, so the guide would give her commentary in Spanish from the front of the bus with a microphone, and then come down to the back to give a condensed version in English.
We quickly left Mendoza behind and began to rise up into the mountains. After about thirty minutes, we arrived at a reservoir and stopped for ten or fifteen minutes to take pictures – the scenery was already exceptional. After that, we drove for a long way, getting higher and higher, without any opportunities for further photos (except through the windows). We was got irritated by the lack of stops, but, in retrospect, the reason was that we had such a long way to go to get to the National Park, and the scenery once we got there was so spectacular.
Our route, towards the National Park and the Chilean border beyond, followed the line of the old disused Transandine Railway. A narrow-gauge railway constructed from 1847 to 1910. It was initiated by Juan and Mateo Clark, Chilean brothers of British descent. During tensions between Chile and Argentina in 1977–78, all international railway use of the Transandine Railway was suspended. Railway passenger service through the tunnel was resumed for a short period ending in 1979. The last freight train using the tunnel was in 1984.
Eventually, we arrived at Parque Provincial Aconcagua for a short walk. The altitude was 2950m, and it was cold in the mountains. Walking up hill Barrie felt the altitude immediately but it was worth the effort, the scenery was stunning and we took many photographs. The weather was perfect for photos – the sky was the deep blue of high altitude, the sun shone, and there was just enough cloud to make the sky interesting.
When we returned to the coach, we drove even higher into the mountains through a series of tunnels. As we ascended, we rose above the cloud base and the weather deteriorated. We subsequently arrived at a small depressing skiing resort near the Chilean border called Las Cuevas. The town had fallen on hard times, Climate change had robbed it of the guaranteed snow each year on which it depended for its tourism income, and the population had dwindled to about 10 people, who ran small cafes providing hot buffet lunches to coach parties. We did not like the look of the buffet we were offered at the cafe to which the guide steered the party, so we went off to look for an alternative. We ended up being the only customers of an old lady who haunted an almost-derelict skiing lodge. We just had toasted sandwiches and drinks, but were happy with our choice.
After lunch, as we returned to the truck, the temperature had dropped, the wind had got up, and it was snowing sporadically. The change from just an hour earlier was disorienting.
We set off, back down the way we had come up, but we made an extra stop – at a small settlement called Inca Bridge, where, in a bizarre example of nature’s creativity, there was a natural bridge over the river formed from salts that hot springs had leached out of the ground. Here, the same Clark brothers had built a spa resort in the Puente del Inca whose ruins were still visible. There was also a military base, and a small market selling crap to day-trippers – including artefacts that the stall-holders had “petrified” in the hot spring waters. It was a long drive home, albeit with spectacular views, and we weren’t dropped off back at the apartment until gone 19:00.
We had Friday Night Dinner, of baked potatoes, tuna mayo, and coleslaw in our apartment.
Saturday 01 – Day 63 – Mendoza – Posh wine tour
We had another earlyish start – we were due to be picked up between 08:10 and 08:20 for an all day wine tour of the Uco valley with Tour and wine. We waited outside from 08:05, and at about 08:40 Ingrid went inside to call the company providing the tour. There had been a mix-up, they had had us booked for the following day, but they would pick us up in fifteen minutes. The only caveat, was that we would be touring the Lujan de Cuyo region which was where we had been the previous day, rather than the Uco Valley. They took responsibility for the mistake and would compensate us 40USD each – which was fair enough.
In due course – it was still only about 09:00 – they picked us up in a mini bus, with a middle-aged Texan couple, a young Swedish couple, and a single young Swiss guy.
We visited four wineries at which we got progressively more tipsy. The first was a small young winery Budeguer – Tacmen, that was still playing with it branding and image. The second was large scale place, Terrazas. owned by the Möet-Chandon conglomerate, whose guide had an encyclopaedic knowledge of the wine industry and answered all of our questions at great length. The third, Finca Agostina, was where we had a five course gastronomic lunch, with five wines each matched to the corresponding course. All of the food and wine was awesome, and they made a great job of providing excellent veggie substitutes for all the meat/fish components.By this time we were ready to go home but had one more winery to endure!. The fourth, Carinea, was a very small and eccentric place owner by French people who previously had no experience in wines. We were shown around by a eccentric right-on french lady, before she sat us down and plied us with wine from numerous bottles. In theory we had to choice from one of 3 samples to taste from each range but our hardy travelling companions managed to try all wines!
We were dropped off at the apartment at about 18:00, and we had concert tickets for 21:30 in the town centre. So, had time for a nap to sober up a little.
At 21:00, we walked into town, and took our places in the concert hall on the main square Plaza Independencia. Where we watched a programme of 3 pieces of Mozart . The place was full of elderly Mendozans – I think we were the youngest members of the audience, and the only tourists. The orchestra and soloist were really good.
Sunday 02 – Day 64 – Mendoza
As usual, when preparing to leave an apartment, it took us quite a while to gather all our things together, pack, and tidy/clean the apartment a little. We finally left about 15:00, which was quite early for a 17:35 flight, but then we had trouble finding a taxi to the airport at siesta time on a Sunday, and had to walk along the street for about a kilometre before we managed to hail one.
We flew on the 17:35 FlyBondi flight FO5460 to Bariloche, landing at at 19:15
