Mendoza and the Wine Country

After leaving El Bariloche, we took an overnight bus to what we thought would be our final destination. We had planned on finding permanent stay in Mendoza, but after a few days of exploring, we found that we weren't as enamored by the city as we had originally hoped, and decided to head back to Buenos Aires.

Maybe it was just that we were on the busier, dirtier side of town. Maybe it was that we had a hard time finding jobs and affordable permanent residence. Maybe it was the fact that we found out that our temporary apartment was usually rented in three hour increments. Yes, there were a number of factors that persuaded us to come back to Buenos Aires, but that didn't stop us from extensively exploring the city, and journeying out to the Maipu wine valley for a bike tour of the local wineries.

We got some pretty decent advice about choosing the proper company for the bike tour - make sure the bikes are in tip-top shape. Unfortunately, we were in a hurry to get on the road, and we settled for some sub-par two-wheelers. After we went to the wine museum, my pedal fell off my bike completely, and we had to go back and trade out.

We had been biking around the tree lined, one lane roads in the heat of summer. Just as we were beginning to slow down a bit, we saw an ominous sign - a solitary beer mug drawn cartoon-style and nailed to a post at a crossroads. We followed the arrow to a narrow gravel driveway surrounded by orchards and pastures. For a second, we thought we were being lured in to a secluded spot only to be mugged. But we continued on and took a curve in the road, deciding to drop our bikes when we unexpectedly saw paradise in front of us - billowing curtains surrounding comfy furniture and a bar where an Argentine girl stood waiting to take our order. This was definitely the highlight of our "wine" country experience.

This place had the finest brew and the warmest hospitality of our four-day stay in the area. We stayed for about an hour and chatted with the owner about her fantastic little oasis while we sampled the rubia and the stout. After having a few fresh olives, homemade potato chips and salted peanuts to complement our beers, we were back on the road to sample some more wine.

Although this looks like a wonderful dream, I am not asleep here

MMmmmm

;-) Malbec samples

Believe it or not, this is a vast, fertile, wine-producing valley

They don't bring you a spit bucket. You're supposed to drink the wines during these tastings...

Mendoza was a very interesting city, and definitely a worthwhile place to stop and explore. The center of the city is well designed, and we got to know the layout quite well. Had things gone a little differently, we might have been writing about this city as if it were home. However, we felt that we'd enjoy big city life in Buenos Aires, so we said goodbye to central Argentina and took an overnight bus to Tango city.

Posted by: Jeff

Bolsón y Bariloche

Aaaaand, we're back! Back to the blog, I mean. Forgive us for the long absence. I will attempt to briefly catch you up on the end of our Southern Argentina tour, leading up to when we settled down in Buenos Aires and then began living la vida and never touched the travel blog again. Here goes.

After we left Chalten at the end of January, we had a long, bumpy and mostly desolate road ahead of us (Ruta 40) and booked two 12 hour bus trips back north through Patagonia and on to Bolsón and Bariloche. The trip is one of the more arduous parts of getting in and out of Patagonia but the scenery is beautiful and changes quite a bit over the 24 hour journey back to civilization. Along the way we saw quite a few animals you don't run into every day, including guanaco (a type of llama), rheas (fast running ostrich-looking birds), and...

armadillos!

One afternoon on the first leg of the journey we were roused from our naps when the bus came screeching to a halt on the gravel road. I looked out of the window to see one of the drivers scrambling wildly after this cute little armadillo.

They're much cuter than the Texan variety (in my opinion).

Everyone had to jump off and check out the critter.

Ruta 40

Jeff chased after this little lamb at one of the very few rest stops we made in the middle of nowhere.

We stopped halfway through the journey and stayed overnight in the small little town called Perito Moreno (same name as the beautiful glacier we trekked on, but nowhere near as cool...). Rather than staying at one of the two decent hotels in the area where they were charging all of the other bus riders tourist-style prices, we wandered around until we found a campsite recommended by two guys who had been biking all the way from Alaska to Patagonia. We weren't sure of their standards for sleeping (as I'm sure they had spent more nights sleeping on the ground than in beds) but we found the campsite with a few available cabins and stayed over night for $5 each. What a deal!

We shared our cabin with a couple of kids from Buenos Aires who were traveling all over the south during their summer vacation. We told them we were headed to Bariloche (a top Patagonia destination since it's the farthest north in the region and has skiing in the winter, especially for people from Buenos Aires) and they recommended we hop off early and stop in Bolsón for a couple days to check out their market. So that's exactly what we did.

Bolsón

Near the main square in Bolsón

On Monday, the small little hippie town known for it's great cerveza artesanales (microbreweries) and crafts fair was pretty slow moving and definitely a good stop to just relax and rest up from our scenery hopping. The next day, we checked out the feria (market) that they hold three times weekly and tried the local fare (a milanesa sandwich and fries) and plenty of gelato. We caught the bus that afternoon to Bariloche, a short hour-ish long bus ride away.

Bariloche
Bariloche definitely has a Swiss chalet feeling to it, even down to the yummy locally made chocolate and St. Bernards hanging around the main square. There is plenty of great skiing in the area during the winter. Even in the middle of summer, the temperature tops out in the low 70's and I definitely needed a sweater for the nights.

We met up with Zig, a friend from Rice, who is living in Bariloche for the year doing physics research on a Fulbright. He was an excellent host and showed us the Bariloche nightlife and a good hike up near Cerro Catedral. We had the chance to hang out with lots of kids from Buenos Aires who were staying in our hostel, traveling around the country for their summer vacation, much like us. We left the hostel after a couple days and stayed with our generous host, Zig, who not only put us up, but also taught us how to make empañadas like true Argentines, a skill we have mastered over our time down here. Below is the view of the ski village and Lago Gutierrez from midway through our hike up Cerro Catedral.

Most of the other tourists (most, aka ALL) chose to pony up the plata for the ski lift and gondola up to the top, but we hiked all the way up.

Jeff and Zig took the road less traveled with the vertical ascent, while I zig-zagged across.

This sight at the top of the saddle was definitely worth it!

Cerro Catedral in the distance

Jeff and Zig (aka Jiff and Zeeeg as the locals said)

We were all set to hike the rest of the way down, when we realized no one was checking tickets on the gondola, so we hitched a ride and saved ourselves about an hour on the descent, arriving at the bottom within seconds of our bus back to Bariloche. Perfect timing! On February 1st we parted ways with Zig and his girlfriend, Austin, and headed north to Argentina's wine country, Mendoza.