Blogs from Malargüe, Mendoza, Argentina, South America - page 2

Alors... dimanche le 26 juillet nous sommes finalement partis pour Mendoza, region ou 90% des vins de l'Argentine sont produits. Vous comprennez qu'on pouvait pas manquer ca... Lundi nous avons fait le fameux "bike and wine tour" de Mendoza qui consiste à visiter environ 6-7 vignobles a bicyclette et déguster les vins dans chacun....nous avons fait cela avec nos amis kiwis que nous avions rencontré en Bolivie. Bien drole!! Ensuite mardi nous avons visite un peu la ville de Mendoza et mercredi nous avons décidé de se dirriger vers la ville de San Martin en direction de Bariloche. A notre déception le seul bus disponible était à 8:45 du soir. Nous avons donc du passer une autre journée à se promener dans la ville de Mendoza. Ceci a consisté à aller dans un buffet de steak ... read more

After all the fun in Mendoza it was time to head to Malargue, a small town about six hours south of Mendoza. On my last trip down here I had heard the Malargue area was very beautiful but because it is so far out of the way I did not go. But again, the main point of this trip was to explore areas off the beaten path. Guadalupe, whom Hernan and I met in Mendoza, also wanted to go to Malargue so she accompanied us on the 6 hour bus ride. We arrived in the late evening but were disappointed to find out that there were no tours leaving the following morning. The town itself is nothing special but there is an amazing natural park that we wanted to see (description coming in Part IV). Malargue ... read more

We arrived in San Rafael (about 3hours drive from Las Lenas) at about 8:30am which left us about 20 minutes to find the right connecting bus to the mountains... we found the bus no problems as it was easily identifiable from the long line of people with ski gear waiting to get on it... a little too many people as it turned out. The bus was sold out and we were told that there “might be another one a little later”. Where this bus was going to materialise from was unclear, as was how much later this might occur. Frustrated that we were so close to our destination and seemingly stumbling at the last hurdle I left Alison at the bus station to guard all our bags and went roaming the streets of San Rafael to ... read more

The other thing that you couldn´t miss in Mendoza is that is has a huge ski culture. The main street is lined with shops selling and hiring ski and snowboarding gear, and at night the restaurants were full of people fresh from the slopes with their big red faces and goggle marks. We decided to give it a try, and even though there are a few resorts close to the city, the best and one we fancied, Las Lenas, is about 6 hours away, near a town called Malargue. So after 4 nights in Mendoza, we headed to Malargue, and straight to a local travel agent. Although the food had been fab in Mendoza, we really miss home cooking and fancied somewhere self catering, so the agent sorted us out with a cabana, and took our ... read more

After wandering throughout Mendoza on the 27th, searching in vain for a vehicle that would accomadate the four of us South, we stumbled upon an incredible find. Having been told that no vehicles would be available for at least 4 days and that they would be ridiculously expensive for our required 3 week rental, Laurence and I entered a small tourist agency looking to see what our options were for flights south. The original plan was to bus the 20 hours south from Mendoza to Bariloche but it quickly became obvious that this would be impossible during the busy holiday season. Anyways, after discussing our option with the friendly travel agent, finding that no flights existed between Mendoza and Bariloche and that renting a car would take days, the women behind the desk offered to make ... read more