Back to Argentina on the crazy road!!!

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Yep it was crazy and we got some better pictures this time as we rode a bigger bus back to Mendoza.

Not too eventful but I figured we would add some pictures of the road and the next day we were hanging around in Mendoza again - it sort of felt like home.

We arrived back into town and decided to stay at the City Hotel again as it was a nice place and a great deal. All of the employees were great!!!!

We had the afternoon to accomplish a few missions: get a hair cut (Dave), buy a silly bus pass, get some laundry done, and get a guide book for Bolivia. We had about 24 hours before our overnight bus was to depart from Mendoza to Salta in Northern Argentina.

Well we accomplished all of our goals except the book and decided we did well enough and thought we´d get out to a few more wineries via the bus of course!!! We had our card now so we figured we were unstoppable, I should mention that obtaining the card was almost as hard as getting change. We went from mini matket to mini market searching. One would be out of them or not carry them - a hot commodity for sure.

Well we got it and hit the local bus top the main terminal where we were to catch another local bus to some wineries south of town. We thought we were fancy using the card and felt real cool, well that was about to end as we waited for our connecting bus... We were told that the card would work for it as well and when we boarded ir of course did not - cash only!!! Althought the driver did carry change. So cool we were with the card that we never were able to use it again....

We knew attempting to go to these southern wineries by bus was a trick, we really only wanted to see 1 in particular because of te tour they offered. We left with an hour and a half beofre the tour to bus only about 13 km´s. You´d think that would have been plenty of time, but we actually needed about 2.5 hours so we missed it and at least they gave us a glass of wine for our efforts and we started walking north.

The local bus ran about every half hour and we walked on and flagged one down, we asked to be dropped off at a museum and we were. Too bad it was closed, we were again pretty much in the middle of nowhere and decided to abort the mission and head back into town. We knew we had an basically extra day here and had no great plans for it so we were fine with our multi-hour bus excursion for a glass of wine.

Back in Mendoza we hung around and actually had a great meal at a taco bar that we found. More tortillas and a few beans were found. Another nice find, we slowly made our way to the bus station for our 17 hour journey north.

This bus ride was the exact opposite than our ride from Bariloche, we were fed vegetarian something (I liked it), wine, a snack, breakfast and even started the ride with a rousing game of bingo - well almost bingo. We did not win, although I thought I did when I got 4 in a row. Anyways the bus was direct and we had no super snorers so it was quite pleasant (as pleasant as a 17 hour bus ride can be).

Lesson learned though is that if you are downstairs you need to make sure no one shuts the window in the bathroom. The smell has to some where, so I became the window monitor as we slept. All in all a much nicer ride and we expect the next long ride we just booked to be even nicer as it is a ¨suite bus¨. The bus sytem in just about the entire world is superior to the United States, however I am convinced that some Argentinian Companies are the ebst around for certain. The bus was Andesmar and our last bad bus was Tramat, which we booked through Andesmar - they are not the same, not even close...

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Photos

Crazy road over the Andes
Yep that is the road. Only saw 2 overturned semis this time and it started to snow near the top.

Pass when you can!!!!
The trucks top speed is about 5 mph, passing on a blind curve, well everyone does it.

The run goes over the road..
as well as the rocks in summer. This is on the Chilean side, almost at the top.

We made it to the winery
and all we got was a nice glass of wine for our efforts!

A nice day to be out though.
Looking west towards the Andes.

Our 1st class bus
Dave checking to see if you can in fact lay flat as advertised. You can.

Comments

[Dad]

Bus Good - Road Bad
That looks like an amazing road and not one I am sure I'd like to be in a bus for!

[Ashley]

If you guys make it to Bolivia check out the death road outside of La Paz. You can do a mountain bike trip down the death road. It is totally worth every cent!