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Published: February 27th 2008
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I think I have caught the best bus in the world. Our bus from Salta to Mendoza was an Imperial Cama. Yes, it did cost a lot, but gee it was worth it. The leather seats fully reclined into a bed, we got served a complete dinner (with wine) and even got a good breaky with great coffee. What more could you ask for??? And, I think it was the first bus I have actually slept on.
We arrived in Mendoza around 9am and found our way to a hostel that was recommended in the Lonely Planet. Unfortunately we accidentally checked into the hostel that was next door and it was not quiet as nice as the one we were supposed to stay in. Oh well.
For me, Mendoza was going to be all about the outdoors. There are so many opportunities to do really cool stuff here, so I was really excited. The surrounding country side offers wine tasting, mountaineering, cycling, white water rafting, horse riding and hiking. It is an outdoor persons dream, and I could not wait to tackle it all.
But first of all we had to take a wander around a get a
red, red wine...
Wine tasting in Mendoza feel for the city. Mendoza was leveled by an earthquake in 1861. It was a bummer for the locals, but when they rebuilt the city, they anticipated another earthquake, so they have built the city with wide avenues, spacious plazas and lovely parks. Good for us tourists, as it make for a lovely city to walk around. Of course while we were checking out the city we had to once again indulge in good coffee and pastries. I am starting to love Argentina!!
After a nice quiet day, it was time to hit the outdoors. The next day I booked myself on a whitewater rafting trip and then a sunset horse riding tour. After waiting about an hour and a half to get picked up from the hostel (this became the norm for the next few days) we had an hour bus ride to get to the rapids. The company was really professional and the guides were really cool. We hit class III and IV rapids and had a ball. The guides tried to get us in the water, but we held on too tight. Oh, and the water was so cold, there was not way I was getting
in!!
After an exhausting day on the water I had enough time for a quick change of clothes before I got picked up to go horse riding. We rode for a couple of hours and watched the sun set over the hills over Mendoza. It was truly spectacular. We rode for another hour or so in the dark before returning to the farm where we had an asado (Argentinean BBQ). Once again the meat was absolutely fantastic. I actual think I might OD on the stuff.
The next morning me and Karin were off to do a bike tour of the local wineries. It was interesting to say the least. We were not very impressed with our guide as he didn’t seem interested in what he was doing at all. I don’t actually think that he conversed with us the whole time we were out there. But hey, the wineries were pretty nice and it was really nice to cruise around on a bike at a leisurely pace. We ended the day at a chocolate factory. Umm O. We got to taste yummy fudge, chocolate a liqueurs. Of course we all walked away with bags of chocolate.
The next day I said goodbye to Karin, my travel partner for the last two weeks and headed off to do some hiking around Mendoza. On the minibus on the way out there I started chatting to two guys. They asked if I was doing horse riding and I informed then that no, I was hiking. We figured that I would get dropped of somewhere and meet up with another group. When we did eventually stop our guide told us to jump off the bus and then wait around as he was going to get the horses. Horses??? Hmm, something was very wrong here. I piped up and told him that I was supposed to be hiking. Well, he had a good chuckle and politely informed me that I had booked in to do a whole day horse riding. What the??? Well we checked the ticket and sure enough the tour agency had booked me horse riding instead of hiking. I wondered why it had cost so much.........
But hey, I had an amazing day. We rode for a couple of hours, stopped for a matte break, had an awesome asado overlooking the Mendoza valley, and then rode for another
couple of hours in the afternoon, once again stopping for matte. It was a pretty cool day (much better than hiking).
That evening I meet up with the guys I rode with and had a few drinks and dinner. It was a pretty quite night as next day I was up early to catch the bus across the boarder to Santiago.
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