We crossed the Andes during the day to get the best views of both the Chilean and Argentine sides. It was a short bus journey, only 8 hours winding our ways up through the Andes to the highest border crossing in the world (so it is claimed) at 3,158 metres. The views were spectacular and the snow capped mountains shone magnificently in the midday sun.
Mendoza is famed for its wineries and produces about 80% of Argentinas wines. Famous for Malbec grapes, we of course sampled a few bottles of the local produce. There are plenty of wine tours on offer ranging from tours on bicycles, horseback and on foot. The scenery around Mendoza is stunning, and provides the location for the film, Seven years in Tibet.
Our short stop over in Mendoza gave us the chance to meet up with Ali, the creater of Travelblog.org. We enjoyed dinner together at a lovely bistro in town and had quite a few bottles of wine. The craic was great and as a result, both of us have added yet more countries to visit on our wish list!!!! Ali, your description of Guatemala has us scratching our itchy feet.
Mendoza
was completely destroyed by and earthquake in 1861, leveling the city completely. The authorities, anticipating the next earthquake, built the city with wide avenues for the rubble to fall into and spacious plazas to use as evacuation points. We spent some time exploring Parque Gereral San Martin, Plaza Espaņa, and Plaza Independencia. We even experienced our first Argentine demonstration. There are of course issues with food shortages and government tax on beef exports, however this demonstration was about street sellers trading laws.
For lunch on our last day, we met up with some of the people we had met back in Santiago and got even more ideas for travelling. It is definately true that the more you travel, the more you want to see.
So we left Mendoza on Wednesday evening to start our journey to Iguazu falls. It takes 36 hours travelling time.... will it be worth it?
All will be revealed, same bat blog, same bat channel....
:-)
Argentina's Flag
Map of Argentina