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Published: October 15th 2009
Saturday 3rd
Left at 8:40 for our incredible trip through the Andes to Mendoza, Argentina (we went with Tur bus) - and what an awesome trip it was. Beautiful snow-capped mountains, massive gorges and canyons, a ski field running right down one face of the mountain (we ran right through tunnels under them - pretty damn amazing) It was just amazing meandering up and then through the mountain itself.
After crossing over into Argentina the landscape was unreal, just beautiful (different color rocks and sand) and so vast with the ever present Andes contrasting beautifully with the various red mountains.
We arrived just before 4pm (bus trip 7 hours) so made our way straight to our hostel The Monkey House
( http://www.monkeyhostel.com/ ) Which was okay but to be honest not the nicest hostel but the staff were incredible and we ended up being lucky and having an awesome crew (miss you guys!)
What an amazing little city with a town feeling (1 million) beautiful tree lined streets, great parks and pedestrian walkways with plenty of cafes / restaurants - no major high rises, beautiful water fountains, especially the Plaza Independencia, we
ended up having a lovely picnic there with cheese and vino - defo recommend doing that. We also went to the various other plazas around but really loved the Plaza Espana which has lovely tile motifs and paving (its there to celebrate the Spanish influence) it was a real fun city to walk around.
And now the meat, my god was it amazing, awesome thick cuts cooked to perfection, fries not necessary - do not be confused by the term chorizo when they described the steak they just referring to it being a chunky thick cut - yum yum - ha but just to confuse you they cook chorizo sausage on the bbq too!
Really cheap beer and wine (especially if you go to the supermarket, Carrefour is a good one) 80% of Argentinian wine is produced in the Mendoza region and their specialty is the Malbec.
Talking of wine we did the Bikes and Wine tour ( http://www.bikesandwines.com/ ) which was incredible. A 12km circuit broken up by stops at various vineyards all whilst cycling along beautiful tree-lines streets with the Andes always in view. We got lost a few times which enhanced the
experience believe it or not. Got to taste some great wines ( you probably need about Ar$ 150-200 inc $ 45 tour price for the day (rate to CDN $ is about 3.8) so not the cheapest day but well worth it, so much fun and really pretty.
A really lovely new build vineyard was the Tempus Alba and on the other side was the more rural Vina el Cerna (this also looked like a nice eating option) We eventually stopped at Vistandes at 4pm to eat (ravenous and a little giggly) and were disappointed with the food, really thin & small steaks but had really great white wine (I think it was called Torrene) but the bonus was ending the day at the Historia y Sabores (Liquour and chocolates) place where for $ 10 you get to try a liquor, some chocolate, marmalade / syrup and followed by a very necessary hotdog - great ending to an incredible day.
We decided to stay an extra night so that we could take part in the Asado (Argentinian BBQ) and wow was it worth it, the hostel put it on for $ 30 which included loads of
salad, meat (beef, chorizo sausage and chicken) all brought out to you in stages - so as soon as you finished there came another load, ha delish and heaven! also included was some of the local wine. Had a great night with everyone.
Very thankful our bus for Puerto Iguazu was only booked for 9:30 pm as we had an awesome party last night. Was a little tender and sad to be saying goodbye to the crew but knowing it wouldn"t be a "goodbye" but see ya later as well definitely be catching up with the girls in Wales next year and hopefully with Kiran on route.
Managed to get in another gourmet steak meal, finish Lizs tattoo and give the girls all the info they needed for their trip to NZ before our 36 hour bus trip to Puerto Iguazu ( Andesmar Ar$403)
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