Mendoza - la ciudad del vino y de los árboles

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Jakob, you vs. Argentina -> you lose! Argentina is testing me much harder 😊
On Sunday, I wanted to get my bus from Córdoba to Mendoza, which should have left - according to my ticket - at 22:45. I got already a bit nervous when there was no bus at 22:40, but finally it arrived. However, the driver was telling me that the bus would leave at 23:15 and that he couldn't let me get on this bus... Fortunately, there were some elderly Argentinian ladies who had the same problem and who forced the driver to check the tickets with his boss. Finally, he found out that the time-table changed after we had bought our tickets and we were allowed to take this bus 😊 Around 9 AM I arrived in Mendoza, the city of wine and trees.

Mendoza is a city close to the Andes and in the middle of the desert. The weather is very dry and they have only about 100-200 mm of rain per year. Since the landscape was so dry here, the founders of Mendoza planted a huge number of trees and other plants and now, this city is one of the greenest in Argentina, including a huuuge artificial park.

Córdoba (around 30 degrees) was the city of mini-skirts, here in Mendoza, it's already autumn ("only" 20-25 degrees) and the Argentinians wear long trousers and jumpers. Well, for me and most other tourists it's still very nice and we're wearing summer clothes.

I booked a bed in a dorm for 4 girls, but we are only 2: me and a Belgian girl. Annelies and I do have very similar ideas of how we want to spend our time here and therefore, we did all activities together. On Monday, we walked to the huge park and through most of it, up to the highest point (about 1000 m of altitude) from where we could see the mountains and the whole city of Mendoza, and back to the hostel -> 4h hiking! In the evening, we cooked some pasta and bought a bottle of wine - what else in Mendoza! We liked the "Benjamín" (Tempranillo, 2010, red wine) a lot and slept extremely well afterwards (which was necessary after the long bus trip. The seats are bigger than in the planes, but still not very comfortable, and the food is quite bad).

Tuesday (15th) was the Aconcagua day. A bus (which was supposed to leave at 7-7:30 and left at 8:20) brought us to the Andes. On our way there we saw the huge and beautiful artificial lake, which provides water for the Mendozian industriy and city, the Inca bridge and finally the Aconcagua - the highest mountain of South and North Amercia (almost 7000 m). The viewing point was located at 3000 m of altitude and the view was simply amazing! The mountains here are extremely colourful, mostyl red (iron), green (copper), and yellow (sulfur). In the evening, we went to the close, "expensive" Italian restaurant (Spaghetti frutti di mare: 39 Pesos) and enjoyed another wine from the region: Santa Julia (Malbec, 2010, red wine), which was excellent too.

Today (16th), we took the colectivo (regional bus) to Maipú (about 30 min from Mendoza), where we rent bikes and visited the bodegas (vineyards). First, we went to the biggest one of Mendoza. The tour wasn't very interesting and we were quite disappointed by the wines (even by the one for 250 Pesos), which were Chardonnay (white), Malbec (red), and Malbec-Merlot (red). Fortunately, we decided then to visit a family business, where we got an informative tour and excellent Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, and dessert wine. This winery sells its wine only at the winery or via internet and people were friendly and the food was great. With the pollo for lunch (chicken), we tried some Torrontés (white wine), which is the only original Argentinian grape (very good).

Conclusion from today: Argentinian wine is delicous, hospitality in Argentina is great, and rural area + 2 European girls in short pants on bicycles = maaaany "chau hermosa" / "hola mi amor". But, the machismo has also its positive side: construction workers fighted for helping us when we needed to carry our bikes because the main road (!) was one big sludge...

Pictures and more infos follow as soon as possible! Tomorrow (17th), I'll leave Mendoza already and go to Neuquén (how to get the bus tickets when the travel agency doesn't have internet for a whole day is another story...).

As always: comments are welcome!

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