Buenos Aires - La Colonia - Mendoza - Uspallata

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It has been a while ... : )

From Iguazu we took a bus to Buenas Aires (BA). By bus you cross the 'Tierra de los grandes rios'. Amazone forest full of wood companies, roads are not that good. 20h busride.

BA is a great metropolis, european architecture, atmospheric neighbourhoods, bustling nighlife and proud, welcoming habitants - and they speak spanish : ) ! (with a funny accent...). In BA we hired an appartment for 6 days via airbnb - perfect elegant neighbourhood (Palermo), close to the Jumbo (= best supermarket ever seen, so many fresh food). One day after we arrived, Jeremy flew over from Nigeria to visit us. 10 days argentina. We went to San Telmo on sunday (biggest antiques/handcraft/vintage fair ever seen in cozy old artistic neighbourhood), visited the cementery Recoleta (necropolis where the BA elite is resting in ornate splendor - Evita Peron is burried here...). Furthermore we enjoyed some nice bars and good food! Ojo de bife (neck piece of the cow - mmmm top!).

Argentina is cheap when you have cash. 1 eur = 10 pesos if you change money on the black market. If you get money from the ATM machine you pay the official rate 1 EUR = 7 pesos. So you loose 30% of purchasing power .... Now, after 20 days we ran out of cash .... time to move to Chile.

In BA we went for one day to visit la Colonia in Uruguay by boat (1h). A little windy town, famous in summer and weekends for 'portenos' (= BA habitants). Not much to see on a weekday so we went to play some golf at the driving range ....

Up to Mendoza by bus (again), flights are too expensive here. We took a 'cama' bus (10h) = full equiped bed with television and service (drinks and food) - recommended (better than an eirplane and you save one night hotel costs) Mendoza has it all, best malbec of the world (currently exporting a lot to China), ski, horseriding, cordillerra of the andes (amazing mountains with the 'Aconcagua' 6962m highest in south america), adventure sports, fruits, desert, vegetables, asado (bbq with mmm meat), 300 days of sun, 1 day of rain...... only the beach is missing. We did some wineries, olive oil tour, parapente, horseriding (jeremy only), tried the tango, freeriding in the mountains by car (wildlife = lama's and only lama's). In Mendoza we met an italian (living here 4years), making is own wine and he really knows the place. Had some great asado with him and some other mendocinos (= locals from mendoza).

We have to come back to do the 5 day horse track to Chile up in the mountains and go down to Patagonia (it'stoo cold at the moment - have to come in summer). Nathalie is still recovering from the appendix adventure (we are also doing a medical tour - visited doctors in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay - happy to be insured...)

So in a nutshell, come to argentina with cash (country is almost bankrupt) and enjoy the food and nature and by some leather or if you have too much money invest in a winery : ). Average income is 7000 pesos (around 800 euro), better than in Brazil where medical help is not free and gap between rich and poor is much bigger. Me might be happy to be born in Belgium!

Tomorrow up to Santiago, Chili through the Andes (reach around 3200m) (6h drive)

Hasta la proxima!

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