Steak and Malbec

South America » Argentina
April 3rd 2010

Published: April 4th 2010

After two weeks in Bariloche it was great to be back on the road again!
And for the first time so far we have no tales from the bus journey, if only for the rather large fact we are now back onto beautiful paved roads, nice buses and a sort of efficiency!

We had mixed expectations about Mendoza - half the people we had met had said it was nice, and the other half were adamant that it was one of the ugliest places on the planet. Admittedly there is none, to very little, colonial architecture as the city was massively damaged by a huge earthquake in the mid nineteenth century, but that doesnt mean it isn´t an attractive place in it own right. With wide tree lined, low rise streets, and cafes, bars and restaurants along the pavements it holds a sort of south american sophisticated charm. We were pleasantly suprised and honestly wondered if these other people had visited another Mendoza on a parallel universe. The other amazing thing we discovered about the north of Argentina is that it is cheap....the best news ever after patagonian prices. Cooking for ourselves, counting the pesos, and negotiating the supermarkets, has been replaced with the best cuts of steak with all the trimmings washed down with delicious malbec - no complaints!!

The main reason to visit Mendoza is to see the vineyards on the outskirts of the city. Very lucky for us practically everyone we had befriended in Bariloche, and a few from Buenos Aires, were in Mendoza at the same time as us so we all did the wine tours together, was such a good group. The best way to see the vineyards is by bike, especially on bikes hired from the legendary Mr hugo. Now this is combination of bikes, vino, and 30 degree heat would be entertaining at the best of times, but add the fact I was on antibiotics, and had only a few hours sleep due to a reunion with an Irish guy I had been seeing in BA and Bariloche - it was possibly a recipe for disaster!! It was such a brilliant day out, getting the local bus out to Maipu, we picked up our bikes after being watered with free wine for about an hour by Mr Hugo and set off round the wineries. There´s no tour guide we were given a map and pointed in the right direction, each winery charges about 15 pesos (about 3 pounds) for a tasting, and about the same per additional full glass of wine. The most famous wine from this region is the Malbec, and incidently now my favourite red wine, absolutely delicious, and best of all it doesn´t give the red wine hangover. So if anyone knows anywhere that sells Argentinian Malbec for when I get home...let me know! Now the wine district might not be tuscany or french wine growing regions in terms of tranquility, but it has its own unique beauty all the same. The vineyards stretch for miles, against a backdrop of the Andes, there was not a cloud in the sky, in some ways it could not have been more idyllic. The ride along the bumpy concreted roads was hilarious fun, massive trucks just wizz past blearing their horns...there was plenty of giggling and squealing from the female participants of the group initially. On our ride back to Mr Hugos with the day light disappearing we ended up with a police escort much to our hilarity. I love Argentina - in how many countries can you cycle round numerous vineyards, drink as much as you like, get back on a bike without a helmet and wobble home with a police escort to make sure you get back home safe! Once back at Mr Hugos the party continued with more free wine for hours until we all got the last bus back home to Mendoza - which was incidently hilarious and reminded me of uni buses full of drunken singing and shouting.

The remainder of our time in Mendoza we filled with shopping, it would have been impossible to have left Argentina without indulging! Harry indulged alot more than myself with the most amazing pair of Argentinian designer shoes, am absolute bargain as leather is so cheap here. We also wandered around the city, round the mainy squares - evacuation points should there be another earthquake, and up to a monument to the Andean war that overlooks the city. Its only with the view that you become aware how arid the land around Mendoza is, it is like a desert. There are huge irrigation channels that run along all the streets bringing snowmelt from the Andes to water the treelined streets and green squares.

Easter in a Catholic country obviously presents certain issues - namely that the it is the biggest holiday in Argentina and therefore the chances of finding rooms and buses becomes increasingly difficult; coupled with our increasingly laid back, lazy take on organisation and things didnt exactly go to the plan we had originally intended for our travel further north to the city of Salta. Finding accomodation in Salta proved a bit of a challenge as most of the hostels were booked out although thankfully we managed to secure our first double room, we were ridiculously excited about having our own little space to make mess, relax and just ´be´. Most of the other friends we have made out here have had a much more difficult time of it! We got chatting to an Israeli guy at the bus station, as you do when travelling, everyone is so friendly and talks to everyone. He asked if he could tag along with us, we thought no problem only he seems to believe he is now travelling the whole way through bolivia with us, fine, only he is a little dull and well...how do you politely get rid of people?!

Now we have got used to being perved on, whistled at, stared at pretty much everywhere we went but nothing quite beats what happened while we were walking towards the main square in the centre of Salta one evening. A young boy was walking along in the opposite direction to us holding his mother´s hand, we walked past and heard this wolf-whistle I turned around a bit confused as to why a woman was whistling at me, and the small child still holding her hand grinned and winked at me. They certainly train them young here!! Priceless! I still don´t quite know what to think....

So our ´beautiful weather throughout the whole of Argentina´ luck has failed on us at the last minute, here in Salta, save for our first night here, has been a combination of rain and cloud. We have still wandered around the city taking in its many beautiful churches and faded colonial charm. It definitely feels alot more Latin American again after the very Scandinavian feel of Patagonia in the south. We have also sampled some truly stereotypically Argentine cafes run by old men with moustaches, crumbling plaster walls covered in faded old photos serving delicious empanadas with a spicy chilli sauce unique to this area with Argentine folk music blaring.

We had also originally intended to visit Cafayate on our last day here in Salta, to see some more vineyards and the red rock formations. Unfortunately we never quite made it through no ones fault but our own. The night before our proposed trip we decided with it being our last night in Argentina we would celebrate with the guys in our hostel and after a delicious asado with unlimited wine, we engaged on a serious drinking games. You may well remember from our time in Bariloche that neither me nor harry are exactly pro´s when it comes to these games! This night was no exception! We ended up consuming huge quantities of wine and beer...again. Went to a packed out club full of Easter revellers, had a great time dancing night away not really realising the time, we left the club at 5am. Our bus was supposed to depart 2 hours later,giving us the grand total of an hours sleep. Needless to say we never made it, and have been feeling awful all day. It was worth it though especially to celebrate the fantastic six weeks we have had here in Argentina before we head north towards the Bolivian border tonight for the next stage of the adventure.

I have so far been unable to upload photos to this blog, i´ll keep trying though. link to facebook here http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2287804&id=193104280&l=d13a8840f7

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