a veritable fan of Merlot

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In this one blog you can see photos from the day of crossing Bolivian-Argentinian border, through Salta to famous for its wines - Mendoza.

in a nutshell:
From Tupiza (in Bolivia) we took a bus to Villazon (on the border with Argentina) where we crossed the border. Then we caught an overnight bus from La Quiaca to Salta.
What struck us when we got off at the bus terminal in Salta was the totally different (to Bolivia) world. it was literally WOW with a mouth wide open. We so got used to Bolivia, lack of paved roads, just about to fall apart buses with more passengers than seats, nothing ever on time, cheap food, this beautiful and unique CULTURE! that I felt a bit uneasy in the new, totally westernised environment (even though i had been to Buenos Aires 3 months earlier).
i will miss Bolivia..........

There is plenty to do in/around Salta. Tempted by an idea of trying some local wine and actually learning something about making/tasting wine we went to Cafayate to visit local wineries on one day.

The following day we did river-rafting and i did... a bunjee jump!
The rafting was easy (i had never done it before so i didn´t know what to expect, but now i want more...)
The bunjee jump - oh, it was HARD!

From Salta we headed to Mendoza. Initially i was planning to spend my birthday there (just because of my passion for red wines) but plans changed.................. (well, wineries in Argentina are plentiful).

When we arrived in Mendoza it was really cold, overcast with not a single ray of sun (we got spoilt in Salta). This didn´t prevent us from visitng local wineries bien sur, and learning more about red wine - we rented bikes and cycled from a place to a place (in total approx 12 km) - very interesting way, especially if someone decides to have a glass/bottle in each place and becomes very mery.........

Horse-riding in Mendoza was a bit disappointing, we were promised 4-5 hours but it was much shorter....
Horses were great though!

After many, MANY hours of deep thinking (yes, i´m Libra and i can be indecisive) i decided not to go to Chile yet but to visit a bit more in Argentina, i.e. Bariloche (only 18h on the bus).
Kris, my travelling companion, headed to Buenos Aires so now i´m travelling solo again.



(I will soon try to add some photos from Mendoza)

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Photos

El Vino
a story about wine....

from Salta to Cafayate
so called Quebrada de Cafayate, pay attention to the amazing colours

La Banda winery in Cafayate
this was the first winery i visited in Argentina

vine flavoured ice-cream
the white scoop on the right is of torrontés flavour(typical for this region white wine) and the red one is cabernet. the brown scoop on the right is dulce de leche (sweet milk) - also typical for this region

Nanni winery
small organic winery in Cafayate

river rafting (yes, we did it in the river)
11 km, rapids of grade II and III

and after...
(mere) 40 meters with plunging in the water but a good warm up before doing it once again in New Zealand (at least planning)....

La Rural winery - Mendoza
their wonderful Merlot

in liquer and chocolate factory
as this place was on the way whilst visiting wineries we could not not stop by and try their products

different aromas and flavours one can feel when tasting wine
quite an extensive list! unbelievable huh!

horse-riding no 2
in Mendoza

Los Penitentes - close to Uspallata
"Seven years in Tibet" was filmed in those mountains

18km from Aconcagua
this was as close as we could get

Aconcagua
should be somewhere there.....

Comments

[Sis!]

Bunjee jump!BRAWO!!!!!!