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*I am actually writing this entry from home. I got home safely last week, so at least I made it back in one piece! I'm a bit behind on my entries, so after this entry expect two more. Thanks for reading.*
Even though I didn't want to leave Cordoba, the journey had to continue. Next up, Mendoza. Mendoza is the heart of wine country in Argentina and also home of the magnificient Andes mountains. It being the week before Easter (yes, this was awhile ago already) I almost didn't find a hostel but I lucked out in the end. Mendoza is a small and relaxed city and there's not much to do. It does have beautiful scenery and wonderful parks to compensate for that. The first day I got there I found another American guy at the hostel to explore the city. For Easter weekend everything was closed, so the day was uneventful to say the least. The next day was a memorable one. 3 others from the hostel, including the American guy, and I set out to the town of Maipu, 20 minutes from Mendoza, to explore some of the area's fabulous wineries. Before coming to Argentina I
never really drank wine (us American kids are too cheap to buy good wine, cheap wine doesn't taste good, and we prefer a nice beer or whisky anyways) but in the previous weeks I had started to just because it tastes so damn good there. So there we were in the heart of wine country and I just had to go along with it. My friends and I chose the most fun option to visit the wineries, which is renting a bike and going from bodega to bodega to taste the fruits. I was wary of being drunk by the end of the day and not being able to bike straight, but that didn't turn out to be a problem (more on that later). After we got our bikes and our maps, we were off. First we visited a chocolate store which makes liquers out of chocolate (!) and dulce de leche, Argentina's favorite spread (it's like caramel, or Argentina's answer to Nutella). After that came the first of three wineries. We opted to go just for the tasting and tried three delicious wines, promptly buying a bottle and having a picnic outside on the grass. Nice. As we biked
Bienbebidos
Bienvenidos means Welcome in Spanish. Beber means to drink. You get it...on, we caught jaw-dropping views of the nearby Andes, which towered over us from several miles away. Wine, biking, mountains...what a combination!
The next few bodegas we went to we opted for a tour and a taste, and the guides showed us the wineries and how they process their grapes and how...yawn!!! Let's get to the wine already. Sometimes they got the hint, but usually they went on talking for as long as they wanted. At one winery, I tried a really sweet wine that had a high alcohol content. I wrung my nose at the taste and the guide looked at me and barked: "That's 18%. Respect!" (in English). Yea, whatever man. It tasted more like grape juice with 10 cups of sugar than anything decent. By this point everyone in the group was still doing fine on their bikes and we continued. The last winery we came to was owned by a French couple. The owner had just moved to Mendoza a few years ago and admitted to know little about the wine-making process and that he was simply doing it for fun. I liked his candor so I bought a bottle from him. That bottle and
another bottle I bought were $10 each, which is an
expensive wine for Argentina. They were certainly worth it. By the end of the bike tour my friends and I had barely had a few glasses wine total over the whole day, so biking was really not an issue. The American guy hadn't even had enough and stopped to buy a beer, biking along. Go figure.
That night I went out to explore the boliche (nightclub) scene of Mendoza with some Americans I had met a few weeks earlier. The one we went to turned out to be a dud, and after getting home in the wee hours of the morning I only had an hour nap before I had to get up for my tour that morning. The so-called "High Mountain" tour I went on visited many sites, including Cerro Aconcagua, the highest mountain in South America. I was a bit tired, for sure, but almost everyone else on the tour, including the guide, had gone out last night so there was little sympathy to go around. After a brief stop at a reservoir near Mendoza, it was time to head to the Andes. First we passed by
Reservoir near the town of Potrecillos
Can you say money shot? The sun rays filtering in was simply gorgeous the town of Uspallata with a rather idyllic setting, and then came the ski resort town of Los Penitentes and then the big one itself, Cerro Aconcagua. We were able to go to a lookout point less than 15 miles away and were afforded great views of the colossal beast (~6900m or almost 23,000 feet). Next we came to the town of Las Cuevas (The Caves) where a huge landslide had flattened the town many years ago. After lunch we visited Puente del Inca (Inca Bridge), a naturally-formed bridge comprised of various minerals. Very cool. A short stop at the Climber's Graveyard, honoring those that have died trying to ascend Aconcagua, gave everyone quite a scare.
Back at the hostel I met two German guys who wanted to go explore Uspallata, the small town I had seen on the tour, as well, and so we set off the next day. It was nice to escape the cities for once, especially one with such as a beautiful setting as Uspallata. The town itself isn't much, but then again you don't go there to check out the hoppin' nightlife. Uspallata becomes mobbed with climbers and other thrill-seekers during the winter months.
Cerro Aconcagua
The highest mountain in the Americas This is, after all, the area where Brad Pitt filmed "Seven Years in Tibet" (that's right, the mountain scenes in that film were filmed near Uspallata). The German guys and I had some breath-taking views of the Andes, and after a Jeep tour of the area the next morning, we each went our separate ways, they to Chile and I back to Mendoza.
Once I got back to Mendoza, only two hours away, I realized I hadn't seen much of the town so I had a full day of sight-seeing the next day. There were some pretty interesting historical museums and I even went to the local snake zoo and aquarium. The state they keep their animals in can be depressing though (I never went to a zoo in Argentina, but I've heard the conditions there can be appalling). And what did I do that night? I went to Buenos Aires, of course.
After a long 14 hour bus ride to the capital, I was finally there. Arriving in the morning gave me the chance to see the hustle and bustle of the morning commute but any excitement soon faded. It had lots of traffic...just like any other
Jumping for joy at Puente del Inca
Again, I was tired of the standard smile at the camera shots. I stole the jumping idea from someone else, who also stole it from someone else. big city. I was supposed to stay with my friend David that I had met on my Salar de Uyuni tour in Bolivia, but after I couldn't reach him I stayed in a hotel the first night. In the taxi from the bus station to my hotel I already got swindled for the first time. Buenos Aires (BA) and its taxi drivers are known for cheating unsuspecting tourists, and I was yet another victim. I had read that you should never give the exact address of where you're going, just the cross streets. That way it seems like you know where you're going and they won't take you on a tour of the whole city. For whatever reason, I had totally forgotten about this and just gave him the exact address: Lavalle 733. Oops. I didn't realize it until the next day, when I mentioned it to my friend, but I got charged too much. What should be a 9 peso ($3) cab ride became double that. I had never been to BA before, but I even told the driver this was my second time there, just to make me seem smarter. And the cab driver was such a nice
The Andes
Taken from the bus to Uspallata guy too! We were talking about the city and making jokes the whole time, and by the end he had taken me on the "scenic route." Oh well.
I arrived in BA on a Thursday so I was able to go to the famous Plaza de Mayo where every Thursday afternoon the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo march. These mothers are those who lost sons and daughters during Argentina's "Dirty War" a few decades ago. The whole procession was a bit strange just because all the people watching were tourists going trigger-happy with their cameras, but it was still significant nonetheless to have seen this historic weekly ritual. I explored the rest of the Microcentro that day, only one part of BA. The next day I got in touch with my Mexican friend living in BA and moved to his apartment in Constitucion (I don't think I need to translate that one). Constitucion is a residential area but it's known for being one of the seedier parts of the town. I was staying just on the border of it, but sure enough there were plenty of prostitutes in David's immediate neighborhood.
Coincidentally, a French guy on our
Salar de Uyuni was in BA at the same time I was, so we explored the city together over the next few days, including: the famous Recoleta cemetery where many Argentinean celebrities rest, the modern art museum, the traditional art museum, Puerto Madero with its river and tall skyscrapers and the neighborhood of La Boca, home to colorful buildings and BA's believed football (read: soccer) team Boca. BA is Boca crazy, and I visited the stadium a day after a huge match between eternal rivals Boca and River Plate. On my own I also explored other plazas and areas of the city, and also visited the Immigration Museum and the Weapons Museum (very cool by the way - see picture of gas mask). At night I went out on the town and was also able to visit the family of Cesar (the guy living in Cordoba whose house I stayed at and who invited me to the wedding) and have dinner with the sister of my Dad's colleague. That dinner was my last night in BA and Argentina for that matter, so I treated myself to yet another amazing steak and yet another amazing wine (they never slouch on food
here).
So there you have it, my 6 days in Buenos Aires. Sure I did a few more things and saw a few more places, but that is more or less it. Even though it is bigger than New York City (about 12 million people) nothing too eventful happened while I was there. I saw a lot, but perhaps I didn't explore enough. What I'm trying to get at is, it may have been beautiful, but I just didn't like Buenos Aires all that much. I have never been one for big cities (save for New York, although I admit I could never live there) and to me at least Buenos Aires is just that - a big city. It's certainly a nice city, but at the end of the day it's an enormous city (it takes almost an hour to get anywhere!) with your typical skyscrapers, fast pace, with some nice buildings and parks mixed in. BA was my last stop in Argentina but for most travelers it's their first. Everyone I had met on my travels throughout the country had already visited the city it and they all had something to say about it. Maybe it was
just overhyped to me by then, or maybe it just wasn't my kind of place from the start. Many who visit BA simply fall in love with it. I will say a few things though. BA is arguably the most cosmopolitan city in all of Latin America and sometimes you even forget where you are because you see Asians, Africans and Europeans all around you. In that respect it wasn't even that different from many American cities, which made it interesting. And perhaps because of that (or perhaps because it's a big city and everyone is just looking at the ground, worried about themselves) I didn't even get stared at. That's right, my pale skin, red hair and glasses didn't even stand out. The staring had never bothered me too much before; people were only curious. For once, I had blended into the crowd.
For once, I was simply there...
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anonymous
non-member comment
haha! the horse gas mask is my favorite. how long you gonna be in chile??