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Published: December 13th 2007
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Our first day in Salta was a fairly relaxed affair, just exploring the city. The next day we took a tour to Cafayate where a number of wineries are to be found. On the way we went through the Quebrada de Cafayate, a beautiful sandstone landscape. We stopped at a couple of gorges - the Garganta del Diablo and El Antifeatro - both known for their fine acoustics. So we had to put up with a tour group of Italians singing at the tops of their voices at both places. On to Cafayate and we stopped at a couple of wineries quite close to each other. Nice wines, but we preferred the Torrontès, the local white. After lunch, another winery, then back to Salta, stopping to admire the sandstone formations in the afternoon light. The next day, we had some time to kill before our bus to Mendoza, so we went to the Museo de Arqueologìa de Alta Montaña, which houses mummies and their artefacts discovered at the tops of high mountains in Argentina (more than 6000 m), much like the one we saw in Peru. Again they were sacrifices of the Incas, and we were able to see one of
El Antifeatro
Complete with singing Italians! them. After lunch, we took the cable car to the top of the hill overlooking the city. Fine views, despite the low cloud, but we didn't have much time to spend up there before we had to go and catch our bus.
The bus to Mendoza took 18 hours, but they showed some movies (in English), and I was able to sleep for most of the night. Unfortunately Jen was starting to get ill. At Mendoza, we went straight to our hostel and checked in. In the afternoon, we took walk through Mendoza. Mendoza doesn't have a huge population, but it seems a very busy city (except during the mid-afternoon siesta). It's main attraction are the nearby wineries producing some of Argentina's best wine. It also has South America's largest municipal park, Parque San Martin, which we walked to, but didn't go very far into it.
The fun began the next day when we went on a "bike and wine" tour. We rented bikes, and with a few other people, set off on a cycle tour of the wineries around Maipu. During the day, we were only able to get to a couple of the wineries. Wine tasting
here isn't simply a case of going in, trying the wine and leaving. At the first place, we were given a thorough tour of the winery. Then we were sat down to try their Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon - in full glasses! Jen and I bought a bottle of each and an hour after arriving, we headed off to the next winery. Here we were sat down in a bar and given the option to try each of their 7 wines - 7 glasses between the two of us, so we went for that. Again full glasses, so we spent a while there. But it was a nice location, and a hot sunny day, so we didn't mind. Afterewards, it was getting on for mid-afternoon, so we headed to lunch, where we tried another wine with our meal. After lunch, we headed towards the next winery, but decided we wouldn't have time before the bike rental place closed, so we headed back. Probably just as well since the wine was beginning to go to our heads. Back in Mendoza, we had a meal out with the people we spent the day with, and together tried a few more bottles of
wine with our steaks.
The next day we went white water rafting on the Rio Mendoza. We spent quite a few hours on the river, it wasn't as good as the rafting we did in Peru (and the water was colder) but we had fun. The following morning we chilled out in the hostel, with the intention of going paragliding that afternoon. When we got to the place where we would go paragliding, the pilot said the wind was too strong in the wrong direction and that we couldn't go. This was a disappointment, but in the end we were able to go the next morning before our 10:30 bus to Chile. Great fun, Jen and I took it in turns to go with the pilot. The views were fantastic, and the pilot did some aerial acrobatics. The night before we left Mendoza (and Argentina) we went to a restaurant called Don Mario, where I was served the most enormous steak I'd ever seen. I did my best but was beaten in the end.
While our bus to Viña del Mar on the Chilean coast was alright, the journey was a nightmare. We got to the Chilean border
and a combination of inefficient bureaucracy and obsessive thoroughness at a very busy border meant that we were unable to leave for almost four hours. After driving for another hour and a half, we were stuck again behind a road accident. We were expecting to get into Viña del Mar before 6:00 in the afternoon, but it was almost 11:00 when we finally arrived. Trusting once again the touts at the bus station, we found ourselves in a decent little hotel near the centre. We've been here a couple of days now (we're a bit behind on the blog) but we'll tell you about our seaside holiday in a later blog.
Jamie
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