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Published: December 1st 2004
Aconcagua, Mendoza. Will climb it, some day... 2 of my favourite things are spending time in mountains, whether it be hiking, biking, rafting or whatever.. and drinking wine. So given the above, it was no surprise when we ended up, after another marathon bus journey at the Western end of the argentinian plains in Mendoza.
This is a farely non-descript, sleepy, leafy and pleasant town, that sits at the foot of the Andes, and in particular, the mighty Aconcagua, at 7000m, the highest mountain in the world outside the Himalayas and Karakorum. Mendoza is also the home of the Argentinian wine industry.
Unfortunately, we dont have a huge amount of time to spend in any one place now.. we have 3 weeks to cover a colossal amount of ground, so our time in Mendoza was limited.
But we did manage to get into the mountains, for some excellent biking, that involved Rach crashing into a thorn bush, and me flipping over the handlebars of my bike on a steep decent.. no permanent damage, and if you dont fall off, you´ll never improve!!
The mountains were stunning, and we had a roasting hot day for it...
That evening, a saturday, we tucked into a quite incredible all
Mountain Biking, Mendozayou can eat bbq and buffet for 4 dollars a head. The food was, again, excellent; especially, surprise, surprise, the steak, which was cooked in half cow chunks on an open grill. We curtailed our evening at the relatively early hour of 3am since we had a big day at the winery.
The wine tours here arent geared up for the tourists as much as the Aussie or South African ones, and they certainly dont have as many backpackers, so the emphasis was on education and actually tasting the wine, rather than guzzling huge quantities.. During the tasting, I was reminded of the London Welsh RFC Wine Club, and some of our previous tasting sessions.. this one was a bit more civilised, and we lacked a naive student who actually thought the wine was made from rasberries and vanilla, like the flavours he had read on the back of the bottle!!
however, we had signed up for the full lunch option, so after our tour, the wine was flowing freely, along with an excellent lunch.. (yep, steak.. though with a load of other stuff to break the monotony!) and in the surrounds of the lovely gardens and vines,
Vino... lovely vino... we, along with a pleasant Irish couple, toasted Mendoza.
We couldnt stay long, however, since we were heading south. This one was a 16 hour bus journey, and when the barren plains gave way to mountains, rivers, lakes and pine forests, we were in the Lake District... technically a part of Patagonia.
Our destination was the town of Bariloche, a lovely alpine style town on the shores of a sapphire blue lake. This is a ski resort in the winter, and in the summer it´s a popular location for Argentinians. However, it is the start of the summer here, so the crowds havent arrived yet.
On our first day, I ran up the mountain behind the town to get the most incredible view of the lake, the snow covered mounains, the islands.. it really was a great feeling to be in such a wilderness.
The next day we went rafting.. the rain had come in, but as we plunged down some pretty decent sized and scary rapids, in the pouring rain, thru the cleanest, coldest water you´ll ever see, thru scenery that belonged in a Lord of the Rings movie, it was really thrilling - I felt
Hmmmm... I´m getting strawberries, chocolate, vanilla..
London Welsh wine club has taught me well!! like a real adventurer, rather than a tourist.. (I think the other tourists felt the same!!)
We rafted all the way to the Chilean border before returning to town for some liquid refreshment.. But our activities hadnt stopped there.. the next day, with the sun back out, we embarked on a long, but scenic 50 mile bike ride, taking in the lake shoreline, but also ascending on the cable car to the top of the mountain and plunging down.. a really cool adventure sports town, is Baraloche.. I could really spend a month here, but time is very short now..
We have over 3000 miles to cover, and various things we want to do.. and only 15 days to do them. As a result, and despite the buses here being very good, we have had to buy a couple of flights to speed the whole process up..
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nico
non-member comment
where to mountain bike?
where can one rent a bike and where did you ride in mendoza? any help is appreciated... thanks.