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Published: March 12th 2009
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Aaaah, another overnight bus 😊 This one was supposedly a direct route from Valparaiso, Chile to Mendoza, Argentina. In Valparasio we got to the station fifteen minutes early to catch the 9:30pm bus only to find a local shuttle van waiting for us?? After ONLY a 2 hour shuttle we arrived at our Cama bus, that for some reason departed about 200 KM outside of town! Haha. From there it was a direct route right over the Andes Mountains, which was of course full of hairpin turns and shear drop offs. At around 1:30am just after crossing a rough patch of mountains we had to go thru Customs. This of course meant that an entire bus full of passengers and luggage had to be searched and provided visas. An hour later (not bad) we got back on the road only to be stopped AGAIN for the local military to board and randomly search people and baggage. Finally.. back on the road and as we were dozing the busline decided to serve coffee at 3:45am!!! And we were up the rest of the morning! We arrived in Mendoza around 5am, and as usual found that we were the only people awake. We
eventually found our hostel, crawled onto a couch until our rooms were ready... then slept until 1:30-2:00pm. 😊
Mendoza is an incredible city that reminds us of Charlottesville, Va but much bigger...and flat. The city is a man-made oasis that is irrigated by cobblestone waterways that run around the city supplied by water from snow melt of the Andes. There are parks everywhere, the biggest of which is called Parque General San Martin, which has over 50,000 trees and is over 1000 acres in size. Argentina is known for its steaks and their Malbec Red Wines which are produced only in Mendoza.
The other day we took a Bike/Wine tour and visited 3 Wineries (Bodegas Lopez, Baudron, and Cecchin- which was 100% organic). The largest barrel/cask at Lopez holds over 35,000 liters!! The company we took the tour with was family owned (son in architecture school and will be going to UVA in Sept! , ha) and after the wine tour we arrived at their country home where they had a wonderful pool w/ volley ball waiting and BBQ!! We also had the company of one scot who helped interpret the conversations, 4 Norweigans and a giant English
Bullmastiff!! It was a great evening.
We also visited Termas Cacheuta (via another crazy van driver), which is a water park built around natural hot springs!! It was next to clear stream from the snow capped mountains just outside of the park. A very beautiful place. There were about 25 pools, varying from freezing cold to boiling hot. We tried out a water slide that had good speed and John knocked out 2 teenagers who were messing around!! It had nothing to do with his momentum...Haha! Towards the end of the day there were two little girls running from a water play ground to the warm pool where John and I were sitting. They immediately befriended us explaining in their machine gun spanish that the water was freezing in the playground. We exclaimed... oh frio... and then one little girl wanted me to touch her cold arm... her arm was sooo cold I exclaimed ¨oh my goodness!!¨ and she looked at me in shock and said ¨huh?¨ and I quickly corrected ¨mui frio¨. Haha!!
We happen to be in Mendoza as they prepare for the Vendimia Festival which starts on the first Saturday in March. The city has
already started celebrating with art displayed on the streets, live music all around the city, opera music, tango performances, and the queen of the Vendimia Festival ceremony which was a live performance of nearly 100 professional dancers and in the Plaza Independencia and lasted from 9 until midnight, when the actual ceremony started! It all was simply amazing!!
We´ve learned that things don´t really get started here until after dark. There are families out with children until 11pm on the weekdays and alot of the clubs don´t even open until 12:30 or 1am! The secret is in the 2 hour siesta in the afternoon. 😉
We have enjoyed some excellent meals, probably the best to date. A local buisiness owner recommended a restaurant, Estancia La Florencia which basically has a steak and a 2.5 page dessert menu and a 10 page wine list of only local varieties! (which we later found out is one of the best in town!) We have dined there twice and John keeps trying to trick me into a third time before we leave. 😊 We had the mendoza version of Tiramisu made of rich chocolates and Mascarpone cheese for dessert and the Argentine
favorite of Bife de Chorizo which is a plate size ribeye cut of steak that is excellent...even though Chrissy can´t eat it all!
The temperature here has been between 75 - 80 degrees around the clock and perfect for just about anything. We rented bicycles one day and rode all over the Parque General San Martin which has a zoo, a university, an ampitheatre, a lake with a ´Regatta Club´, a golf course, a soccer stadium, and bike trails everywhere! We rode for hours and took a break/siesta on an island on the lake...only to find we were much more sore than before we stopped! ha
The sights, the sounds, the people, the city...we could stay for monthss!
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Iratxe
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¡¡¡qué preciosidad de sitio!!!
Madre mia, qué bien suena todo.... Y las fotos son preciosas tambien. Habrá que ir a verlo.... Hahahaha, back to Engligh now (I hope your week-long Spainish course in Chile helped). That place looks awesome.... I'm already planning a trip there ;))