Travel Story «¨Don´t cry for me Argentina...¨»

Argentina | 0 Comments 10 January 2007 - Last Update 18 January 2007

..... I´ll be back (Jan 30th to be specific)!!

Twas a short 2 day stay in the lovely town of Mendoza in North-Western Argentina. Myself and Emily decided to pop over the Andes and into this country cos (a) the bus fare from Santiago was really reasonable and (b) argentinian steak is meant to be the most delicious in the world and cheap - we can now verify the this!!

We got Tur-bus from Santiago and by total fluke had the best seats on the entire bus. Seat 3 and 4 as a hint for all our fellow travellers. Got comfy and slept our way through the 6 hour journey through the Andes to Argentina. Of course there were the usual formalites that come with border crossings - i.e. queuing, bag checks, the anguish of where they stamp our passports (don´t mention emilys ¨messy¨ UAE page - it´s not worth it!) etc. We arrived in Mendoza at 6am in the morning bleary eyed and reluctantly waking up. First things first - mullah! Very straightforward I hear you say - NO not when the ATM decides to eat your credit card for absolutely no reason without any prior warning (in English anyways)!!  2 hours later after we´d rang all international banking groups with help from the NICEST colombian couple EVER I´d like to say we stumbled across the road into hostel we´d seen in Lonely Planet (conveniently located right across from bus terminal.) But no it was more like - wrong exit out of terminal, ¨what road are we on now?¨, I think it´s this way¨, ¨No I think it´s up around here, then over here...¨ You get the gist!! Half an hour later we arrive sweating and in serious pain (that would be me the real backpacker who doesnt wheel along her rucksack) to find it´s ¨completa¨Noooooo!!! Me no likey Argentina anymore lets go back to Chile!!! But nice little old man outside hostel knew another which was cosy, friendly, central, blah blah blah so we went with him. After a little hiccup with the angriest taxi driver who fired our bags onto ground and refused to drive us even though we agreed to his fare we arrived at what was to be our home for the next 2 nights. It was most certainly not the Ritz but it would do!! We just wanted to get clean!!!

So washed and refreshed we decided to give Argentina a second chance. We strolled into town via Montevideo Road* (I´d say there are quite a few more of them here in South America but still cool eh?!), had a lovely meal for half nothing, stopped off in museum and basically took it easy for the day.

Day Two brought about yet another wine-tasting tour! But with a twist ¨Bikes and Wines¨ meant we were to cycle from bodega to bodega (that would be winery to winery for all ye non-spanish speaking folk out there) I love my Chilean Cabernet Sauvignons but hear that Argentinian wines are on the up and up so was very excited! It turned out to be a right ladies day with 9 other girls in our group. 2 lovely sisters from Queensland, Austrailia. 3 more australians from Brisbane and 4 girls from England (who had only had 2 hours sleep after night out but still looked fab even after 6 hours cycling! How do they do it?!!) We got the brilliant tip (thank you SO much whoever it was) to cycle to the farthest away winery first of all so that you´re not too wrecked coming back in after a few wine tastings and that. Anyway you picture this idlyic country lane with birds chirping and the wind blowing, don't you? Well that's what I imagined anyhow (or was led to believe so by satan/emily lewis). WRONG. Try something like 95 degrees on the main road (and I use the term road loosely here - more like a series of dirt potholes with some sand-tracks in between here and there) with huge trucks whizzing 2 inches form you at 60 mph  - and the wineries are about 3 miles apart. Sounds terrific doesn't it. The wineries were terrific, but we really should have thought about the transport a bit more before making our decision. Oh well, it makes for a pretty funny story at least. Upon arrival at each winery we were gasping for water rather then the plentiful vino. 

Our first stop was a lovely boutique winery where we got an extensive tour which was really informative. They made mainly cabernet sauvignon at this plot and the owners were a french couple who were really into astrology and so each wine and the winery itself were named after constellations. Next stop was a shop selling olive oil an such, then onto the next winery where again we sampled fabulous wines and had a tour of the winery which was quite old fashioned not really in use anymore but more like a wine museum (I call it that to make ourselves feel better really cos we were too darn lazy to go to the last stop on our tour which was an actual wine museum). We then had lunch in a really posh restaurant which we had to be buzzed into and were served by the most spaced out incompetent waiter ever who just didnt get the urgency when we asked for water before we´d even been seated!! A bottle of wine later after studiously watching his every move we were of the opinion he was either spaced out then or it was the result of many years of being spaced out! Back on our bikes we had one last stop in a liqour and chocolate factory where our tour guide didnt have any english. Luckily there was an argentinian girl on the tour also with perfect english who translated brilliantly for us (perhaps we should have tipped her thinking back!) At the end we were given a sample of any liquour we liked. I decided on my two favourite things mint and chocolate thinking how could I go wrong - ughhhh - mingin! Wouldn´t recommend it I´m afraid. We regrouped back in front of Bikes and Wines returned our torture devices/bike and rested our weary legs (and very sore asses - sorry - but they were!) before being brought back to our respective hostels. 

Back in the lovely ¨Huelles Andes¨we were invited by our fellow guest to pitch in for a bbq they were having later. We were all on for it! Someone else cooking while we drank our purchases from the day what could be better?! Ooops forgot to ask what time approx would dinner be served. When we did we were shocked to hear 11.30pm maybe MIDNIGHT!!! Ah well drink up - have to say it was well worth the wait and we both had the nicest tastiest meat we´ve ever come across! Delicious!!!  Company was great too- loads of locals, plus a brother and sister from France and americans. Finished it off with some local drink which kept doing the rounds and headed to bed soon after exhausted after a very busy day! 

Early start the next day as we caught our bus back across the Andes (amazing views) to Chile where at the border crossing we had to reassure the argentinian official that we would indeed be returning very soon and not to be insulted by our short stay!!! 

* I live on Montevideo Road in the rock n´rollin metropolis of Roscrea for those who don´t know me that well!