Karl and I arrived in Mendoza after a 14-hour night bus ride from Buenos Aires. The bus station in Buenos Aires was crazy and our bus was an hour late leaving the station, but after that semi-rough start, the ride to Mendoza was a real treat.
The long distance buses here are fantastic! If you buy the "cama class" tickets, the seats recline fully and come with blankets, pillows, dinner, dessert, and an aperatif to help you sleep. I loved the ride and was actually a little sad when we arrived in Mendoza and had to get off of the bus...
We decided to stay in a youth hostel in Mendoza instead of a hotel. The youth hostels in Argentina tend to be a bit more expensive than the budget hotels, but come with a tourist desk where you can book anything from local tours to your next domestic bus or airline ticket, a couple of internet terminals, a kitchen and free breakfast (and sometimes free dinner too). I enjoy the energy and the international feel of the hostels as well.
Minutes after we arrived at the hostel, Karl and I booked a wine tour. Why wait, right?! Two hours later we were on the wine wagon touring vineyards in the Maipu area, about 40 minutes from Mendoza´s town center. We first stopped at the Don Arturo bodega. The bodega is a small, family winery that imports 20% of its wine to the United States and Europe and sells 80% of its product at the winery. Not surprisingly, we enjoyed the high-end, french oak barrelled malbec varietal wine the best and bought a bottle of one of their special reserve wines, produced specifically for Don Arturo´s daughter´s wedding. Unlike the wineries I´ve toured in the U.S. and Australia, the wineries I´ve visited in Argentina (Cafayate and Mendoza) grow, process and sell their wine on the same property and give full tours of most of the areas of the winery (including their high end wine cellars) for free or for a small fee of 10 pesos. All of the tours were fascinating and demonstrated how much of wine-making is actually an art. In stark contrast to the Don Arturo winery, we stopped next at an ultra-modern and somewhat sterile winery named Vistandes. Vistandes imports 80% of its wine to upscale restaurants primarily in the U.S.
After a day at the wineries and spending the night before on a bus, I collapsed into bed at the hostel...
So, just in case you were wondering why I titled this entry, Action!...The next day, Karl and I hopped on another tour bus, hiked a mountain about 30 minutes out of town and then spent the afternoon rappelling back down the mountain with a bunch of young 20-somethings. Karl impressed the crowd when he bounded down the 40 foot rock face in his harness. However, not be outdone, the guide ran face-first down the rock carrying a stray puppy that had followed us down to the rappeling wall and found itself stuck! To top off the day, we spent the rest of the afternoon soaking in a hot springs pool overlooking a river valley.
We weren´t overly impressed with the surrounds of the city of Mendoza so the next morning we joined a bike-wine tour set up again by the youth hostel. We jumped on our bikes after touring the Familia Cecchin winery. This organic winery was founded in the 1920s and has been pesticide free and has practiced organic and traditional growing, harvesting and processing from its inception. As you tell, I loved the place! The 100% organic malbec we tasted was by far my favorite! Unfortunately, because it is 100% organic, it doesn´t travel well and it doesn´t hold up well over time, so we didn´t buy any souvenir bottles...Supposedly, the Familia Cecchin winery sells to restaurants in San Francisco and is bottled under the Twigs label in the U.S. I´m looking forward to finding it upon my return. We peddled on the busy road to a couple more wineries and then spent the rest of the day recovering. At 9 pm that night, Karl and I boarded another bus to Bariloche. While we were wandering around the bus terminal before we left for Bariloche, we ran into a couple from San Francisco (most people Karl and I have met on this trip so far are from San Francisco) that we had gone to the River Plate soccer match with in Buenos Aires. Small world?!
Ah, Bariloche...I loved Bariloche! In fact, I´d love to try to come back and work in the area someday (retirement?). I may have loved it so much because it reminds me of Colorado, Lake Tahoe and other ski towns in the Western U.S. Bariloche, with its Cerro Catedral, is a major ski destination in winter and apparently also draws quite a crowd in the summer as well. We managed to avoid the crowds by coming in Fall. The weather was perfect, with just a little Fall chill in the air.
The youth hostel we stayed in has to have one of the world´s best hostel views. We had a 5-star view of the lake with a 5-star deck to match. Heaven on earth! However, Karl and I managed to tear ourselves away from the view each day to enjoy the outdoor activities in the area. We hiked to a viewing spot at the top of Cerro Campanario, equipped with hot chocolate and medialunes. Karl and I enjoyed the view with Julie (Dragomaner that we met up with at the hostel in Bariloche). She left the next morning, but luckily we met up with her again in Iguazu (another entry)!
Karl and I were on a roll so we hopped on a local bus the next morning with our backpacks, sleeping bags, food and water and hit the trail to one of the mountain huts in the Cerro Catedral range. After about 4 hours of hiking, we dropped our packs at Refugio Frey and inquired about spending the night. When we checked in town, the park service told us that because it was the off-season, the huts wouldn´t be crowded. Karl and I saw only day-hikers coming down the mountain all afternoon so we expected to see just a few people at the refugio. To our surprise, the area was buzzing with rock climbers! The refugio was larger than it appeared and we all managed to squeeze onto the log benches for a hot meal of cream soup, bread and pasta. Karl and I even bought a bottle of red wine that we shared with a very appreciative French lad. It was a cozy night and reminded me just how much I enjoy being in the mountains...
Karl and I summited the pass above Refugio Frey the next morning and then headed back to town. We had a fly-fishing date early the next morning that we didn´t want to miss!
Our guide fetched us from the hostel at 8:30 am the next morning and we were off to fish the River Limay, just outside of Bariloche. The trip was simply decedent! I felt like a real high roller. Our guide was very patient with us and Karl even managed to catch 4 beautiful rainbow trout. I spent most of the day casting off the boat but not catching...In fact, my left wrist and arm were so sore that night that I had to eat dinner right-handed!
I really enjoyed my time in sunny Mendoza and Bariloche and hope to return to both areas someday...Next up, Iguazu Falls.
Ciao,
Kelly
We decided to stay in a youth hostel in Mendoza instead of a hotel. The youth hostels in Argentina tend to be a bit more expensive than the budget hotels, but come with a tourist desk where you can book anything from local tours to your next domestic bus or airline ticket, a couple of internet terminals, a kitchen and free breakfast (and sometimes free dinner too). I enjoy the energy and the international feel of the hostels as well.
Minutes after we arrived at the hostel, Karl and I booked a wine tour. Why wait, right?! Two hours later we were on the wine wagon touring vineyards in the Maipu area, about 40 minutes from Mendoza´s town center. We first stopped at the Don Arturo bodega. The bodega is a small, family winery that imports 20% of its wine to the United States and Europe and sells 80% of its product at the winery. Not surprisingly, we enjoyed the high-end, french oak barrelled malbec varietal wine the best and bought a bottle of one of their special reserve wines, produced specifically for Don Arturo´s daughter´s wedding. Unlike the wineries I´ve toured in the U.S. and Australia, the wineries I´ve visited in Argentina (Cafayate and Mendoza) grow, process and sell their wine on the same property and give full tours of most of the areas of the winery (including their high end wine cellars) for free or for a small fee of 10 pesos. All of the tours were fascinating and demonstrated how much of wine-making is actually an art. In stark contrast to the Don Arturo winery, we stopped next at an ultra-modern and somewhat sterile winery named Vistandes. Vistandes imports 80% of its wine to upscale restaurants primarily in the U.S.
After a day at the wineries and spending the night before on a bus, I collapsed into bed at the hostel...
So, just in case you were wondering why I titled this entry, Action!...The next day, Karl and I hopped on another tour bus, hiked a mountain about 30 minutes out of town and then spent the afternoon rappelling back down the mountain with a bunch of young 20-somethings. Karl impressed the crowd when he bounded down the 40 foot rock face in his harness. However, not be outdone, the guide ran face-first down the rock carrying a stray puppy that had followed us down to the rappeling wall and found itself stuck! To top off the day, we spent the rest of the afternoon soaking in a hot springs pool overlooking a river valley.
We weren´t overly impressed with the surrounds of the city of Mendoza so the next morning we joined a bike-wine tour set up again by the youth hostel. We jumped on our bikes after touring the Familia Cecchin winery. This organic winery was founded in the 1920s and has been pesticide free and has practiced organic and traditional growing, harvesting and processing from its inception. As you tell, I loved the place! The 100% organic malbec we tasted was by far my favorite! Unfortunately, because it is 100% organic, it doesn´t travel well and it doesn´t hold up well over time, so we didn´t buy any souvenir bottles...Supposedly, the Familia Cecchin winery sells to restaurants in San Francisco and is bottled under the Twigs label in the U.S. I´m looking forward to finding it upon my return. We peddled on the busy road to a couple more wineries and then spent the rest of the day recovering. At 9 pm that night, Karl and I boarded another bus to Bariloche. While we were wandering around the bus terminal before we left for Bariloche, we ran into a couple from San Francisco (most people Karl and I have met on this trip so far are from San Francisco) that we had gone to the River Plate soccer match with in Buenos Aires. Small world?!
Ah, Bariloche...I loved Bariloche! In fact, I´d love to try to come back and work in the area someday (retirement?). I may have loved it so much because it reminds me of Colorado, Lake Tahoe and other ski towns in the Western U.S. Bariloche, with its Cerro Catedral, is a major ski destination in winter and apparently also draws quite a crowd in the summer as well. We managed to avoid the crowds by coming in Fall. The weather was perfect, with just a little Fall chill in the air.
The youth hostel we stayed in has to have one of the world´s best hostel views. We had a 5-star view of the lake with a 5-star deck to match. Heaven on earth! However, Karl and I managed to tear ourselves away from the view each day to enjoy the outdoor activities in the area. We hiked to a viewing spot at the top of Cerro Campanario, equipped with hot chocolate and medialunes. Karl and I enjoyed the view with Julie (Dragomaner that we met up with at the hostel in Bariloche). She left the next morning, but luckily we met up with her again in Iguazu (another entry)!
Karl and I were on a roll so we hopped on a local bus the next morning with our backpacks, sleeping bags, food and water and hit the trail to one of the mountain huts in the Cerro Catedral range. After about 4 hours of hiking, we dropped our packs at Refugio Frey and inquired about spending the night. When we checked in town, the park service told us that because it was the off-season, the huts wouldn´t be crowded. Karl and I saw only day-hikers coming down the mountain all afternoon so we expected to see just a few people at the refugio. To our surprise, the area was buzzing with rock climbers! The refugio was larger than it appeared and we all managed to squeeze onto the log benches for a hot meal of cream soup, bread and pasta. Karl and I even bought a bottle of red wine that we shared with a very appreciative French lad. It was a cozy night and reminded me just how much I enjoy being in the mountains...
Karl and I summited the pass above Refugio Frey the next morning and then headed back to town. We had a fly-fishing date early the next morning that we didn´t want to miss!
Our guide fetched us from the hostel at 8:30 am the next morning and we were off to fish the River Limay, just outside of Bariloche. The trip was simply decedent! I felt like a real high roller. Our guide was very patient with us and Karl even managed to catch 4 beautiful rainbow trout. I spent most of the day casting off the boat but not catching...In fact, my left wrist and arm were so sore that night that I had to eat dinner right-handed!
I really enjoyed my time in sunny Mendoza and Bariloche and hope to return to both areas someday...Next up, Iguazu Falls.
Ciao,
Kelly
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