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Mendoza and Buenos Aires, AGAIN

Monday, August 10th, 2009

Mendoza and Buenos Aries

The weather had turned down south so a trip to Patagonia on a boat would have been next to madness. So in order so save time at the end we decided to cut straight across to Buenos Aries, at such short notice the flights were very dear so we decided to overland it on a bus.

The trip to Mendoza was quite pleasant and involved a wonderfully scenic jaunt thru the andes, the first half was new while the second half I covered in my previous post about Mendoza. We stayed there one night before taking a bus the following night to Buenos aries where we arrived the Friday morning. BA in time for the weekend, could be dodgy.

In BA we did alot of the things which I had left off my original visit intentionally so I was having the same sense of discovery as Marilyn. Such things as the graveyard in recoleta where the remains of evita lie to a walk through the streets of Palermo before sitting down to a steak which could easily contest a heavyweight prize fight such was its sheer mass and quality. The highlight of my second visit to BA was undoubtedly the Monday evening where we traversed the city from our san telmo hostel which was excellent, to somewhere close to Palermo where some school of percussion put on a weekly show for anyone that wants to hear. I heard about this event on my first trip but due to tooth problems I had to put if off until now and to be honest it was well worth the wait.

We grabbed a couple of beers and lost ourselves in a fantastic celebration of rythym. A few different conductors took turns in instructing all the 15 or so musicians, it changed it swooped and it devoured. Thoroughly high on rhythm we ventured back to san telmo and into the restaurant they call el desnivel. Set in the heart of san telmo its really impossible to miss and boy is it worth it.  Am amazing steak served with the house red which was to these lips the best I have ever tasted and at less than 4 euros for the bottle it really was a giggle to pay so less but know that I would have to pay so much more to get anything even remotely close to the quality.

Mendoza

Monday, June 8th, 2009

For healths sake I had to get out of Buenos Aires. Between leaving Melbourne and arriving in the place voted ‘worst place ever to plan a detox’ by AA and then sticking it for 10 days with the odd root canal thrown in here or there I was wrecked and needed some recouperation. I borrowed a guide book of one of my room mates and started reading up on what the country had to offer. Over to the west of the country right beside the andes is a town called mendoza, reputedly the wine producing centre of argentina and also the best base to tackle the worlds ultimate summit outside of the himalayas, sounded like just the deal.So after the game in La Boca I made my way back to the hostel, weary out, I grabbed my bags and walked down to the metro. After a few stops you get out close enough to the main bus terminus in BA. Now I had no schedule at all and had next to no idea how to ask for a bus let alone find the right one and get on it. The bus station itself is a behemoth of a place, massively massive it resembled more a shopping centre than a bus station. It took a little while to find the platform for mendoza and much to my pleasure it worked out that there was a bus leaving 10 minutes.Now the bus journey takes about 15 hours, normally thats just long enough to take a couple of days out of you. The option of flying all of a sudden looks more appealing, in argentina it is different. The buses here are awesome!! So comfortable. You are first given a glass of champagne, invited to put your feet up in the lazyboy esque chair and then politely asked to enjoy ones journey. No problems at all senor!! Having slept a matter of minutes the night before I was out for the count, all wrapped up in every blanket I could find I woke up with the sun rising out in the east and mendoza peering its head right in front of us.So this is my first sight/encounter with the mighty Andes, to be honest the first impression is a little underwhelming. I automatically compare them to my first encounter with the himalayas and lets be honest thats a rather silly if natural comparison to make. When you approach the himalayas they really take you by surprise, this, I reckon is because the polution in india is such that its impossible to see for more than 20 to 30 miles in one direction so by the time everything becomes clear you have these massive snow laden monsters towering over you. Mendoza, being situated in the middle of the desert has no such problems with polution so you can clearly see the andes approach from way off. Anyways thats but a small issue really. So off the bus I get with a dopey out head on me, bed head to beat the band I was easy prey for any hostel dude punting his wares and low and behold before I knew it I had the back pack in the back of a pick up truck and was making my way to the a hostel near the centre of town. He peddled the usual extras at me which I met with a firm bat straight away, prefering to size up my options, well I did until he mentioned a wine tasting tour! I signed up immediately.Given its reputation for wine its a must do thing to do while you are here and at 40 pesos its a bit of a bargain aswell. In the afternoon a mini bus came along to collect me and off out on a spanish only tour of the local vineyards. We dropped into a few and luckily enough the guides in the vineyards themselves were able to speak english so I could understand all that was there to be understood. After the wine we dropped into this quirkly little shop where a strange little swiss man had settled in and set up his very own little chocolate and liquer producing factory. He took us through the various products, a disproportionate amount of them he turned to me and said now you should know this one! One of which was Absynthe which is a ridiculously strong spirit legal in only a few countries. When it came to free shots time there was only one option really, 2 other brave men joined me at the front line. One a 50 something year old from Brazil, the other a 70 something from the local city of Rosario. Absythe is tough stuff, the two lads nearly collapsed. The elder of them jumping from his seat to go to the bathroom muttering the words – Mui Fuego, MUI FUEGO!!After the first day I took it easy for a while, avoided anything resembling a bar and stayed away from the steaks as much as I could. I took time to purchase the raw materials to make my own mate…   Mate (Mataay) is the national drink of argentina, everywhere you will see people gathering around a small cup filled up to 3/4 level with a green weed like substance with a pipe sticking out of it called a Bobillo (Bombeeja), the cup is them topped up with hot water and passed around a group until the tea stops floating at the top. It takes a little while to get used to the taste of it but at this stage I am addicted to the stuff. It gives you a fair kick is has to be said :)So with some Mate in the system I plucked up the courage to book myself onto a day trip up to see aconagagua which is the tallest mountain outside of the himalayas. I was quite excited at this prospect, I have grown quite attached to mountains on my trip away so the prospect of seeing such a famous one was indeed enticing. The bus up to there was due to leave at 7 in the morning so it required an earlier than early start, something I am certainly not a fan off. The bus was small but comfy enough to stick my legs out and get a good look out the window between snoozes. The scenery reminded me alot of the kullu valley in india with the exception that there is no agriculture going on here at all, the landscape is very barren, desert like and dusty as hell. We stopped in a few places that were semi interesting but it was the overall feel of the scenery and the cleaner than clean air that made the place stand out. Towards the very end of our trip we approached the national park that contained the massive mountain which itself is perched right on the border of chile. Eventually we pulled up and the driver started rattling on in spanish about something which I couldn’t make out at all. He pointed up to the right and everyoen started to take pictures, perched between two, it seemed, bigger peaks was a snow peak shrouded in a mystical mist… aconagagua!! Now I am sure further adventures into the national park i.e. off the road and into the fields would give you a much better look at the mountain but certainly from the road itself I have to say that it was a fairly underwhelming experience. I thought the scenery in every other direction was much prettier but then again I guess its down to a matter of taste…I stayed in mendoza for about 5 days, its a great town, so green, so full of wine and things to do. From here I headed down south to bariloche and the region known as Patagonia 

Some Pictures

Monday, June 8th, 2009
Buenos AiresMendozaBariloche