Mendoza, Argentina... I want you back.

Vacation Rewind Part 3 of 6

The minute I stepped onto the bus at the Buenos Aires bus station, I knew I was going to enjoy Mendoza. I can be accused of not having the most objective attitude when arriving and therefore finding it to be more awesome than it actually but at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter. It was more awesome.

I wasn't sure what to expect in terms of what the city looked like. I wasn't sure how large it was or what kinds of specifics things we would do. All I knew was that there would be fresh air and open spaces. That's all I had to know. The fact that Mendoza is the wine capital of Argentina doesn't hurt either. Due to some incredibly shoddy internet service at our hostel in Buenos Aires, we weren't able to book a hostel before arriving. This isn't a great feeling to have when getting off the bus in a new place because you really have no place to go but you've got to figure it out as soon as possible. The bus station was very busy and we were quickly approached by different people offering their hostels. We took a couple fliers but were turned off by their persistence (also could have been interpreted as stalking). We got a list from a tourist info booth of all the hostels in the city and set on our way to find one relatively close to the center. As we walked around the city, I soon started to understand just how large a place it was. In my opinion, it was the perfect size which allows for a lot of the niceties of a large city without some of the nastiness. For example, it had various kinds of restaurants and bars that catered to almost any taste but it still remained quiet and clean. We ended up walking by a hostel towards the edge of center and basically settled on it because we were sick of walking. It wasn't until after we were showered and hungry that we discovered the gold mine we'd planted ourselves next to.

As became habit, we set out from the hostel to find something to eat without any real place in mind. It took all of two blocks of walking for us to find EXACTLY what we'd been craving... a vegetarian buffet. All you can eat for about $5. It was freaking delicious. They had plain salad and fruits as well as tons of dishes like quiches, stir fry, lasagna, empanadas & pasta. I think Jeff's organs were a little confused by the lack of meat as he had to take a couple breaks during the meal to figure out how to process it. He's a straight up meat lover. That being said, you may find yourself a bit confused about my excitement for such a place based on how much I've talked about delicious meat meals in Argentina & Uruguay so far. After all, Nick is the vegetarian Rossmiller, not me. I think this seeming contradiction is kind of a microcosm for the way my brain works. I LOVE bbq'ed meat, no doubt about it. However, I can't eat it day in and day out. My body craves nutrients that can only be gotten by chewing copious amounts of non-meat stuffs. I just appreciate both sides of the coin. I've never been too passionate or demanding about anything because I feel that everything anyone does or likes has an inherent value. This is probably a topic for another post. I'll remember it for later. At any rate, we went back to the vegetarian restaurant for cheap lunches multiple times.

The restaurant also served as a tourist booth for our first day. The girl working at the restaurant was very friendly so we asked her what we should walk around to see with the remaining hours of the day. She recommended walking through the plaza and then going to the large regional park they have nearby. It had a hill (which usually means great views) and a very famous statue commemorating the group of liberators that fought together to get Spain out of South America. We opted to walk the whole way to get some sun and exercise in an effort to sweat out some of the toxins we'd been building up. It was a beautiful day and probably around 65-70 degrees which feels quite hot to a few kids from the bottom of the world. Along the way, we walked by a soccer stadium that was used during the World Cup in 1978 when Argentina hosted the tournament. I had no idea it was there but the look on Marie's face as we saw the sign let me know that something was up. She politely asked if we'd be going in to take another soccer stadium tour. I could tell there was more to this. I had no specific urge to tour the place as there isn't any kind of historical significance about it but she didn't know that. I came to find out that she discovered the stadium existed online a day or two before we arrived but decided to keep it a secret so that we wouldn't have to make another soccer stop. She's sassy like that sometimes.



Anyway, we got to the top of the hill and saw the statue. We piggybacked along with some of the tour groups to learn about the history of the statue and it's significance, which was nice. Once we were ready to go we noticed that the sun would soon be setting so we decided to stick around to watch. It's not every day you get to see the sun go down over the Andes.





That night we made our way down to a street called Avenida Villanueva Aristides where all the best restaurants and bars are. Now as previously stated, I hadn't done much research about Mendoza but I did know that there was a mexican restaurant which needed a visit. For those of you that don't know, my emotions for mexican food are pretty intense. Let me put it this way, if I love the future child that I may someday have as much as I love mexican food, I'm going to be the best dad ever. With that kind of affection for the food, I was pretty confident that this random place in the middle of Argentina was not going to be that great. It was decent and it satisfied my craving for the ingredients in the food I love so dearly but it didn't taste mexican. I'll just have to keep waiting patiently until December to be reunited with some of my favorite dishes. It's one of the things I miss most (no offense, family).

The next day we planned to take a tour of various wineries, olive farms and chocolate factories outside the city. There are quite a few companies that rent bikes, cars or even horses to take these tours to help you move from place to place quickly. We opted for the bikes. We got a bit of a late start because it was more complicated to arrive than we anticipated but we were still able to visit 4 or 5 places. We tasted a good deal of wine and even tried absinthe at one of the chocolate/liquour factories. I'd tried it once before but I've come to the conclusion that it either wasn't absinthe or we didn't prepare it right because this time it was incredibly harsh. You could feel every bit of the 60-70% alcohol that it contains as it worked it's way down your throat. We also got to visit a small brewery that seemed to be out in the middle of nowhere. The wineries were a lot of fun and we got a good combination of small and large wineries. Since we got a late start, we actually stayed at the last winery and watched the sunset on a large patio they'd set up. I guess when you're in Mendoza you do get to watch the sunset over the Andes every day. We were definitely taking our time and enjoying the view and the wine because we weren't looking forward to our long ride back to the bike shop that would now be made in the dark. When we finally made it outside to start the trek back, we discovered a police car waiting near our bikes. It turned out that we didn't have anything to worry about as these were the "tourist police" and they'd come to personally escort us back to the bike shop since we were the last tour takers of the day. So we rode our bikes on the side of the street while our very own police car coasted behind us with it's lights on. It was exactly as funny and ridiculous as it sounds. We got lots of sarcastic "Gracias" & "Hasta Luego" comments from the Mendocinos along the side of the street as we made our way back.





The next day we signed up for a tour of Andes that would take us up through the different levels of the range (there are 3, just so you know) and make stops at different landmarks or sights along the way. After our first stop, we got the bad news that our bus had broken down and we'd have to wait for a couple of smaller vans to meet us before proceeding. This meant the Spanish/English tour group would be split into separate Spanish and English groups. Since we knew a least a decent amount of Spanish and all the seats in the English bus were taken pretty quickly, we took our seats in the back of the van the Spanish only bus. It was a challenging experience to say the least. On the bright side, Marie and I got about 6 or 7 hours of listening practice. We stopped at a particularly interesting place called Puente del Inca which is a natural rock formation that formed a bridge over a river that was used by...you guessed it, the Inca. Since we were visiting in the winter, there was lots of ice that made it look pretty impressive. The building you can see in the picture isn't some kind of castle structure built by the Inca. It was actually a day spa that a nearby hotel opened. Quite shameful, I think. Fortunately, things came full circle as the hotel was destroyed by an avalanche in the 70's. They didn't rebuild so the spa building is just a permanent part of the scenery now.





I definitely think Mendoza is a great place to visit and it seemed as though it can be even more impressive during the summer. There's rafting, fishing, kayaking and horseback riding more readily available then so you can easily get a great mix of city nightlife while also keeping busy outside the city during the day. I was sad to be leaving but strangely excited to be going back to Chile. It is after all my adopted home.

Our bus ride from Mendoza to Santiago was probably the only bus ride I'll ever be really excited about taking because it takes you right through the heart of the Andes and over the top to the other side. It was incredibly scenic, especially at the top where the border control offices sit. When we arrived at the top, and officially in Chile, Jeff and I decided to celebrate the occasion with a classic Chilean completo. It was the best completo I've yet to have. I'm pretty sure it was a chicken or turkey dog and they toasted the bun. They never toast the bun.



Next stop...Pucón.